Who gets a turn? Exploring multi-stakeholder collaboration in circular innovation and the role of gamification

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.