Effective stakeholder governance in circular economy: Insights from Italian companies

In the paper

“Schultz et al. (2024, p. 2174) found 'a gap in contemporary circular economy scholarship regarding the lack of knowledge on how precisely functional stakeholder governance for collaboration (K ¨ ohler et al., 2022) may pave the way for a transition to circular economy as a systemic change paradigm. '”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Introduction (p. 2) explicitly identifies a gap in knowledge about how functional stakeholder governance for collaboration may enable a transition to a circular economy as a systemic change paradigm. The citing sentence closely follows that passage. (LLM, conf=0.95)

  cites Schultz et al., 2024 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Köhler et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“Regardless of the perspective adopted on circular economy (CE) (i.e. micro-level (individual companies), meso-level (value chains), or macro-level (a community in a geographic area) (Esposito et al., 2023; Aguinaga et al., 2018) -the transition toward CE is a complex and challenging endeavour.”

What the sources say

• ?Could not verify

  The supplied passages and the indexed results are labeled as a paper about social enterprises, not the cited circular-economy paper. Searches for the circular-economy transition, its challenges, and micro-, meso-, and macro-level perspectives found no passage addressing the claim. The available copy therefore cannot verify it. (LLM, conf=0.74)

  cites Esposito et al., 2023 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Aguinaga et al., 2018 source

In the paper

“Furthermore, Schultz et al. (2024), in the context of the European chemicals and plastics industry, found that a systemic CE transition calls for managerial strategies that are collectively (industry or cross-industry) governance-oriented rather than company-centric.”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Conclusion (p. 15) identifies industry-oriented and cross-industry-oriented governance as approaches that require co-creation by multiple stakeholders. It says systemic circular-economy collaborations must operate in a collective governance mode, supporting the contrast with company-centric strategies. (LLM, conf=0.94)

  cites Schultz et al., 2024 source

In the paper

“the mayors of shareholder municipalities, elected by citizens, form an assembly that governs Priula, a consortium which owns 100% of Contarina.”

In the paper

“However, in one case (that of a waste utility serving neigh­ bouring municipalities), it received ownership rights and assumed governance roles in utility support.”

In the paper

“In the case of Contarina, the remunicipalisation of waste management service and the adoption of a lead governance model were decided when the profit maximisation goal would have led private M. Minoja and G. Romano owners to build an incinerator instead of developing waste selection plants and fostering recycling activities.”

In the paper

“On customer side, fashion companies have launched collections using the Econyl fabrics produced by Aquafil, with premium prices.”

In the paper

“Prompted by one of its most relevant customers (the US-based Interface) at a convention in 1998, Aquafil decided to embark on a long journey toward sustainability, which led it to develop a proprietary regeneration technology to produce sustainable fibres and polymers from nylon waste.”

In the paper

“The higher the market prices for paper and cardboard, the lower the environmental contribution imposed on packaging producers.”

In the paper

“In the case of Aquafil, governance-related decisions are firmly in the hands of the CEO (a member of the controlling family) and the rest of the family, which holds the 68.6% of voting rights and appoints eight out of nine board members.”

In the paper

“This is the case of the digital platform bringing ECONYL ® to conscious consumers; this com­ mercial online platform is directly managed by Aquafil that invites different brands to contribute and share their products without requiring (and even fostering) direct partnerships among these fashion brands, that all concurrently contribute to increase consciousness for circular”

In the paper

“At times when the market price of recycled paper covers the cost of paper recycling collection, Comieco 'steps aside ' from its intermediary role, and municipalities are free to sell the wasted paper they have collected directly to paper mills or treatment plants.”

In the paper

“In 2022, it registered 89.9% of separate collection and production of unsorted urban waste per capita of only 40 kg per year, while the national average data were 64% and 181 kg, respectively.”

In the paper

“In addition to multiple on-site visits, training initiatives, and information- and knowledge-sharing meetings, Contarina provides support for transferring its model to other municipalities, waste utilities, airports, universities, etc., under contractual cooperation agreements, which may entail the temporary relocation of Contarina ' s managers and employees (Romano et al., 2”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Romano et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“Paper mills are obliged to buy from Comieco the waste paper it buys from municipalities, but the Comieco price from paper mills is not al­ ways able to cover the purchase and treatment costs it incurs.”

In the paper

“Citizens are key stakeholders in the CE as users of waste management services, actors directly involved in household waste separation, and suppliers of waste that Contarina transforms into secondary raw mate­ rials.”

In the paper

“CG of Contarina is strictly linked to its indirect municipality-ownership.”

In the paper

“Comieco then sells paper to paper mills at controlled prices (linked to prices fixed monthly by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan) or through auctions to stimulate market competition.”

