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Online Platforms and the Circular Economy

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Innovation for Sustainability

Abstract

Online platforms have a growing influence on how people interact with the physical world. They organise data streams, economic interactions and social exchanges of their users. Competitive dynamics in this emerging ‘platform society’ revolve around the ability to attract users to a platform, and to collect and analyse data from their interactions to achieve network effects. This chapter is about the roles of online platforms in enabling a more sustainable and circular economy. It identifies and describes three potential roles: they can enable people and organisations to (1) market, (2) operate and (3) co-create products, components and material. The identified roles provide a playground for firms to experiment with online platforms to advance their digital transition towards a circular economy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Design Engineering and Product Innovation Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Jan Konietzko

  2. Lund University IIIEE, Lund, Sweden

    Nancy Bocken

  3. Department of Product Innovation Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Nancy Bocken & Erik Jan Hultink

  4. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Nancy Bocken

Authors
  1. Jan Konietzko
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  2. Nancy Bocken
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  3. Erik Jan Hultink
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Konietzko .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Nancy Bocken

  2. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Paavo Ritala

  3. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Laura Albareda

  4. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Robert Verburg

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Konietzko, J., Bocken, N., Hultink, E.J. (2019). Online Platforms and the Circular Economy. In: Bocken, N., Ritala, P., Albareda, L., Verburg, R. (eds) Innovation for Sustainability. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97385-2_23

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