Digital Infrastructures for Governance of Circular Economy: A Research Agenda

Abstract

Circular economy and sustainability are high on the political agendas of governments. Governments, but also other actors like banks, insurance companies, and auditing firms play a key role in setting (regulatory) requirements, instruments and incentives, as well as monitoring mechanisms to stimulate and monitor CE activities. Governance of CE for ensuring that CE regulation and instruments are properly implemented is key, however, lack of visibility in CE flows poses a major challenge. Digital infrastructure innovations hold potential to provide visibility into the CE flows. However, so far, in the IS and eGovernment research, there is very limited research on how digital infrastructure innovations can enable and support CE governance. In this paper, therefore, we provide a framework and outline a research agenda on that topic.