Platform Thinking as a Catalyst for Circular Innovation in Low- and Medium-Tech Industries

Growing pressures to replace linear with circular models challenge organisations to innovate continuously and to absorb new knowledge. While platform thinking has been examined as an enabler of innovation in high-tech industries, its relevance in low- and medium-tech industries, like construction, remains underexplored. Existing research emphasises digital platforms, leaving other forms of platform thinking largely unexamined. This study addresses these gaps by investigating how platform thinking can enable absorptive capacities to support innovation for circular economy in low- and medium-tech industries. Drawing on an analytical framework inspired by platform literature in high-tech industries, it applies these insights to the construction context. Based on 20 semistructured interviews with European industry stakeholders, the study offers four contributions: linking platform thinking, innovation and circularity in a low-tech industry; illustrating how platform thinking mitigates fragmentation and builds absorptive capacity; revealing opportunities for circular innovation; and introducing ecocentric absorptive capacity.