The Dual Brokerage Role of Digital Platforms in the Transition to a Circular Economy

ABSTRACT The transition to a circular economy hinges on effective brokerage—the work of intermediaries in connecting innovative closed‐loop recyclers (the niche) with the established waste network (the regime). While brokerage theory and its classical tertius iungens/gaudens typology explain how a broker's strategic intent shapes their behaviors, it offers limited insight into how brokers operate at the niche‐regime interface, a context defined by inherent tensions. This inductive study of a digital platform intermediary in the post‐industrial textile waste contexts of Bangladesh and India addresses this by theorizing brokerage as a set of tension‐derived strategies. Our empirical findings identify three tensions: network structure, operational capability, and socially sustainable capability tensions. We then show how the platform addresses these tensions through a dual role: structural brokerage , via semi‐disintermediation, and capability brokerage , via standardization and legitimization. In addition, the platform engages in identity work to overcome its own challenge of being a new network actor. We contribute a novel contingent perspective on brokerage by unpacking a broker's response to inherent tensions in a transition period. The research also shows how technology‐based intermediaries can be deployed to manage reverse flows, and it furthers understanding of how informal actors can be integrated into formal supply chains.