From Material Tensions to Organizational Paradoxes: How Manufacturers Cope With the Limits of Circular Product Design
通过对18家德语区制造企业的案例研究，揭示循环产品设计中耐久性与可回收性等物质层面的张力如何转化为组织层面的学习、归属和运作悖论，并探讨企业跨产品、组织和生态系统层面的应对策略。
ABSTRACT Circular product design (CPD) is central to advancing the circular economy by enabling the narrowing , slowing , and closing of resource flows. Yet, its implementation remains persistently challenging for firms. Prior research has largely framed these challenges as discrete barriers, overlooking the structural contradictions embedded in CPD strategies. Drawing on paradox theory and a multiple case study of 18 manufacturing firms in the German‐speaking context, we examine how firms experience materially grounded product‐level tensions, such as those between durability and recyclability. We show how these tensions reverberate through organizations as learning, belonging, and organizing paradoxes. Firms respond through combinations of coping strategies across product, organizational, and ecosystem levels, shaped by sectoral context, supply chain position, and circularity motivators. We contribute by demonstrating how material realities translate into organizational paradoxes and by reframing CPD as an ongoing process of navigating persistent tensions rather than resolving discrete barriers.