Photo of Marianna Lena Kambanou

Marianna Lena Kambanou

Assistant Professor

I am primarily interested in studying innovations that reduce resource consumption and are also economically viable for industry so that they lead to a circular economy.

Presentation

Marianna Kambanou’s research focuses on innovations to products, services, by-products, business models and value chains that lead to recourse efficiency and a circular economy. The ultimate aim is through innovation to become more sustainable.

More specifically, the focus is on how to make the innovations economically viable and deliver value to all involved actors so that they are successful on the market. Marianna Kambanou has specialised in lifecycle costing, pricing and value capture for circular solutions such as product-service systems and industrial symbiosis. She successfully defended her PhD on the 11th of June 2021.

Marianna works very closely with business, intermediaries, governmental organisations and users, both when doing research and when disseminating research results. Since starting to work at Linköping University in 2015, she has collaborated with large multinational businesses as well as SMEs, start-ups, incubators, business developers and the county administrative board. She actively seeks projects and works together with her colleagues to build up circular economy competence and circular ecosystems in the region of Östergötland.

She is as committed to disseminating research as to conducting it and has given over 30 popular science talks, presentations and workshops for CEO groups, intermediaries, school children and the public, in addition to writing several company reports, practitioner guidelines and making popular science videos. By participating as teaching staff in five courses for both students and lifelong learners, as well as regularly supervising master thesis, Marianna ensures that the knowledge obtained through research also reaches students.

From January 2024, Marianna is also Director of Studies at the division of Environmental Management and Technology overseeing the teaching activities of over 40 members of staff and approximately 24 courses.

Overview

CV

  • Assistant Professor in Circular Economy, Linköping University, Sweden (2021 - )
  • PhD in Environmental Technology and Management, Linköping University, Sweden (2015 - 2021)
  • MSc in Environmental Management and Policy (120ECTS), Lund University, Sweden (2011 - 2014)

  • Certificate Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua University, PR China (2007-2008)

  • BSc in Management Science and Technology (252 ECTS), Athens University of Economy and Business, Greece (2003 - 2007)

Research group

  • Unit for Sustainable Development and Strategies

Awards

  • 2023 - Project “Circular workwear in construction and industry” led Kambanou was included on IVA’s 100 list 2023.

  • 2007 - One year full scholarship from China scholarship council EU window.

Academic conferences

  • 2 invited panels

  • 11 presentations

  • 3 organising committees

  • 2 session chairs


Supervising PhD student:

Danna Persson

Teaching

  • TKMJ53 Perspectives on energy and environment systems. Examiner.
  • ETE342 Circular economy in theory and practice.
  • TKMJ32 Integrated Product Service Engineering.
  • TKMJ46 Advanced Ecodesign.
  • TKMJ50 Environmental and Energy Related Policy Instruments.
  • + Project courses and Master thesis supervision and examination.Foto: Charlotte Perhammar 

Internationalisation

  • IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras, India - Two week research visit to initiate collaboration, funded with STINT travel grant (2023)
  • Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan - Six weeks research visit during doctoral studies, funded with doctoral travel grant from Linköping University (2018)
  • Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Norway – Exchange semester during BSc funded with full scholarship from Erasmus (2006)

Administrative positions

  • Director of Studies for division of Environmental Technology and Management, Linköping University, Sweden (2024 -)
  • Reference group for the project Kunskapsbro which aims to increase collaboration between Linköping University and SMEs in Östergötland Region (2023-)
  • Board member of NGO Gyllene skräp (2023-)
  • Student representative on the council for PhD education at the Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University (Jan 2020 – Jun 2021)

Dissemination examples

Popular science talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0nAKkl3k8
Dissemination video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeEG7GmgqE0
Practitioner guideline: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1459247/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Non-academic experience

Over four years’ experience working outside of academia as:

  • Cinema manager, administrative assistant,
  • CSR consultant (Internship),
  • Policy analyst (Internship),
  • English tutor,
  • Call centre assistant, waiter, translator.

Publications

Marianna Kambanou has six peer-reviewed journal publications featured in the International Journal of Production Research, Sustainability, Journal of Cleaner Production and Resources, Conservation and Recycling.  She also has four peer-reviewed conference papers.


