Exploring the nexus of institutional factors and regulatory focus in driving platform-based servitization and circular economy adoption

Sayed Kifayat Shah, Jingbo Yuan, Kayhan Tajeddini, Thilini Chathurika Gamage and Mingxia Liu

Technology in Society, 2025, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Although digitalization has garnered considerable attention in service management literature, integrating a platform-based approach to boost circular economy (CE) practices remains relatively underexplored. Grounded in the institutional-based theory and regulatory focus theory, this paper investigates how institutional-level factors and regulatory focus (RF) foster platform-based servitization (PBS), driving CE practices in business firms. Using data drawn from a paper-based survey of 390 managers from 143 service firms in China, this study used the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to analyze the data. The findings reveal that metaverse, network collaboration, and environmental disclosure significantly and positively impact fostering PBS. PBS, in turn, acts as a mediator, potentially influencing the implementation of CE practices in business firms. Further, promotion-RF positively moderates the relationship between fostering PBS in business firms and implementing CE practices, whereas preventive-RF negatively moderates this relationship. These findings provide actionable recommendations for managers and industry practitioners to formulate business strategies that fully harness the potential of promoting PBS and CE beyond purely technological benefits.

Keywords: Circular economy; Platform-based servitization; Metaverse; Network collaboration; Environmental disclosure; Regulatory focus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X25000442
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:teinso:v:81:y:2025:i:c:s0160791x25000442

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102854

Access Statistics for this article

Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown

More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().