Towards a just circular transition: Fostering principles and stakeholder roles in sustainable partnerships

Developing sustainable partnerships is deemed crucial and timely for advancing circular economy transition efforts. Yet, academic literature signals a need for additional insights into stakeholder roles and their impact on social and environmental justice. The Quintuple Helix Model offers a framework to analyze how stakeholders from the five ‘helices’ can collaborate to overcome sustainability difficulties. Using an embedded multiple case study design, this exploratory paper proposes a set of 10 principles and 11 stakeholder roles for fostering a just circular economy transition, whilst recognizing the complexity of real-world sustainable partnerships. This paper further discusses challenges that may endanger the maintenance of sustainable partnerships such as conflicting or misaligned stakeholder interests, power imbalances, competition, lack of trust, conflict, or resource constraints. The paper extends the Quintuple Helix Model's applicability toward circular transitions, by introducing fostering principles and stakeholder roles that facilitate a just circular transition. Managerial and policy recommendations are formulated to nurture sustainable partnerships that foster a just circular transition.