Digital Platforms for the Circular Economy: Exploring Meta-Organizational Orchestration Mechanisms

Abstract

Digital platform technology enables circular business models that facilitate the reduction, reuse, and recycling of resources and materials across large ecosystems of platform actors. However, little is currently known about the inner workings of such platforms and how they are organized. Framing these platforms as meta-organizations, this study examines the orchestration mechanisms deployed by platform owners to facilitate economic value creation with a circular business model among a large group of actors. Building on an inductive analysis of 10 European platform organizations, this study identifies five meta-organizational orchestration mechanisms and develops an empirically grounded model that explains how the focal firm orchestrates value creation with a platform-based circular business model. This study advances the existing knowledge on orchestration mechanisms in platform-based meta-organizations in a circular economy context and highlights novel implications for theory and practice.