How the Textile and Fashion Industry Become Circular: Collaborative Frontrunner Practices Leading to Decentralized Collaborative Governance of Ecosystems

This paper discusses how the concept of collaborative governance may contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of circular business ecosystems. This is done in three steps. First, the concepts of circular business ecosystem and collaborative governance are discussed and combined. Second, the ensuing theoretical framework is used to analyze the circular business ecosystem behavior of seven frontrunner companies, especially focusing on ecosystem governance configuration and ecosystem role dynamics. Third, based on an identification of three patterns of strategic response among the frontrunners, the paper discusses variations of strategic behavior, ecosystem role dynamics, and changes of governance. By identifying and applying four theoretical insights from the combination of circular business ecosystem thinking and collaborative governance thinking, the paper develops a new framework for analyzing and understanding the interplay between strategic behavior and ecosystem evolution and co-evolution, including how ecosystem sensing and seizing deviate across different patterns of strategic behavior.