The electrification of heavy-duty transport is a critical pathway towards reducing emissions in Sweden’s forestry sector, a major contributor to national CO2 output. However, the adoption of battery electric trucks in this context remains limited, and the transition poses significant challenges for existing actors and newcomers. This paper investigates how diverse actors within the forestry transport ecosystem interpret the electrification transition and its implications for business model development. Drawing on empirical data - comprising seven experimental sites, two workshops, and 17 stakeholder interviews - this study foregrounds the role of interpretation and sensemaking in the early stages of a complex sustainability transition. The findings reveal that electrification is perceived not as an incremental change but as a radical innovation requiring cross-actor learning, new partnerships, and ecosystem-level coordination. Actors face strategic and operational uncertainty, particularly around value capture, data sharing, and infrastructure ownership, while also engaging in collaborative exploration of new roles and opportunities. By highlighting the interpretive processes shaping business model adaptation, this study contributes to the literature on sustainability transitions and business model innovation. It also offers practical guidance for managers aiming to navigate uncertainty, foster collaborative innovation, and co-create value in evolving industrial ecosystems.

Meeting the demands of a circular economy entails substantial organizational change and innovation, particularly by industrial incumbent organizations. This paper aims to deepen understanding of how such organizations use management controls to strengthen circular principles and drive innovation, while also shedding light on tensions in the management control system that may occur following the contrasting logics of linearity and circularity. The study collects qualitatively rich empirical data from three large industrial organizations in Sweden, employing 38 semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The study suggests that the management control system serves as a valuable instrument for implementing circular principles through interventions, and conversely, as a system that can entrench a linear logic in organizations. Specifically, the analysis reveals that while circular principles are not fully integrated into all aspects of the management control systems, specific identified factors enable or impede innovation in the circular transformation. Imbalances and inconsistencies in the use of action-, result-, and cultural controls were also identified. The practical implications emphasize a risk of reducing circular initiatives to minor improvements without a comprehensive understanding of the needed radical changes and corresponding adjustments to the management control system. Overall, the research provides valuable and qualitatively rich insights connecting the adoption of the circular economy in incumbent organizations and further strengthens the bridge between literature on innovation management, circular economy, and management control systems, highlighting the importance of addressing tensions and imbalances for successful circular transformations.

Enabling a shift towards a Circular Economy (CE) relies on the alliance of existing and new stakeholders, their innovations and capabilities, and new ways of working together to achieve a new system-level goal. This paper scrutinizes the emergence of CE ecosystems with a particular focus on two frontrunner actors: one large industrial manufacturer and one municipality within the same geographical region, both with the same ambition to drive a CE transition. Specifically, it investigates what CE ecosystems are emerging, each actor's role in these, and their untapped circularity potential. Based on interviews with respondents from each actor, the study contributes to the emerging literature on how CE ecosystems arise and develop. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the actors could seize missed potential opportunities for circular ecosystems in the region studied.

The transition to a Circular Economy (CE) promises improved work quality, social inclusion, and solutions to climate breakdown, resource scarcity, and biodiversity loss. However, its social sustainability implications particularly on a global scale remains unclear. Given the important role of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in this transition, it is crucial to examine their integration of social sustainability in relation to their transition to CE. This paper enhances understanding of MNCs' engagement in fostering a just transition to CE. Semi-structured interviews (n=22) were conducted with an MNC and actors within its innovation ecosystem in both a high-income and a lower middle-income country (LMIC). The study reveals (1) the early, substantial, yet fragmented efforts by the MNC to integrate social sustainability and CE, distinguishing between compliance and strategic practices; (2) the untapped potential in subsidiaries and suppliers in LMICs; (3) contrasting perceptions concerning the implications and handling of procedural and distributional justice of CE, currently undiscussed. The study advances the emerging discourse on CE and justice and the role of social sustainability practices in providing opportunities and challenges for a just and inclusive CE innovation ecosystem. 

The paper presents the first results from a newly started project with the aim of meeting the challenge of transforming industry and transport towards a sustainable future; the research project TREE - Transition to Efficient Electrified Forestry Transport. The project includes new actors and develops sustainable multi-business ecosystems that can continue to accelerate electrification after the initial knowledge- building and experimenting phase, where sustained value creation relies on developing each members' business model. Therefore, this paper explores and analyzes the challenges for actors' multi-business model development within a knowledge ecosystem in the pursuit of transforming heavy forestry transport. A workshop with all project partners has been conducted, and interviews have been performed with eight parties covering central actors in collaborative networks for creating a new system. The challenges for the creation and development of value-offering for actors in the studied evolving knowledge ecosystem for electrification of the forest industry include technical, economical, changes in roles and collaboration, logistics, and internal organizational challenges.

