How Can Digital Platforms Resolve Market Failures to Foster a Circular Economy?

IF 13.3 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Business Strategy and The Environment Pub Date : 2025-09-16 DOI:10.1002/bse.70190

Ässia Boukhatmi, Wim Van Opstal

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Market failures—such as asymmetric information, incomplete markets, externalities, and market power—present major barriers to a circular economy (CE) transition. Although government intervention is traditionally proposed, this paper examines the potential of digital platforms, particularly software‐as‐a‐service (SaaS) business‐to‐business (B2B) models, to address such failures. Drawing on semistructured interviews with platform users, owners, and policy experts across Europe, this study develops and validates a conceptual framework that explains how platforms may resolve, moderate, or generate market failures. The findings show that SaaS platforms can improve transparency, reduce transaction costs, and help internalize externalities but may also introduce new risks, including data asymmetries, user lock‐in, and market concentration. The analysis examines how platform ownership and design features influence strategic interactions among ecosystem actors and affect platform outcomes in CE contexts. This paper contributes to CE and platform governance theory and offers practical insights for EU policy and practice on enabling circular ecosystems.

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数字平台如何解决市场失灵，促进循环经济？

市场失灵——如信息不对称、市场不完全、外部性和市场力量——是循环经济转型的主要障碍。虽然传统上建议政府干预，但本文研究了数字平台的潜力，特别是软件即服务（SaaS）企业对企业（B2B）模式，以解决此类失败。通过对欧洲各地平台用户、所有者和政策专家的半结构化访谈，本研究开发并验证了一个概念框架，该框架解释了平台如何解决、缓和或产生市场失灵。研究结果表明，SaaS平台可以提高透明度，降低交易成本，并有助于内部化外部性，但也可能引入新的风险，包括数据不对称、用户锁定和市场集中。该分析考察了平台所有权和设计特征如何影响生态系统参与者之间的战略互动，并影响CE背景下的平台结果。本文对环境治理和平台治理理论做出了贡献，并为欧盟在实现循环生态系统方面的政策和实践提供了实践见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Business Strategy and The Environment Multiple-

CiteScore

22.50

自引率

19.40%

发文量

336

期刊介绍： Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE) is a leading academic journal focused on business strategies for improving the natural environment. It publishes peer-reviewed research on various topics such as systems and standards, environmental performance, disclosure, eco-innovation, corporate environmental management tools, organizations and management, supply chains, circular economy, governance, green finance, industry sectors, and responses to climate change and other contemporary environmental issues. The journal aims to provide original contributions that enhance the understanding of sustainability in business. Its target audience includes academics, practitioners, business managers, and consultants. However, BSE does not accept papers on corporate social responsibility (CSR), as this topic is covered by its sibling journal Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. The journal is indexed in several databases and collections such as ABI/INFORM Collection, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, BIOBASE, Emerald Management Reviews, GeoArchive, Environment Index, GEOBASE, INSPEC, Technology Collection, and Web of Science.