Figure 2
The thematic analysis methodology is presented as a horizontal progression through five stages: “Source”, “Statements or Quotes”, “Keywords”, “Codes”, and “Themes”. Under the “Source” header on the far left, four rectangular boxes are arranged vertically. The top box lists “Engberg and Larsen (2010); Fehrer et al. (2022)”. The second box lists “Millette et al. (2020)”. The third box lists “Schöggl et al. (2024)”. The bottom box lists “Hernandez Marquina et al. (2024)”. In the “Statements or Quotes” column, arrows from each source point to specific text boxes. The source “Engberg and Larsen (2010); Fehrer et al. (2022)” points to three statements: “Findings show that involving various cross-sector stakeholders in the co-creation process fosters new business ideas regarding circularity”, “The need for effective cross-sectoral collaboration due to the diversity of partners and the dynamic nature of its development process”, and “Wicked problems require holistic and systemic thinking that accommodates interdisciplinary solutions and cross-sectoral collaborations between private and public sectors”. The source “Millette et al. (2020)” points to two statements: “The C E incubator calls for innovation in waste management, promoting eco-friendly practices and ellipsis and small start-up firms” and “C E incubator would foster symbiotic interfirm relationships, ellipsis innovative C E firms”. The source “Schöggl et al. (2024)” points to two statements: “They suggested the presence of an amplifying effect of dynamic capabilities and open innovation on the relational rents of C E-oriented collaboration” and “The authors furthermore argued that dynamic capabilities and open innovation jointly enable circular economy practices”. The source “Hernandez Marquina et al. (2024)” points to two statements: “Regarding collaboration quality, all the participants mentioned transparent and effective ellipsis as fundamental elements of collaboration” and “This research identifies trust, ellipsis in the collaborative relationships among stakeholders in circular supply chains and elucidates their influence on sustainable performance”. In the “Keywords” column, each statement is distilled into primary terms. These include “Cross-sector stakeholders in co-creation”, “Cross-sectoral collaboration”, “cross-sectoral collaborations”, “C E incubator”, “C E incubator, foster symbiotic”, “dynamic capabilities, C E-oriented collaboration”, “Dynamic capabilities”, “All participants, transparent, collaboration”, and “Collaborative, trust”. In the “Codes” column, keywords are grouped into four circular constructs via directional arrows. The top three keywords lead to the top circle labeled “Cross-sector collaboration and value co-creation”. The next two keywords lead to the second circle labeled “Incubation synergy”. The next two keywords lead to the third circle labeled “Collaborative dynamic capabilities”. The bottom two keywords lead to the bottom circle labeled “Multi-actor and Stakeholder Engagement”. On the far right, under the “Themes” header, large block arrows point from each of the four codes to four identical rectangular boxes. All four boxes contain the final synthesized theme: “Collaborative and knowledge-sharing”.Steps in the thematic analysis process. Source: Developed by the authors