Nancy Bocken a, Pasquale Del Vecchio b, Julian Kirchherr c, Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli d, Andrea Urbinati e and Devrim Yazan f
a Maastricht Sustainability Institute, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, Tapijn 11 Building D, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands
b Department of Management, Finance and Technology, LUM University, Casamassima, Bari, Italy
c Innovation Studies Group, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
d Polytechnic University of Bari, Department of Mechanics, Mathematics, and Management, Viale Japigia 182, 70126, Bari, Italy
e School of Industrial Engineering, LIUC Università Cattaneo, Castellanza, Varese, Italy
f Department of Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems, Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Circular economy has recently gained prominence in the management research as a new industrial approach impacting on the sustainable growth of society, companies, and policymakers. It has been identified as an alternative to the traditional linear “take, make, dispose” model (Su et al., 2013), hence representing a new way for the sustainable growth of companies in respect of environmental and societal dimensions with several implications also for regional development (Ghisellini et al., 2016). According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2015), circular economy aims at focusing on positive society-wide benefits, by gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, as well as recovering value-added from wastes and end-of-life/end-of-use products. The debate on circular economy has been fluorescent during the recent years and it has been nurtured by the contributions of a growing number of scholars aimed at understanding its meaning and dynamics at micro (i.e., individuals, products, and business models, dynamic capabilities), meso (i.e., supply chains, and industrial symbiosis), and macro levels (i.e., political agenda, and economy transition) perspectives (Centobelli et al., 2020; Bocken et al., 2016, 2017; Urbinati et al., 2017; Yazan,et al., 2016; Fraccascia et al., 2021; Khan et al., 2020; Del Vecchio et al., 2022; Ecer & Torkayesh, 2022).
Despite the interest and the risk to be in front of a new buzzword (Desing et al., 2020), several aspects and dimensions of strategic and managerial issues associated to this new approach remain undisclosed, especially in the perspective of innovation management (Obradović et al., 2021). Specifically, while there is a general consensus on the circumstance that sees circular economy associated to profound changes in the strategic setting of markets and company, as well as on the embracement of innovative, shared, and open approaches for the creation of new value propositions and sustainable competitive advantages (Linder & Williander, 2017; Zhu et al., 2022), the exploration of its meaning and dynamics in relation to the so called open innovation paradigm is still in infancy (Jesus & Jugend, 2021). Since its first theorization by Chesbrough (2003), open innovation has been associated to the usage of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. To stay competitive companies need innovate, and collaborations are at the core of the open innovation approach to allow companies to innovate effectively (Bogers et al., 2017; Chesbrough et al., 2014).
Thus, scholars have recently noted that collaborations are at the core of the circular economy approach, particularly because of the radicalness of the transition and problems extending beyond individual organizational boundaries (Brown et al., 2019). Even for the more incremental circular economy innovations, some forms of collaborations and innovation together with buyers, suppliers, or previous collaborators happen, whereas, for the more radical forms, cross-sector partners might be needed (Brown et al., 2021). Collaborations are also expected to positively support the resolution of sustainability problems by allowing to reconfigure both organizational and strategic companies’ structures through the active participation of stakeholders and the implementation of a more open configuration (Suchek, et al., 2021). Yet, the research on open innovation and circular economy is still nascent although recent studies have investigated the phenomenon (Brown et al., 2020; Bocken & Ritala, 2021; Jesus & Jugend, 2021).
By leveraging internal and external purposive knowledge flows (Chesbrough, 2006; Chesbrough & Bogers, 2014), open innovation can enhance the innovative capacity of firms in identifying new roots and solutions for the adoption of circular economy strategies (such as reuse, reduce, and recycle), for innovating in a sustainable way the offering of products and services, for making more sustainable the processes of production and distribution, and for creating new organizational setting and new and sustainable consumers’ behaviours and journeys. Furthermore, the adoption of an open innovation approach into the circular economy can be an opportunity for promoting the collaboration of company’s stakeholders, thus resolving environmental problems, implementing the strategies of reuse, reduce, and recycle, encouraging consumers’ participation, and creating a culture of sustainable consumption (Cappa et al., 2016; Jesus & Jugend, 2021).
Research in this direction calls for understanding how open innovation can support firms in facing the societal challenge associated to the sustainability approach, as well as its implications in terms of firms’ capabilities, resources management, and innovation performances (Silva et al., 2022; Obradović et al., 2021; McGhan et al., 2021). Consequently, the role of open innovation into the debate of circular economy can be especially relevant for the comprehension of how innovation can occur in circular business models and which are the antecedents and consequences of an innovation strategy in these business models (Centobelli et al., 2020; Geissdoerfer et al., 2018), as well as how collaborations with a network of actors can support the conception and execution of an innovation strategy for the circular economy approach (Brown et al., 2021; Bocken & Ritala, 2021; Fraccascia et al., 2019).
More recent studies highlight as alliances with external stakeholders improve innovation outcomes and that the combination between open innovation and business sustainability discloses a rather underexplored territory (Inigo et al., 2020). Therefore, there could be the opportunity to address the relationships between open innovation and circular economy towards the identification of solutions addressing new and emerging societal challenges and needs (Beck et al., 2020), antecedents and consequences (Lopes & de Carvalho, 2018), as well as of exploring inter-related open innovation categories (such as product, process, or organizational innovation).
In accordance with the above discussion, the goal of this Special Issue is to stimulate the discussion and collect theoretical and empirical studies to assess the relationships between open innovation and circular economy, unveiling new challenges and opportunities.
Main Topics
This Special Issue will provide contributions at the intersection between open innovation and circular economy. Specifically, the Special Issue aims at providing a larger comprehension of the theoretical and managerial implications of an open innovation approach for the successful execution of circular economy. Accordingly, we expect to receive new insights for refreshing consolidated theories and approaches of open innovation in the context of circular economy and welcome articles that contribute for the theoretical advancement of the literature at the intersection between these streams of research.
Starting from the above premises, we encourage the submission of contributions focused on the technological, managerial and engineering perspectives associated to the topics of open innovation and circular economy and that explore the following topics:
- re-conceptualization of open innovation through the lens of circular economy
- open innovation in circular economy: perspectives and implications at micro and meso levels
- start-ups, SMEs, and incumbent firms: trends, opportunities, and challenges of open innovation for circular economy
- avoidance, reuse, reduce, and recycle strategies through open innovation
- open innovation ecosystems and platforms for circular economy
- inter and transdisciplinary approaches to research at the intersection of circular economy and sustainability
- internal capability development and inter-organizational management of open innovation for circular economy
- barriers and enablers for open innovation in a circular economy
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