Knowledge for Action: Innovation for a Circular Economy

Dear Colleagues,

Circular innovation represents the convergence of two distinct but interconnected fields of study (Konietzko et al, 2020). It brings together the principles of sustainable resource management from the Circular Economy (CE) with the dynamic processes of creative change and economic progression inherent in innovation (Guzzo et al., 2023). However, the role of strategic knowledge management (Alexander et al., 2013) in developing innovative policy and practice to enable a transition to a CE is underexplored (Atiku, 2020). Whether tacit or explicit, knowledge is an unarguably valuable resource, which can be created, retained, applied and transferred to enable organizational performance (Öberg and Alexander, 2019). Rhetoric and coaching in innovation often refers to innovation management as “organising knowledge spaghetti”, but how do organizations approaching circular innovation actually undertake this complex management task? 

In this Special Issue, we invite contributions exploring knowledge, meaning and action in the context of circular innovation. The concept of the CE has garnered extensive scholarly interest (Ranta et al., 2018) but empirical and conceptual studies on innovation as an enabler for CE are relatively nascent.  In particular, the role that knowledge plays in this activity, either in the Front-end of Innovation or in Business Model Innovation or Value Capture is largely missing (Howard et al., 2022).  While much is known about the role that knowledge plays in “new product development”, there is a paucity of knowledge on how this plays out in the circular context.  We also know very little about the influence of place, and place-based knowledge and how this interacts with innovation.  This is especially important when considering the interplay between social, psychological or cultural factors that can shape meaning-making and therefore the adoption of innovations, when considered at a regional and/or global level (Alexander et al., 2023).

Particularly, this Special Issue ‘Knowledge for Action: Innovation for a Circular Economy’ invites researchers to consider the following questions:

• What are the challenges and opportunities of knowledge management for circular innovations and circular business models?
• What are the trade-offs between short-term efficiencies and long-term circular value creation, and how can new or recycled knowledge play a part in evaluating this?
• How do organizations search for new knowledge in their circular innovation processes. Is this limited to the Front-end of Innovation, or does this need for knowledge to exist across the entire innovation process?
• How can organizations balance local–global tensions in knowledge dissemination across supply chains?
• How does innovation and knowledge sharing or transfer extend and consolidate circular meaning making?
• How can different elements of the regional ecosystem come together and coordinate circular innovation?
• How can organizations use knowledge sharing and collaboration to develop and implement circular solutions?
• How can knowledge management be used to support the transition to circular cities and regions?

References

Alexander, A., Pascucci, S., & Charnley, F. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of the Circular Economy: Transitions and Transformation. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.

Alexander, A.T., Neyer, A.K. and Huizingh, K.R.E., 2016. Introduction to the Special Issue: Transferring knowledge for innovation. R&D Management, 46(2), pp. 305-311.

Atiku, S. O. (2020). Knowledge management for the circular economy. In Handbook of research on entrepreneurship development and opportunities in circular economy (pp. 520-537). IGI Global.

Guzzo, D., Mascarenhas, J., & Alexander, A. (2023). 10 The transformational power of Circular Innovation. In Alexander, A., Pascucci, S., & Charnley, F. (Eds.). Handbook of the Circular Economy: Transitions and Transformation, 147.

Howard M, Boehm S, Eatherley D (2022). Systems resilience and SME multilevel challenges: A place-based conceptualization of the circular economy. Journal of Business Research, 145, 757-768

Konietzko, Jan, Nancy Bocken, and Erik Jan Hultink. "A tool to analyze, ideate and develop circular innovation ecosystems". Sustainability 12.1 (2020): 417.

Öberg, C., & Alexander, A. T. (2019). The openness of open innovation in ecosystems–Integrating innovation and management literature on knowledge linkages. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(4), 211-218.

Ranta, V., Aarikka-Stenroos, L., Ritala, P., & Mäkinen, S. J. (2018). Exploring institutional drivers and barriers of the circular economy: A cross-regional comparison of China, the US, and Europe. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 135, 70-82.

Dr. Allen Alexander
Dr. Constantine Manolchev
Dr. Ruth Cherrington
Guest Editors

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• circular economy
• innovation
• knowledge management
• knowledge dissemination
• knowledge sharing
• knowledge transfer
• business models
• place-based knowledge
• supply chains
• collaboration
• regional ecosystems
• circular cities