Ecosystem initiation: a key policy challenge for circular economy transition

Abstract The circular economy (CE) is increasingly viewed as a key pathway to sustainable development, but its uptake remains behind expectations. We explore the concept of circular economy ecosystems to advance our understanding of the market sector conditions necessary for the adoption of circular economy practices by producers, consumers and other stakeholders within an ecosystem. Our methodology is a multiple case study with data collection through semi-structured qualitative interviews of key informants instrumental in the initiation of the ecosystem cases, enriched by secondary data. We identify the special conditions necessary for establishing a circular economy ecosystem and the implications for stakeholders, with a special focus on local government. We deduct a novel framework to analyse and understand the agency involved in a circular economy ecosystem. Our framework depicts seven functions with actors from each function potentially involved in the circular ecosystem. Finally, the article outlines the limitations of our work, and testable propositions and methodological avenues for longitudinal case studies, and agent-based modelling to empirically validate and refine the proposed concepts, advancing the research frontier on circular ecosystems.