Unpacking the Relationship Between Circular Economy and Interorganizational Collaboration: An Exploratory Study and an Analytical Framework
通过分析全球最大汽车制造商2021-2022年的73份非财务报告，发现企业主要与供应商合作实施循环经济举措（尤其是回收和减量），与大学及研究机构的合作作用较小。
Collaboration among different organisations could be a vital enabler of a circular economy (CE). However, few studies examine the role of inter-organisational collaboration in CE initiatives. Particularly obscure is the relationship between different types of inter-organisational collaboration and specific CE initiatives. This paper explores such a relationship in the automotive sector through a content analysis of 73 non-financial reports disseminated by the world's largest automakers in 2021 and 2022. This paper shows that focal firms primarily leverage inter-organisational collaboration with suppliers to implement CE initiatives, mainly recycling and reducing initiatives. Focal firms relatively often collaborate with multiple actors and customers to implement CE initiatives, particularly recycling initiatives. Of note, collaboration with universities and research institutes plays a minor role in CE initiatives, assuming only a relatively higher relevance in CE initiatives with the highest degree of circularity. Last, this paper provides a novel analytical framework to examine the relationship between inter-organisational collaboration and CE.