Table A1

Glossary of key terms and definitions

ConceptDefinitionSource(s)
Circular economy (CE) adoptionA large-scale, system-wide transition to a circular economy.Hetherington et al. (2024), Mubarik et al. (2024) 
Circular service ecosystems (CSE)“Ideal types of service ecosystems, regenerative, and embedded within nature, where (material, intellectual, digital, and financial) resources flow seamlessly within and between nested systems without creating any waste or leakage.”Fehrer et al. (2024, p. 49)
CSE adoptionThe adoption of a CE paradigm within a service ecosystem by evolving from initial to improved dynamic states (from behavioral patterns of reproducing and reconfiguring to transitioning) facilitated by mobilizing drivers and effectively managing inhibitors to CSE evolutionThe current Circular Service Ecosystem Framework
CSE evolutionThe process of transitioning from initial to improved service ecosystem states (e.g. a linear to circular behavioral patterns) over a series of value co-creation episodesBeckett (2023), Brodie et al. (2021), Kijima et al. (2016) 
Drivers of CSE evolutionFactors that encourage and enable multiple actors to participate in CSE evolutionAs'ad et al. (2024), Beirão et al. (2017), Brodie et al. (2021) 
EmergenceThe process of service ecosystems developing into new orders (i.e. a new entity with its own particular characteristics), where the phenomenon of new properties arising allow service ecosystems to adapt and transitionFehrer et al. (2024), Polese et al. (2021), Vargo et al. (2023) 
Inhibitors of CSE evolutionFactors that disrupt or create barriers to the process of CSE evolutionSebastiani and Anzivino (2022) 
CE Paradigm shiftA shift in the mental model (i.e. worldview) in the service ecosystem from a linear economy to a circular economy through the process of reevaluating and reconceptualizing prevailing economic models in the service ecosystemFehrer et al. (2024), van Egmond and de Vries (2011) 
Service ecosystem dynamics“The behavioral patterns of service ecosystems over time”As'ad et al. (2024, p. 160)
Service ecosystem transitionsShifts from one ecosystem state (i.e. emergent property) to anotherPolese et al. (2021), Meynhardt et al. (2016) 
Source: Authors' own work

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