Circular economy actions in business ecosystems driven by digital technologies

Abstract

Creating collaborative value through business ecosystems is crucial to achieving a circular economy model. The use of digital technologies plays a significant role in this process, as it benefits the creation of a network among different actors and has shown promise for circularity. To date, studies have been carried out on how digital technologies improve and support circular strategies and business ecosystems. However, the link between circular economy and ecosystems structured by digital technologies has not been addressed. Thus, to serve as a knowledge base for collaborative networks, this study aims to verify which circular actions have been applied in business ecosystems that use information and communication technologies, Internet of Things, and Big Data. To do this, we conducted a systematic literature review linking the research areas of business ecosystems and digital technologies. Then, real cases were selected from the published articles and reviewed in detail based on circular actions present in three well-known frameworks provided by the literature. The findings suggest that ecosystems can apply circular actions at four different levels according to DTs’ degree of dependence. Also, we found there are four drivers to conduct circularity in ecosystems associated with digital transformation. Distinct types of ecosystems adopt different strategies. While the transaction type focus more on dematerialization and providing access, solution ecosystems focus on optimizing products and processes. Overall, this paper contributes to the existing literature and adds digitalization as a key aspect to conduct the transition to a circular economy, especially in collaborative networks.