In the paper

“Interestingly, these projects ' governance models may differ from the general stakeholder governance adopted by the FC.”

In the paper

“These boundaries correspond to the micro, meso, and macro levels (Meath et al., 2022), that is, the levels at which Aquafil, Comieco, and Contarina operate, respectively.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Meath et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“The distributive rules of jointly created value (both costs and benefits) have all been (pre) defined by the associates: how the costs of the recovery, treatment, and recycling of packaging are allocated, and the norms regulating to whom, in which amounts, and at what prices the waste intermediated by Comieco is sold.”

In the paper

“The board of directors is composed of 15 members belonging to the categories of paper mills (5 members), packaging producers (5 members), waste recuperators, and recyclers (5 members, 4 of which belong to a subset of waste treatment plants).”

In the paper

“They usually have a limited duration and involve different numbers of M. Minoja and G. Romano existing and new stakeholders.”

In the paper

“These projects aim to achieve incremental or radical innovations, or innovate, extend, or replicate the FC business model in related domains.”

In the paper

“It was founded in 1989 and it is owned by the 49 municipalities through the 'Consiglio di Bacino Priula ' (in short, Priula), a legal entity which owns 100% of the Contarina shares (Romano et al., 2021, 2022).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Romano et al., 2021
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Romano et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“Founded in 1985 in Italy to promote the separate collection and re­ covery of paper and cardboard during a period of raw material shortage, Comieco is still a non-profit, private consortium.”

In the paper

“Also thanks to the 'Comieco system, ' in 2020 Italy had already achieved the recycling target of 85% of waste paper packaging set by the EU for the year 2030.”

In the paper

“ECONYL ® , whose functional and technical performance do not differ from those of the virgin nylon, is obtained from both end-of-life carpets or rugs and from other sources such as discarded or wasted nets for salmon phishing in Norway or Chile.”

In the paper

“Priula, as the sole shareholder, appoints five board members of Contarina, who are selected based on their technical or administra­ tive expertise.”

In the paper

“Contarina does not distribute any dividends and its governing and managing bodies are allowed to support other municipalities (through knowledge sharing, employee transfer) to 'import ' and replicate Con­ tarina ' s model (Romano et al., 2021).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Romano et al., 2021

In the paper

“For instance, Aquafil has been part (2017 -2022) of an EUfunded, research partnership named 'Effective, ' involving Genomatica (US-based) and 12 European companies to develop a new, bio-based raw material (bio-caprolactam).”

In the paper

“The assembly, which is the body responsible for making key gover­ nance decisions, such as the appointment of the board of directors and the approval of statutory changes and balance sheets, is formed by all 3.150 associates. The equity shares and voting rights of asso­ ciates are proportional to the volume of paper packaging treated or sold.”

In the paper

“ECONYL ® , whose functional and technical performance do not differ from those of the virgin nylon, is obtained from both end-of-life carpets or rugs and from other sources such as discarded or wasted nets for salmon phishing in Norway or Chile.”

In the paper

“Our empirical evidence confirms this theoretical insight, but suggests that the nature of value creation activities may be different for different projects that contribute to a FC ' s transition toward the CE.”

In the paper

“This is the case, for instance, of the 'Effective ' project undertaken by Aquafil, whose results -the development and large scale production of a bio-caprolactam -are highly uncertain and expected no earlier than 2028.”

In the paper

“A waste company located in a neighbouring territory that was inspired by the 'Contarina model, ' shares with Contarina a board member and the managing director.”

In the paper

“Aquafil is involved in some partnerships with a Japanese company: the former brings its technological know-how related to Econyl, the latter its network of relationships with the whole production chain that it controls in Asia.”

In the paper

“At the firm level, the transition to a circular economy occurs through the development of circular business models, a challenging task (Atasu et al., 2021) which require new materials, improved product design, rethinking of logistics, new technologies, and the active involvement and cooperation of stakeholders that hold the necessary resources and capabilities.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Atasu et al., 2021

In the paper

“first, by pointing out that the transition to the CE requires a shift from a perspective of a company responsibility to its stakeholders to that of stakeholders ' responsibility to a company, a supply chain or a local community they belong to.”

