The brokerage role of a digital platform organisation in waste exchange network for a circular economy

Do, Quynh and Stevenson, Mark (2024) The brokerage role of a digital platform organisation in waste exchange network for a circular economy. In: EurOMA 2024, 2024-06-29 - 2024-07-03, Esade Campus.

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Abstract

The digital platform is recognised as a key enabler in facilitating information and resource flows for circular strategies such as recycling. Although the literature has attributed this to the brokerage functions of the digital platform in the recycling network, less is known about how digital platforms leverage their structural positions to facilitate these works. This paper sets out to explore how digital platform takes on brokerage roles to enable waste exchange networks for circularity. Drawing data from in-depth interviews with sixteen actors in a digital platform ecosystem, the findings indicate how a digital platform that pursues the tertius iungens strategy benefits from different structural positions to take on five roles, i.e., liaison, coordinator, consultant, gatekeeper and representative in facilitating waste exchange network for the circular economy. This provides empirical evidence for an integrative conceptualisation of brokerage structure and process in the circular network context.