Stakeholder Relationships in the Circular Economy. Conceptualizing Relational Approaches Through Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) demands a stakeholder perspective. However, CE literature investigating the nature and the evolution of stakeholder relationships for its effective implementation is not made explicit nor comprehensively conceptualized, resulting in a lack of appreciation for stakeholders' role and a poor understanding of how their relationships can facilitate CE. To advance a holistic overview in this regard, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on stakeholder relationships and CE. The in-depth content analysis on 111 papers allowed us to conceptualize a novel matrix of four main stakeholder relational approaches at the firm–stakeholder and stakeholder–firm perspectives: Informative, Reciprocal, Advocative, and Ecosystemic—that can enhance and support CE initiatives. We detected osmotic boundaries and discussed dynamism among the four approaches, leading to a more nuanced understanding of stakeholder engagement in CE. The dynamism among stakeholder approaches constitutes a future research opportunity to be explored empirically and beyond CE.