Beyond Transparency: Governing Visibility–Opacity Tensions in Circular Supply Chains

Abstract

Circular supply chains are widely promoted as mechanisms of environmental regeneration, yet they generate a fundamental and underexplored operational tension: The same processes that require high levels of material transparency also create strong incentives for strategic information concealment. Circular supply chain research has predominantly emphasized the benefits of transparency and traceability, while adjacent research on alliances, coopetition, and knowledge protection recognizes that firms must also protect commercially sensitive information. What remains insufficiently explained is how this sharing–protection tension becomes embedded in circular supply chain operations, where the same lifecycle and recovery information can be simultaneously necessary for coordination and commercially appropriate. To address this gap, this study examines how firms manage the visibility–opacity tension through operational supply chain management (OSCM) processes. Drawing on a qualitative multiple‐case study of 32 US manufacturing firms and approximately 80 semistructured interviews, we identify three distinct tension‐management logics. Selective disclosure sequencing governs the timing and recipients of information across the partner lifecycle. Boundary‐anchored opacity recurrently reproduces comparatively stable information boundaries through institutionalized access restrictions. Adaptive transparency recalibration involves ongoing adjustment of disclosure practices in response to changing market and regulatory conditions. Collectively, these logics reveal distinct operational implications and trade‐offs that informants associate with different forms of visibility–opacity governance, particularly regarding coordination, protection of commercially sensitive knowledge, and responsiveness to changing conditions. These implications are interpreted as perceived process‐level consequences rather than independently measured performance effects. The study reconceptualizes transparency not as a governance target to be maximized, but as a boundary to be actively managed. For managers, the findings provide guidance on configuring disclosure practices to balance coordination needs with competitive protection. By theorizing disclosure as a processually governed boundary rather than a transparency outcome, this study shifts the information governance problem in circular supply chains from visibility maximization to boundary management.