The circular economy is a paradigmatic perspective that has captured the attention of management and strategy scholars. Yet, while a growing body of literature considers ecosystems in circular economy contexts, a coherent approach to governance remains missing. We adopt a strategic lens to understand how circularity can be facilitated through deliberate ecosystem governance, first identifying the three channels through which ecosystems contribute to circularity in industrial systems, and then differentiating ecosystems from other industry structures such as industrial supply chains and industry architectures. Building on the articles from the special issue, we propose an integrative framework of ecosystem governance for circularity, identifying four coupling mechanisms through which ecosystems shape material and energy flows, as well as coordination challenges and governance modes. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions.
Platform business models are central to the digital economy, yet few achieve sustainable scaling—exponential expansion combined with resource-efficient value creation. Existing research highlights the role of business model design choices and managerial agency in shaping scaling outcomes but offers limited insight into how scalable configurations are generated under uncertainty. We address this question by adopting a design science perspective on platform scaling. A multi-case study of four platforms transitioning from two-sided markets to complex ecosystems reveals how firms generated scaling solutions through blending—the recursive recombination of business model ingredients across industries and geographies. This process was guided by scaling intentions and reinforced through immersion in the digital economy, enabling firms to construct and progressively stabilize novel configurations while shaping ecosystem interdependencies. Over time, recurring patterns in these design practices were codified into simple rules that guided subsequent scaling efforts. These insights contribute to research on platform scaling by shifting attention from identifying effective configurations to explaining how such configurations were generated under uncertainty. They further advance research on heuristics by reconceptualizing simple rules as generative principles that emerge from situated design processes, and extend design science by providing empirical insight into how such processes unfold in established platform firms.
Sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems (SEEs) are increasingly understood as place-based configurations in which firms, institutions, and intermediaries pursue economic, social, and environmental objectives simultaneously. Yet, little is known about how coordination among heterogeneous actors emerges, how firm-level strategies scale into ecosystem-level governance arrangements, and how such arrangements are reproduced and stabilized over time. Addressing this gap, we examine how firm-level strategies evolve into ecosystem governance arrangements and how these are recursively reproduced through ongoing institutional work, shaping subsequent firm behavior. Empirically, we draw on an in-depth qualitative study of the Local Action Group (LAG) Daunia Rurale 2020 in Southern Italy, based on 28 interviews with firm owners and ecosystem stakeholders, complemented by observational and archival data. Our findings show that ecosystem governance emerges through the interplay between LAG-led coordination efforts and firms’ place-based practices of territorial valorization. We identify four recurring patterns of place-based institutional work through which incumbent firms translate firm-level strategies into ecosystem-level governance arrangements: multilateral dependency with the LAG, strategic territorial commitment, community-based value creation, and the enactment of territorial value logics through practices and coordination support. These patterns progressively scale into two ecosystem-level governance dynamics: the emergence of legitimate ecosystem embeddedness and the stabilization of a territorial value logic in ecosystem governance. We further show how these governance arrangements recursively shape subsequent firm behavior and participation. By theorizing governance as an emergent, stabilized, and recursively reproduced accomplishment rather than a pre-existing backdrop, this study contributes to research on entrepreneurial ecosystems, sustainable entrepreneurship, and place-based strategy.
How do firms' climate risk representations vary with CEOs' career horizons (CCH)? Drawing on career horizon and cognitive bias research, we examine the relationship between CCH and corporate climate risk perception bias using Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2022. We find a robust U-shaped relationship: firms led by CEOs with either long or short career horizons exhibit greater perception bias, whereas those led by CEOs with intermediate horizons exhibit lower bias. This relationship is conditioned by two sources of calibration constraints. Internally, top management team equity incentives flatten the U-shaped curve by strengthening incentive alignment and collective scrutiny. Externally, ESG rating divergence steepens the curve by weakening external evaluative discipline and increasing interpretive latitude. The U-shaped effect is also more salient in firms with high board monitoring intensity, weak internal controls, and in non-carbon-intensive industries. These findings extend CCH research from observable strategic actions to strategic interpretation and show how executives' personal timelines are associated with differences in firms’ recognition of long-term climate risks.
Research on ecosystem strategy has advanced our understanding of how focal firms orchestrate ecosystems during ecosystem emergence, but less is known about how autonomous participants orient themselves toward a common direction in the first place. Existing studies often treat ecosystem vision as an ex ante blueprint defined by the focal firm, leaving underexplored the question of how a vision becomes collectively meaningful across organizational boundaries. Drawing on the attention-based view (ABV), we conceptualize ecosystem visioning as a recursive process of collective attentional alignment. Based on an abductive multiple-case study of ARM, Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Uber, we identify three attentional mechanisms through which this attentional alignment develops: attentional framing of ecosystem issues and answers, structuring distributed attention across actors, and anchoring collective attention through interdependence. We distinguish them from ecosystem orchestration practices: visioning constitutes the cognitive foundation for ecosystem orchestration, while orchestration practices enact and reinforce these attentional mechanisms, and the resulting interactions generate feedback that informs subsequent visioning. Our study contributes to ecosystem strategy by revealing the attentional dynamics underlying ecosystem emergence, extends strategic vision research from a focal-firm representation to an interorganizational process, and advances the ABV from attention allocation within organizations to attentional alignment across autonomous actors.