An economic system built upon the sale of tangible goods produced using finite resources is inherently unsustainable. The idea of a Circular Economy (CE) as a viable pathway to sustainability has gained considerable attention from academia, policymakers, and the business community. The CE builds on a new logic in the business environment in which industrial firms operate that requires substantial changes. We face a significant knowledge gap concerning how firms internally manage the implementation and adoption of CE. Filling in this knowledge gap is critical to understanding how to implement CE at large and established firms with a considerable history of a linear logic, which are known to favor incremental improvements to existing business opportunities over radical innovation.

This thesis aims to delve into the managerial challenges that large, established industrial firms encounter when implementing CE principles, and how they address these challenges, particularly through managerial controls. Additionally, it aims to provide insights into how management can facilitate radical circular innovation and support the circular transformation of incumbent firms. To accomplish this aim, existing knowledge on barriers to CE has been synthesized through a systematic literature mapping and a systematic literature review. Next, interviews (n=68) at five large and established industrial firms provide empirical insights concerning the implementation and adoption of CE principles. In addition to the four appended papers, this comprehensive summary theorizes about the empirical findings using literature on radical innovation, sensemaking, and managerial controls. 

Building on the empirical papers, this analysis sheds light on two distinct patterns in how managers frame CE: incremental framing versus radical framing. It is argued that this has considerable consequences concerning with respect to ambitions, operationalization, and the means used to achieve a CE. In addition, the thesis theorizes about the relationship between the management control systems and the prevailing framings of CE. Based on an understanding of this relationship and the tensions and conflicts associated with the different framings, it is argued that managerial controls can act both as barriers to and enablers of CE adoption at incumbent firms. In addition to the practical and theoretical implications of this finding, the thesis pinpoints limitations and assumptions concerning managerial control systems in relation to CE and propose new avenues in light of this. 

Finally, the analysis is synthesized into an integrative framework that differentiates three different modes of organizational behaviors within the context of CE transitions: optimizing, transforming, and systems building. This framework integrates the theoretical foundations of the thesis, acknowledges the identified issues, and offers actionable implications for researchers and practitioners.

Ett ekonomiskt system byggt på försäljning av varor tillverkade av ändliga resurser är i grunden ohållbart. Idén om en Cirkulär Ekonomi (CE) har vuxit fram som en möjlig väg framåt och har fått betydande uppmärksamhet från akademin, beslutsfattare och näringslivet. CE bygger på en ny logik i affärsmiljön där industriella företag verkar och kräver betydande förändringar. Det finns dock en betydande kunskapslucka om hur företag hanterar implementering och antagande av CE internt. Denna kunskapslucka är särskilt avgörande att förstå i stora och etablerade företag med en lång historik av en linjär logik, och som är kända för att gynna inkrementella förbättringar av befintliga affärsmöjligheter framför radikalt nya.

Denna avhandling syftar till att fördjupa sig i de ledningsmässiga utmaningarna som stora och etablerade industriföretag står inför när de implementerar CE-principer och hur de hanterar dem, särskilt genom kontrollmekanismer. Dessutom syftar den till att ge insikter om hur ledningen kan underlätta radikal cirkulär innovation och stödja en cirkulär omvandling av befintliga företag. För att uppnå detta mål har befintlig kunskap om hinder för CE syntetiserats genom en systematisk litteraturkartläggning och en systematisk litteraturstudie. Därefter ger intervjuer (n=68) i fem stora och etablerade industriella företag empiriska insikter om implementering och antagande av CE-principer. Förutom de fyra bifogade artiklarna teoretiserar denna kappa kring de empiriska resultaten med hjälp av litteratur om radikal innovation, meningsskapande och kontrollmekanismer.

