Circular innovation ecosystem orchestrators: a capabilities-as-routines-bundles framework

Sustainability transition can create novel opportunities for innovation. Creating a circular innovation ecosystem helps firms acquire diverse and novel knowledge, finding partners and configuring environmental and social solutions through collective efforts, ultimately boosting sustainability success. Through a multiple embedded case study of initiatives (routines) of an orchestrator of a circular innovation ecosystem in the coffee industry, this study investigates the bundles of routines that form capabilities required for the development and orchestration of a circular innovation ecosystem. We develop a ‘capability as routines bundle’ framework finding three circular orchestration aggregated capabilities–namely, strategy towards a purpose, organising for stakeholders’ alignment, end to end solution configuration and deployment. Our findings have implications for the literature on circular innovation ecosystems and related capabilities, as well as for ecosystem orchestrators.