TY - JOUR
T1 - The environment for a digitally enabled circular plastics economy in Africa: lessons from cross-sectional stakeholder engagements
AU - Oyinlola, Muyiwa
AU - Kolade, Oluwaseun
AU - Schröder, Patrick
AU - Odumuyiwa, Victor
AU - Rawn, Barry
AU - Wakunuma, Kutoma
AU - Sharifi, Soroosh
AU - Lendelvo, Selma
AU - Akanmu, Ifeoluwa
AU - Whitehead, Timothy
AU - Mtonga, Radhia
AU - Tijani, Bosun
AU - Abolfathi, Soroush
N1 - Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited. This AAM is deposited under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence. Any reuse is allowed in accordance with the terms outlined by the licence. To reuse the AAM for commercial purposes, permission should be sought by contacting [email protected].
PY - 2024/8/28
Y1 - 2024/8/28
N2 - Purpose: This paper aims to provide insights into the environment needed for advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It explores important technical and social paradigms for the transition. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, drawing on thematic analysis on qualitative data from an inter-sectoral engagement with 69 circular economy stakeholders across the continent. Findings: The results shows that, while substantial progress has been made with regard to the development and deployment of niche innovations in Africa, the overall progress of circular plastic economy is slowed due to relatively minimal changes at the regime levels as well as pressures from the exogenous landscape. The study highlights that regime changes are crucial for disrupting the entrenched linear plastic economy in developing countries, which is supported by significant sunk investment and corporate state capture. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is with the sample as it uses data collected from five countries. Therefore, while it offers a panoramic view of multi-level synergy of actors and sectors across African countries, it is limited in its scope and ability to illuminate country-specific nuances and peculiarities. Practical implications: The study underlines the importance of policy innovations and regulatory changes in order for technologies to have a meaningful contribution to the transition to a circular plastic economy. Originality/value: The study makes an important theoretical contribution by using empirical evidence from various African regions to articulate the critical importance of the regime dimension in accelerating the circular economy transition in general, and the circular plastic economy in particular, in Africa.
AB - Purpose: This paper aims to provide insights into the environment needed for advancing a digitally enabled circular plastic economy in Africa. It explores important technical and social paradigms for the transition. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, drawing on thematic analysis on qualitative data from an inter-sectoral engagement with 69 circular economy stakeholders across the continent. Findings: The results shows that, while substantial progress has been made with regard to the development and deployment of niche innovations in Africa, the overall progress of circular plastic economy is slowed due to relatively minimal changes at the regime levels as well as pressures from the exogenous landscape. The study highlights that regime changes are crucial for disrupting the entrenched linear plastic economy in developing countries, which is supported by significant sunk investment and corporate state capture. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of this study is with the sample as it uses data collected from five countries. Therefore, while it offers a panoramic view of multi-level synergy of actors and sectors across African countries, it is limited in its scope and ability to illuminate country-specific nuances and peculiarities. Practical implications: The study underlines the importance of policy innovations and regulatory changes in order for technologies to have a meaningful contribution to the transition to a circular plastic economy. Originality/value: The study makes an important theoretical contribution by using empirical evidence from various African regions to articulate the critical importance of the regime dimension in accelerating the circular economy transition in general, and the circular plastic economy in particular, in Africa.
KW - Africa
KW - Circular economy
KW - Circular plastics economy
KW - Digital innovations
KW - Emerging technologies
KW - Plastics
KW - Sustainable development
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85202022341&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JSMA-07-2023-0153/full/html
U2 - 10.1108/JSMA-07-2023-0153
DO - 10.1108/JSMA-07-2023-0153
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85202022341
SN - 1755-425X
JO - Journal of Strategy and Management
JF - Journal of Strategy and Management
ER -