Open this publication in new window or tab >>2025 (English)In: Journal of Innovation and Knowledge, ISSN 2530-7614, E-ISSN 2444-569X, Vol. 10, no 6.0, article id 100842.0Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Open innovation, especially through processes that support remote collaboration such as gamification, has the potential to support multi-stakeholder collaboration for circular innovation. This study explores how companies want to collaborate for circular innovation, specifically with end-users. We identify how gamification can support companies and end-users in open circular innovation processes. We use a research-through-design approach and offer a game concept for remote digital co-design in the context of circular innovation to elicit company responses to such a game. We collect data from interviews with 15 company representatives. The results reveal a tension: Although previous research stresses the importance of involving end-users in circular innovation, some companies are skeptical. Companies prefer to extract insights from end-users and collect feedback on ideas generated by the companies themselves. However, the companies appear eager to engage with other companies in open circular innovation. The study contributes to circular economy literature by mapping co-design and circular co-design processes to theoretically ground the latter within co-design literature. It also identifies challenges related to open circular innovation, especially in the integration of end-users. From a practical standpoint, we offer insights on how to approach and structure collaborative efforts for designers and innovation managers aiming to transition toward circular business models in their organizations
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2025
Keywords
Business model innovation, Circular economy, Co-design, Design games, Gamification, Open innovation
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-80035 (URN)10.1016/j.jik.2025.100842 (DOI)2-s2.0-105023468106 (Scopus ID)
Note
Funding text 1: The authors would like to thank all interview participants for contributing their time and for openly sharing their thoughts. Additionally, the authors acknowledge Hanna Norden\u00F6 for her contribution to data collection and analysis, Erik Einebrant and Nina Morgan Olsson for their role in the development of the game concept, and Rapha\u00EBl Dussieux for his contribution to creating the visuals for this paper.
Funding text 2: This work was supported by Formas \u2013 a Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development , (Grant 2021-02521 ), within the National Research Programme on Climate.
2025-12-162025-12-162025-12-16Bibliographically approved