Circular Economy Awareness as a Moderator of Knowledge Transformation: Evidence from the Bamboo Construction Industry

Bamboo construction faces a persistent “high technical potential–low market adoption” paradox: despite advances in material mechanics and structural engineering, industry adoption remains limited, and the organisational mechanisms of knowledge transformation behind this gap remain underexamined. Shifting the analysis from technology to organisation, this study develops an integrated framework grounded in the knowledge-based view, Knowledge Reuse Theory, and circular economy (CE) principles. Within the Input–Tools and Techniques–Output (ITTO) framework, this study examines how influence factors, knowledge requirements, and knowledge classification are converted, via the knowledge management process (KMP), into structured knowledge assets (KA), and reconceptualises CE awareness as an organisational cognitive orientation that applies CE asset-management logic to knowledge resources. Survey data from 372 bamboo construction practitioners in mainland China were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The three inputs were significantly associated with the KMP (β 0.200 to 0.299, p < 0.01); the KMP, in turn, was positively associated with KA (β = 0.183, p < 0.01); and CE awareness positively moderated the pathway (interaction β = 0.148, p < 0.05). The study offers a domain-respecified CE awareness construct with an empirical mechanism, providing a tractable organisational cognition perspective on the mechanisms that may support adoption readiness in bamboo construction.