Unpacking the decision-making evolution mechanism of governance actors towards smart municipal solid waste (MSW) management: an insight from game approach

Xinyu Hao, Tingting Tian, Kaiqin Li, Xiaoling Zhang and Liang Dong

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2025, vol. 220, issue C

Abstract: Digital technology is reshaping the engagement patterns and decision-making ways of the involved municipal solid waste (MSW) governance actors and the internal interactions. However, this shift hasn't yet been well-illustrated. This paper, considering the impacts of technological shock on government, households, and recyclers, employs a game approach to investigate their decision-making mechanisms in smart MSW management. The findings suggest that responsible government actively promotes digital technology, notwithstanding fence-riding behaviors between recyclers and households are detected. The interplay analysis demonstrates that single-agent-based incentives cannot consistently achieve systematic equilibrium optimization, and the transmission effects between agents' interactions should be noticed. Echoing previous work, financial incentives and environmental awareness matter. In the digital era, however, recyclers' operation mode needs to evolve from the waste-flow-centered to the community-centered. Accordingly, improved perceived utility of tokens and enhanced easy-to-use smart equipment assist in engaging different groups in smart MSW management. This study enriches the discourse about MSW management by unpacking the actors' decision-making mechanisms while providing a theoretical model basis for follow-up discussions on smart MSW management. Through enhanced understanding, this research fuels the construction of ‘zero-waste’ cities and smart cities by advancing the synergy of urban digitalization and greening, thereby propelling sustainable practice under technological empowerment.

Keywords: Smart municipal solid waste management; Digital technology; Decision-making mechanism; Game theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162525003506
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:tefoso:v:220:y:2025:i:c:s0040162525003506

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124319

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().