Purpose

This research studies circularity brokers, the economic actors facilitating the transition of companies towards circular operations. The purpose of this paper is to extend the understanding of “circular brokerage”, deriving from the concept of brokerage existing in network theory and applied to the specific context of the circular supply network. Recent papers have been devoted to particular facets of circular brokerage, with studies dedicated to circular incubators or platforms. This study proposes how these new actors can have a significant role in facilitating circular economy in general.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology is qualitative using 17 semi-directed interviews with circularity brokers. The theoretical approach draws on the network view and builds on recent developments of the theory in the context of circular economy.

Findings

Circularity brokers support organisations and their networks, helping them to overcome the problems that stand in their way of adopting circular economy at different levels (micro, meso and macro). To do this, circularity brokers deploy a wide range of activities involving technical, methodological and relational skills. The study extends previous research by elaborating on the relationship between the position these actors occupy within their network and the benefits they can bring in terms of circularity.

Originality/value

This research provides evidence on the role of circularity brokers and moves the state of knowledge from a specific sector or cases to other sectors and a broader role beyond network position specifics. Network theory, with the constructs of broker exchanges and the influence of embeddedness, is used to develop theoretical implications.

中文翻译：

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促进循环经济：新型供应网络参与者的见解

 目的

这项研究研究了循环经纪人，即促进公司向循环运营转型的经济参与者。本文的目的是扩展对“循环经纪”的理解，源于网络理论中存在的经纪概念，并将其应用于循环供应网络的具体背景。最近的论文致力于循环经纪的特定方面，并专门针对循环孵化器或平台进行研究。这项研究提出了这些新参与者如何在促进循环经济方面发挥重要作用。

设计/方法论/途径

该方法是通过对循环经纪人进行 17 次半定向访谈进行定性的。该理论方法借鉴了网络观点，并建立在循环经济背景下理论的最新发展基础上。

 发现

循环经纪人为组织及其网络提供支持，帮助他们克服在不同层面（微观、中观和宏观）采用循环经济时遇到的问题。为此，循环经纪人部署了涉及技术、方法和关系技能的广泛活动。该研究扩展了之前的研究，详细阐述了这些参与者在其网络中占据的位置与他们在循环方面所能带来的好处之间的关系。

 原创性/价值

这项研究提供了关于循环经纪人作用的证据，并将知识状态从特定部门或案例转移到其他部门，以及超越网络位置细节的更广泛的作用。网络理论凭借经纪人交易所的构造和嵌入性的影响，被用来发展理论含义。