Stakeholder relations and activities among circular economy actors in Finland

In this study, we ask in what ways stakeholder engagement can accelerate the transitions towards a circular economy (CE). The CE stakeholders include private, public and third sector organizations fostering the circular economy in Finland. The empirical material consists of 35 semi-structured interviews of CE stakeholders at local, regional and national levels in Finland. A fine-grained, inductive analysis of stakeholder relationships in the context of a circular economy was conducted. Our analysis identifies four types of relations that prevail among the CE stakeholders: (1) hierarchical relations, (2) collaborative relations (3) adversarial relations and (4) mediating relations. Each of the relations actualizes and is maintained through a set of more specific activities. The findings indicates that each type of relation with its specific activities of stakeholder engagement is valuable for accelerating the transitions toward a sustainable CE.