Find out more here:


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2024

Murat Mirata, Axel Lindfors, Marianna Lena Kambanou (2024) A business value framework for industrial symbiosis Journal of Industrial Ecology (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Jeanette Engzell, Marianna Lena Kambanou (2024) Incumbents versus circular start-ups in the workwear industry: Organisational and individual drivers and barriers to a circular economy International Small Business Journal, Vol. 42, p. 551-580 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Marianna Lena Kambanou, Johannes Matschewsky, Annelie Carlson (2024) Business models and product designs that prolong the lifetime of construction workwear: Success, failure and environmental impacts Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol. 206, Article 107602 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

2023

Marianna Lena Kambanou, Christian Ahl, Karin Gagnerud, Johannes Matschewsky, Herbert Jacobson, Annelie Carlson, Jeanette Engzell, Mattias Lindahl (2023) Circular workwear in construction and industry: Environmental, economic, legal, and provider and customer perspectives
Marianna Lena Kambanou, Karin Gagnerud, Mattias Lindahl (2023) Consumption patterns of construction workwear and circular strategies to prolong its lifetime PROCEEDINGS 5th Product Lifetimes And The Environment (PLATE) Conference, p. 474-479 (Conference paper)

Research

Diplom

Sustainable Business Models

A rapidly growing field of research. The focus is on life cycle-based offerings and business models in which design and innovation are important components. The research is interdisciplinary and is conducted in close collaboration with industry.

Research interests/keywords

  • Circular economy
  • Circular business models
  • Design for a circularity
  • Circular innovation methods and tools
  • Product-service systems
  • Industrial and Urban symbiosis
  • Lifecycle management
  • Lifecycle costing (LCC)
  • Lifecycle assessment (LCA)
  • SMEs
  • Large industries
  • Intermediaries
  • Industrial equipment
  • Vehicles
  • Textiles
  • Furniture
  • Regional approach

Research projects

Creation of new value chain relations through novel approaches facilitating long-term industrial symbiosis – CORALIS (2020-2025). Task leader and researcher. EU Horizon 2020. Website: https://www.coralis-h2020.eu/

Interactive research to support a green transition: Continuation and scale-up. Researcher. Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova).

Circular workwear in construction and industry (2021 -2023). Project leader. Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), Formas, and Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova) Website: https://resource-sip.se/projekt/cirkulara-arbetsklader-inom-bygg-och-industri/

Dynamic environmentally driven business development 2.0 - DMA (2021-2023). Principal researcher. Co-funded by The Swedish Agency of Economic and Regional Growth with European Regional Development Funds. Website:  https://www.cirkularaostergotland.se/

Kunskapsbro specialising in circular business models (2020-2021). Principal researcher. Co-funded by Almi, Linköping University, The Region of Östergötland and European Regional Development Funds. Website: https://liu.se/samverkan/foretag-och-organisation/kunskapsbron

Applying ten recommendations to ongoing R&D projects (2019-2021). Doctoral researcher. Toyota Material Handling Manufacturing Sweden.

Circular economy through innovating design – CIRCULARIS (2016-2020). Doctoral researcher. Production 2030.

Analysis of life cycle costs and values to improve life cycle management (2014 – 2018) Doctoral researcher. Toyota Material Handling Europe.

News

Marianna Lena Kambanou sits leaning forward over the back of a blue chair, with her arms crossed.

Studying how reuse can be good business

Taking over things that someone else has used can also be business. This is what Marianna Lena Kambanou studies in her research.

A figure.

Five LiU projects on the IVA 100 list

Five research projects from Linköping University are included in the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), 100 list this year.

grupp, fyra kvinnor och en man framför affisch.

A website for sustainable business

Small and medium-sized companies need more knowledge to create a circular economy and sustainable business. That is why the Circular Östergötland website exists.

A woman stands in front of audience and talks.

LiU hosts open lecture on sustainable and interdisciplinary research

LiU hosted an open lecture titled "Pick and Mix Circular Economy and why we love it" as part of the Interdisciplinary Networking for a Sustainable and Circular Economy (INSCE) project funded by the ECIU SMART-ER program.

A people sitting around table divided in groups.

Network meeting for a sustainable and circular economy

Researchers working on the project "Interdisciplinary networking for a sustainable and circular economy (INSCE) met in Kaunas Lithuania to discuss current and futures trends in sustainability and circular economy related research.

Graphic illustration of circular economy.

Using cost analysis to bring circularity

Life-cycle cost analysis is a powerful tool to make companies more resource-efficient and enable them to adopt new business models. There are, however, several factors that hinder its use. “Money talks”, says the researcher.

Organisation