Framing circularity in an AI ecosystem: Aligning purpose, strategy, and governance

This paper develops a conceptual framework to explain how alignment around circular economy goals is challenged and negotiated within a business ecosystem in which an AI orchestrator and decentralized yet interdependent actors co-create AI-based value. We argue that circularity in this context is not merely a technical or structural coordination problem but also an interpretive challenge. This challenge is shaped by the heterogeneity of interests among actors as well as the polysemous nature of AI technologies, which results in variation in how AI implications and circularity objectives are understood and prioritized. Building on ecosystem theory and framing research, we identify three interrelated tensions related to purpose, strategy, and governance. These tensions reflect underlying conflicts in meaning, responsibility, and control. We then theorize how contrasting frames interact and reinforce each other, and how reconciliatory framings emerge through new entrants and peripheral actors, as well as orchestrators who adjust or stabilize their own framing. This perspective advances understanding of circularity as a contested process and contributes to research on ecosystem governance and alignment. We show how framing processes shape coordination in the absence of hierarchical control.