IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v33y2025is1p444-458.html

All for One and One for All: Inter‐Firm Collaboration in the Transformation Towards a Circular Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Milla Sarja
  • Marileena Mäkelä
  • Tiina Onkila
  • Katariina Koistinen
  • Satu Teerikangas
  • Mira Valkjärvi

Abstract

Collaboration is central to the circular economy. This study examines ways companies can advance the circular economy in their business operations through inter‐firm collaboration. The empirical data consist of 43 semi‐structured interviews with representatives of Finnish companies of different sizes and sectors that have implemented aspects of circularity in their operations. The findings reveal that companies approach inter‐firm collaboration by means familiar from the linear economy, for example, pooling resources. Still, inter‐firm collaboration can advance a circular economy: It not only helps individual companies in their pursuit of a circular economy but wider collaboration can also nudge whole sectors towards the circular transformation. In addition, inter‐firm collaboration can introduce new norms for conducting business. In the circular economy context, it was found that inter‐firm collaboration is currently a way for companies to overcome inadequacies in the system that are largely due to the relative novelty of the circular economy model.

Suggested Citation

  • Milla Sarja & Marileena Mäkelä & Tiina Onkila & Katariina Koistinen & Satu Teerikangas & Mira Valkjärvi, 2025. "All for One and One for All: Inter‐Firm Collaboration in the Transformation Towards a Circular Economy," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(S1), pages 444-458, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:s1:p:444-458
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.70020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.70020
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.70020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:s1:p:444-458. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.