Knowledge Dynamics and Resource Efficiency

Among world's economies, circular economy has become popular especially in EU and China, which opens several opportunities for sustainability leaders to gain a first-mover advantage and, consequently, to pursue organizational sustainability and growth. In spite of public policy support, since circular economy often requires entrepreneurial innovation among complex networks of companies, most companies are still learning how to manage knowledge dynamics at inter-organization level. The chapter starts defining the key characteristics of circular economy and identifying the peculiarities in terms of inter-firm cooperative and competitive relations, which help delineating contributions from the green supply chain literature. The second section shows -though the discussion of term maps- how multiple- and inter-disciplinary streams of research are increasingly linked by hard (i.e. ICT based) and soft (i.e. relational and organizational) aspects of knowledge management. The third section provides a discussion on key hard and soft factors that characterize four knowledge dynamics, i.e. knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing that can improve the adoption and integration of circular processes within inter-organizational coopetitive strategies. Particular attention is here given to the cross-analysis of outcomes from theoretical papers, case studies and quantitative empirical researches that contribute at shaping relations between internal and external factors that might play as predictors of a successful implementation of circular economy principles. Finally, the last section concludes with recommendations for improving organizational and managerial capabilities to manage inter-firm knowledge dynamics while pursuing circular economy objectives in international business environments. Beside this guidance for practitioners, directions for further research are suggested for each pillar of the emerging conceptual model.