Relationships between actors within business ecosystems that adopt circular strategies

Abstract

As an alternative to the traditional linear production practices, the concept of Circular Economy, which provides for resource cycling, has been widely adopted. In order to achieve a circular solution, it is necessary to coordinate different actors, which can be part of a business ecosystem. In this context, the actors work cooperatively, competitively, or even competitively, looking for market advantages. Although visible, the integration established between circular economy, business ecosystems and relationships between actors is not further explored in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this work is to identify the possibilities of relationships among members of business ecosystems that adopt circular strategies. As a result, it is expected to obtain a mapping of the motivations from which actors collaborate, compete and even coopete, develop a Research Agenda on the subject and identify the benefits of relationships within an ecosystem for the circular economy. To achieve this goal, two literature reviews will be developed. The first is a systematic literature review, with an emphasis on case studies of business ecosystems in circular contexts. The second is a non-exhaustive bibliographical review, aiming to collect the desired motivations in the literature of relationships and ecosystems and relationships and circular economy, separately. By understanding such motivations through this work, collaborations between actors will be fostered. It is important to point out that the evaluation of the results will be made by qualitative content analysis, with the support from the software MAXQDA. (AU)