Digital platforms as market places for the circular economy—requirements and challenges

Abstract

Digital platforms may yield a host of advantages in putting circular economy into effect. This paper analyses the related chances and discusses requirements of digital platforms for the realization of a circular economy. It specifically points to potential solutions offered by digital platforms for existing barriers. From there it identifies issues that need specific attendance to create economically and ecologically functional platforms. Three economically relevant perspectives are discussed for this: a management perspective, a legislative perspective and a social/systems perspective. Deutscher Titel und Zusammenfassung:Voraussetzungen und Herausforderungen für Digitale Plattformen als Marktplätze der Kreislaufwirtschaft Digitale Plattformen können zahlreiche Vorteile für die Realisierung einer Kreislaufwirtschaft aufweisen. Dieser Beitrag analysiert diese Chancen und diskutiert die zu schaffenden Voraussetzungen. Er weist dabei besonders auf potentielle Lösungen für bestehende Barrieren hin, die aus Sicht der Autoren durch digitale Lösungen besonders gut überwunden werden können. Sodann wird aufgezeigt, dass noch zahlreiche Bedingungen erfüllt werden müssen, damit diese Vorteile auch ausschöpfbar sind. Dabei werden drei ökonomisch besonders relevante Perspektiven behandelt: die Perspektive des Plattformmanagements, eine regulatorisch-legislative Perspektive und die Einflüsse auf der sozialen bzw. Systemebene.

Digital Twins for the Circular Economy

“…Different characteristics of today's information systems make cross-product lifecycle information management difficult [1,7].…”

“…Without a perceivable individual advantage, stakeholders are often unwilling to share information with other stakeholders, irrespective of the technical, structural and semantic challenges mentioned above. As a result, information that has an impact on the successful circulation of materials and products is often not available [1,[11][12][13]].…”

“…A significant development potential is still seen for digitization in the context of the circular economy [14]. Digitization concepts have the potential to enable better information management and more transparency regarding relevant information for the circulation of materials and products [1,3,4,12,14].…”

“…It is assumed that better cross-product lifecycle information management in supply chain networks can help to ensure that the circulation of materials and products can be successfully implemented economically and ecologically, despite special challenges such as heterogeneous, small material flows [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”

Multi-Sided Platform For Instant Purchases And Sales In Commodity Markets

“…The role of digital platforms in the global commodity market increases every year. As was pointed out in the study of Berg and Wilts (2018), they provide the opportunity for manufacturers and customers to interact directly with each other, excluding intermediate links from the final value chain, which not only increase the time of the purchase and sale of products, but also affect its final cost. With the development of information technology, digital platforms are also undergoing changes, which makes it possible to achieve the following:…”