Oyinlola, Muyiwa, Kolade, Oluwaseun, Schröder, Patrick, Odumuyiwa, Victor, Rawn, Barry, Wakunuma, Kutoma, Sharifi, Soroosh, Lendelvo, Selma, Akanmu, Ifeoluwa, Whitehead, Timothy, Mtonga, Radhia, Tijani, Bosun and Abolfathi, Soroush (2024). The environment for a digitally enabled circular plastics economy in Africa: lessons from cross-sectional stakeholder engagements. Journal of Strategy and Management ,
Abstract
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.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-07-2023-0153 |
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Divisions: | College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Engineering and Technology > Mechanical, Biomedical & Design College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Engineering for Health College of Engineering & Physical Sciences Aston University (General) |
Funding Information: | This work was supported by the UKRI GCRF under Grant EP/T029846/1 and Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) programme funded with UK aid from the UK Government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) (IATI reference numb |
Additional Information: | 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 permissions@emeraldinsight.com. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Africa,Circular economy,Circular plastics economy,Digital innovations,Emerging technologies,Plastics,Sustainable development,Business and International Management,Strategy and Management |
Publication ISSN: | 1755-4268 |
Last Modified: | 27 Nov 2024 08:20 |
Date Deposited: | 05 Nov 2024 10:32 |
Full Text Link: | |
Related URLs: |
https://www.sco ... tnerID=8YFLogxK
(Scopus URL) https://www.eme ... -0153/full/html (Publisher URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2024-08-28 |
Published Online Date: | 2024-08-28 |
Accepted Date: | 2024-08-01 |
Authors: |
Oyinlola, Muyiwa
Kolade, Oluwaseun Schröder, Patrick Odumuyiwa, Victor Rawn, Barry Wakunuma, Kutoma Sharifi, Soroosh Lendelvo, Selma Akanmu, Ifeoluwa Whitehead, Timothy ( 0000-0001-8751-1484) Mtonga, Radhia Tijani, Bosun Abolfathi, Soroush |