In the paper

“As a type of environmental innovation, CE is characterised by 'long-term orientation and a high level of uncertainty compared with other innovations, ' as well as by a high degree of complexity due to the need of 'detailed knowledge and adaptation to the socio-cultural setting ' (Connelly et al., 2010; Garc ´ es-Ayerbe et al., 2019, p. 1323).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Connelly et al., 2010 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Garcés-Ayerbe et al., 2019 source

In the paper

“In global value chains (VCs), a shift from 'arm ' s length ' toward more complex governance structures is required to create and share new environmental knowledge and jointly develop innovation (De Marchi et al., 2013).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites De Marchi et al., 2013 source

In the paper

“As a notable exception, Schultz et al. (2021) explored governance mechanisms for both vertical and horizontal collaborations within the European polyurethane industry and how they can be integrated into supply chain management to foster CE.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Schultz et al., 2021 source

In the paper

“Convenience of transition toward CE is not to be taken for granted: in particular, it is not economically convenient when 'the cost of inputs is low, social costs are not internalised in products, or there is no need to minimise waste, close material cycles, or reuse products or their parts ' (Morseletto, 2023, p. 390).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Morseletto, 2023 source

In the paper

“The transition to CE implies a sustainable business model innovation, which 'is about creating superior customer and firm value through addressing societal and environmental needs ' (Bocken et al., 2019, p. 1498).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Bocken et al., 2019 source

In the paper

“The three models differ in terms of the distribution of decision-making and monitoring power, ways to achieve a fair distribution of joint value created, managers ' roles, and types of trust that sustain cooperation (Fig. 1 and Table 1).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Bridoux and Stoelhorst, 2022a

In the paper

“The development of a new CBM requires experimentation capabilities at the institutional, strategic, and operational levels (Bocken and Konietzko, 2023), and dynamic capabilities for CE implementation (Khan et al., 2020), the development of circular manufacturing supply chains (Chari et al., 2022), and cross-sectoral collaboration in networks (K ¨ ohler et al., 2022).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Bocken and Konietzko, 2023 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Khan et al., 2020 source
• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Chari et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“Moreover, CE projects are complex because many residual resources are scarce, suffer from a lack of scale, and are privately owned.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Patala et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“In more concise terms, 'the transition to a CE must be M. Minoja and G. Romano supported by stakeholder collaborations ' (Schultz et al., 2024, p. 2174).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Schultz et al., 2024 source

In the paper

“However, they can lead to collective costs through ecosystem degradation (Patala et al., 2022).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Patala et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“- Shared governance is characterised by highly decentralised, bottomup, and collective stakeholder governance; all stakeholders are connected, participate, and have a relatively equal say in governance decisions. Stakeholders rely on peer monitoring and sanctioning, and a fair distribution of the value created jointly requires agreement on the applied distributive rule (s). A manager is 'one among”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Bridoux and Stoelhorst, 2022a

In the paper

“When stakeholders face collective action problems, that is, they are tempted to pursue their own interests at the expense of the common good, their motivation to cooperate may be enhanced by adopting different, more participative, and shared forms of governance.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Bridoux and Stoelhorst, 2022a

In the paper

“As a publicly-owned utility, Contarina ' s business model is based on 'a public service mission to organize a co-creation of value … between authorities who are legally responsible to manage waste and those in need of getting rid of waste while also protecting public health and the environment for future generations ' (Corvellec et al., 2012:”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Corvellec et al., 2012 source

In the paper

“In a report by Legambiente on the CE, the municipalities served by Contarina (a case of lead governance) emerged as those with the highest waste recycling rates and the lowest amounts of unsorted waste per capita.”

In the paper

“The time, effort and energies that any type of shared governance re­ quires to listen to everyone ' s opinion and reach a common will are less compatible with efficiency seeking behaviours.”

In the paper

“This approach helps to reduce observer bias and increases the external validity of the research (Voss et al., 2002).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Voss et al., 2002 source

In the paper

“With the aim of adhering as closely as possible to the GM, we conducted a first-order analysis trying to adhere faithfully to informant terms, and then aggregated the second-order themes by combining extant theory and empirical evidence.”

In the paper

“We also examined the financial statements of each of the three companies over the last three years to ascertain that they were economically and financially viable.”

In the paper

“Stakeholders cooperate with the CE achievement without 'the expenditure of resources, time, effort, and opportunities forgone in decision-making ' when governance is shared (B & S, 2022a,b p. 222).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites B & S, 2022a,b

In the paper

“moreover, they also allow interviewees to express their points of view using their own terms.”

In the paper

“This process was recursive to some extent, as we interviewed for the second time five informants (one from Aquafil, two from Contarina, and two from Comieco) to discuss our interpretation of the results and cross-case pattern recognition, as well as the emerging theory in the form of an illustrative grounded model.”