Med utgångspunkt i de empiriska artiklarna så visar analysen två olika tolkningar eller ”inramningar” av CE inom företagen: en inkrementell inramning och en radikal inramning. Det argumenteras för att inramningen har betydande konsekvenser när det gäller ambitioner, operationalisering och tillvägagångssätt för att nå CE inom företaget. Dessutom teoretiserar avhandlingen om förhållandet mellan kontrollmekanismer och vilken inramning av CE som blir dominerande inom företaget. Genom att förstå detta förhållande och de spänningar och konflikter som följer olika ramverk, hävdas det att ledningskontroller kan fungera både som hinder och effektiva mekanismer för CE-antagande i befintliga företag. Förutom de praktiska och teoretiska innebörderna pekar avhandlingen på begränsningar och antaganden kring kontrollmekanismer i relation till en cirkulär logik, och föreslår nya forskningsspår i ljuset av detta.

Slutligen syntetiseras analysen till ett integrerat ramverk med tre olika mönster av organisatoriskt beteende i en övergång till CE: Optimering, Transformation och Systembyggande. Detta ramverk integrerar de teoretiska grunderna för avhandlingen, pekar på de identifierade problemen, och beskriver innebörden för forskning och näringsliv.

Management control systems offers powerful ways of guiding employee behavior and implementing organizational strategy. Given the new business logic and the extensive and complex challenges that industrial firms face in light of a circular economy transition, this paper is oriented around two questions. First, the compatibility between traditional management control systems and circular economy. Second, how management control systems can support the radical transformation of firms that circular economy entails. By scrutinizing extant research on MCS, six propositions are developed and grounded in empirical illustrations. These propositions hold relevant implications for practitioners, and several promising avenues for future research are highlighted.

Circular economy (CE) is gaining interest among industrial firms in light of sustainability concerns, and several incumbent firms are integrating it into their strategy. In this study, we scrutinize learnings from three large established industrial firms with a clear CE agenda and that are front‐runners in CE strategy deployment. We analyze exploitation and exploration approaches to CE and problematize how these approaches relate to radical innovation, which we argue is critical for achieving CE. Semi‐structured interviews ( n  = 30) were used to collect data. We found several issues referring to (1) challenges and approaches to normative management, (2) how the innovation ecosystem is engaged, (3) how goals and metrics relate to CE, and (4) resources and coordination regarding the CE initiative. Overall, current exploitative approaches are favored over explorative, mirroring an undesired imbalance between the two. We suggest several ways to counteract this. For example, (1) addressing existing norms so that they align with the ambitions in CE, (2) actively managing collaboration in the innovation ecosystem, including radically new setups of different actors, and (3) that managers need to carefully consider when and how to use goals and measurements in a circular strategy deployment, to foster both radical and incremental innovation.

Barriers to access-based consumption (ABC) have been extensively studied in different strands of literature. However, cumulative knowledge is not organized to date, and a comprehensive overview of barriers identified by empirical studies in diverse strands is lacking. Such a picture is essential for laying the ground for further change-oriented research and actual changes in practice. This article reports on the results of a systematic review on barriers to transitioning from ownership- to access-based consumption. The review focuses on the literature strands product-service systems, circular economy, sharing economy, and collaborative consumption. Through open and axial coding of 289 barriers reported in 45 empirical studies, we found 17 themes of barriers concerning consumers, business, and society. The analysis of the barriers reveals four significant insights important for the research and practitioner community:

1. the overall experience of ABC and trust mechanisms need to be better understood;
2. organizational aspects in traditional business need a system change;
3. regulation plays a fundamental role in making ABC work for business, society, and sustainability; and
4. sharing risks and experimentation for new learnings are necessary.

These four major insights suggest that consumers need business and government to offer enabling conditions for ABC – spanning from raising awareness and understanding to improving user experience. Furthermore, businesses need governments to create the necessary structures to support ABC offerings – from decreasing risks to increasing incentives. How and which mechanisms can further facilitate circular behaviors is a salient topic for future investigations.

For industrial incumbents seeking business opportunities in line with sustainable development needs, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) has gained significant traction. However, getting from a strategic ambition toward actions and innovations entails many challenges for organizations. In particular, one frequently overlooked issue relates to the use of management controls in relation to the CE strategy. Using data collected through a participatory action research collaboration spanning five years, this paper aims to give a detailed and empirically based description and analysis of how a frontrunner company has approached innovation goals and measurements in light of its CE strategy deployment. By analyzing the development in the case organization, key purposes behind CE metrics are discussed and analyzed together with challenges expressed by interviewees. In particular, our findings advocate the need for experimentation, ideation, and learning, rather than highly specific and restricting control measures.