Management of patented ‘circular innovation’ in view of the circular economy
研究了循环创新是否与环境披露和环境绩效改善相关，并检验了废物专利作为循环创新指标是否因新颖性和复杂性更高而需要特殊战略管理。基于2011-2015年全球企业数据，发现循环创新与专利权利要求和引用强度正相关，经济价值更高。
This study mainly aims to analyse whether innovation related to the circular economy's principles, defined as ‘circular innovation’, is closely linked to environmental disclosure and contributes to the generation of improvements in environmental performance. The article also aims to test whether waste patents, as a specific indicator of circular innovation, are more valuable assets that need specific strategic management due to their level of novelty, complexity, and radicalness being higher than other green or conventional innovations. The empirical analysis uses a rich firm‐level dataset of worldwide companies for the 2011–2015 period, with 1330 observations to show that environmental disclosure and environmental performance are positively associated with circular innovation. This innovation is in fact, more intensive in patent claims and patent citation generation, indicating a higher economic value for companies. The article contributes to this new line of inquiry on defining circular innovation, as well as providing some environmental determinants and consequences from the stakeholders' perspective in relation to circular business models.