In the paper

“Consistent with the Contarina case, Corvellec et al. (2012) acknowledged that the raison d ' ˆ etre of the two Swedish, publicly-owned waste management companies they M. Minoja and G. Romano studied 'is not to maximize their own profit. Rather, it is to offer their communities socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable waste management services and even to promote local”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Corvellec et al. (2012) source

In the paper

“Several literature contributions explain that the owners of a firm affect its CG and strategic orientation (Shleifer, 1998; Connelly et al., 2010), and environmental strategy (Tan, 2002), and 'shape the underlying motivations of the firms accordingly which then might in­ fluence the implementation of sustainability ' (Ali Yawar and Kuula, 2021, p. 2).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Shleifer, 1998 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Connelly et al., 2010 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Tan, 2002 source

In the paper

“The lead role governance of Contarina, an operating company owned by a consortium formed by municipalities, is the solution designed to engage relatively unskilled stakeholders (the citizens) and delegate specialised managers to act on their behalf.”

In the paper

“When the circular economy is economically convenient with respect to the linear one, rivalry and profit-seeking may drive a FC ' s adoption of a CBM, and market contracting is sufficient to motivate stakeholders to cooperate without any need to assign them governance rights (Stoelhorst and Vishwanathan, 2024).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yet

  Checked before — its earlier verdict is held back until a new check runs.

  cites Stoelhorst and Vishwanathan, 2024 source

In the paper

“The company ' s success in the CE depends on a business model built on: i) a strong commitment to separate waste collection through a doorto-door method, which enables the firm to reduce disposal costs and get additional revenues from waste recycling and reselling; ii) a 'pay as you throw ' system as a powerful incentive for citizens to minimise nonrecyclable waste and accurately separate”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Minoja and Romano, 2021 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Romano et al., 2021

In the paper

“A consortium like Comieco is able to combine economies of scale and specialised know-how related to the CE with shared rules of cost allo­ cation (the CONAI environmental contribution) and value distribution (access to recycled raw material), which maximizes value creation for the supply chain as a whole and the perception of fairness by individual companies.”

In the paper

“B & S (2022a,b) argue that the comparative effectiveness of the three governance forms depends on the nature of value creation activities, namely the levels of complexity and dynamism that the three forms of governance 'can accommodate effectively ' (2022a, p. 228).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites B & S, 2022a,b
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites 2022a, p. 228

In the paper

“Governance can be appropriately distributed in either Lead role and Shared governance form also in case of projects involving broad teams of stakeholders holding complementary, unique, potentially valuable re­ sources for transition to the CE, when the exploitation of this potential requires some joint development activities, and all stakeholders intend to share the results of their cooperation.”

In the paper

“Recent studies have emphasized that an effective transition to the CE at micro, meso, and macro levels requires some forms of shared or col­ lective stakeholder governance, such as a polycentric (Patala et al., 2022), democratic (Moggi and Dameri, 2021), or participative (Aguinaga et al., 2018) form.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Patala et al., 2022 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Moggi and Dameri, 2021 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Aguinaga et al., 2018 source

In the paper

“Tailoring stakeholder governance to each project increases governance flexibility and makes it possible to enhance its overall effectiveness without affecting that of the FC as a whole.”

• Also stated in: § 7. Conclusions · p. 12 · plain

  “In case of a company committed to CE through the design and implementation of multiple CE projects, stakeholder gover­ nance can be tailored to the specific features of each project to maximize their overall effectiveness in achieving CE targets without affecting the M. Minoja and G. Romano whole FC ' s governance.”

In the paper

“Third, it generates some new concepts and ideas, as it proposes CE boundaries, owners ' identity, and market incentives effectiveness as new factors that are likely to affect the comparative effectiveness of the different stakeholder governance forms and, thus, may drive the deci­ sion of which of them to adopt to foster stakeholder cooperation at a FC level.”

In the paper

“Thus, it seems particularly valuable for the domain of the CE, because the transition to the CE is a promising path toward the common good of environmental sustainability, but tensions between individual (short-term) interests and collective (long-term) goals can emerge along this path and need to be solved.”

In the paper

“Second, it extends the knowledge developed by B & S, 2022a,b in that it is applied to the specific domain of the CE and is expanded from the context of a focal firm to that of individual CE projects undertaken within it.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites B & S, 2022a,b

In the paper

“Stakeholder theory, in particular, seems to be 'firm-centric ' and prioritises how to manage possible trade-offs among stakeholders rather than to mobilise them to achieve collective goals (Johnson-Cramer et al., 2022).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Johnson-Cramer et al., 2022 source

In the paper

“Yet, there is still a lack of scholarly contributions on how stakeholder governance can foster stakeholder cooperation to support such a transition (Schultz et al., 2024) or, more generally, firms ' active involvement in dealing with the grand societal and environmental challenges.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Schultz et al., 2024 source

In the paper

“Moreover, the comparative analysis is limited to three forms of stakeholder governance.”