Exploring the strategic role of digital technologies in supporting circular practices within service-based firms

Abstract

Service organisations encounter distinct challenges in circular transitions, including the intangibility of services, which complicates resource tracking; reliance on digital infrastructure, with associated sustainability implications; and the absence of standardised metrics for assessing circularity. This study investigates how data-driven technologies enable service firms to overcome these barriers. This study extends the Resource-Based View by conceptualising disruptive technologies (DT) as strategic resources that enable circular value creation in service settings, based on an interpretivist multiple-case analysis using interviews from five technology service providers. The findings reveal how technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain facilitate circular transitions by addressing challenges related to intangibility, digital dependency, and information-intensive operations. This study theoretically contributes to how DT functions as dynamically reconfigurable capabilities in response to the unique challenges of circular transition in service businesses. This extends the RBV by highlighting the adaptive and context-specific nature of resource deployment beyond traditional static interpretations.