Polycentric Governance of Privately Owned Resources in Circular Economy Systems

Samuli Patala, Laura Albareda and Minna Halme

Journal of Management Studies, 2022, vol. 59, issue 6, 1563-1596

Abstract: Natural resource scarcity is giving rise to new forms of resource governance and so enhancing the transition to more sustainable resource use. One key development is the growth of circular economy systems, where residual resources are reused in closed‐loop systems. This requires an understanding of how diverse actors collectively govern the sustainable use and sharing of privately owned residual and waste resources. Our empirical analysis of three circular economy systems in Finland, the United States and Spain shows how a polycentric form of governance develops through collective action between businesses, the public sector, and societal actors based on multiple units of cooperation. Adopting insights from the polycentric governance of commons, we develop a theory of polycentric governance for privately owned residual resources. Our findings show that polycentric governance involves three main interacting elements: mutual adjustment between actors, practices for collective agency, and structures for sharing resources. As well as contributing to the understanding of collective action for sustainability, these findings also advance the interorganizational governance literature.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12810

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:59:y:2022:i:6:p:1563-1596

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... s.asp?ref=00022-2380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Timothy Clark, Steven W. Floyd and Mike Wright

More articles in Journal of Management Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().