This article explores how disruptive technologies increase the intelligence of goods and revitalize business models in the circular economy. Applying the industrial ecology perspective, we discuss how intelligent goods can boost the sustainability of industrial ecosystems. North American and European cases highlight how business model innovators utilize goods-related information to develop more competitive closed-loop systems. We identify three archetypes of closed-loop systems -inner circles, decentralized systems, and open systems -and delineate how they leverage information resources for collaboration. This study advances the understanding of closed-loop systems in the circular economy, which is more dependent than ever on digital platforms.

Digital transformation shapes business operations across industries. The present study investigates the challenges of this transformation in asset-intensive businesses. Based on a qualitative case study in the metals and mining industry, the study explores the early attempts to implement digital technologyenabled changes in the inter-organizational exchange as part of firms' business models in their business ecosystems. In particular, the study identifies the challenges related to the ways firms in the metals and mining industry manage to seize the opportunities that digital technologies provide for their business operations. The challenges include firms' lack of capabilities to change, goal ambiguity, technological constraints and external constraints. The findings contribute to the discussion of digital transformation as a technology-enabled strategic change and provide suggestions for business practitioners about factors that can impede the realization of this transformation.

This is a so-called personal version (author's manuscript as accepted for publishing after the review process but prior to final layout and copyediting) of the article.

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the debate related to the strategic role of information in the industrial service business, that is, whether information is a resource that could and should be protected. The connection between manufacturers’ servitization and management strategy literature is used in the analysis. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study on five new entrants to the industrial service market. Findings The results of the study provide new insights on both the characteristics and boundary conditions of new entrants’ approaches to strategically benefitting from information resources. Instead of aiming to possess and control data, the case companies prefer the access to large data volumes over exclusive access, render the question of data ownership to be largely irrelevant and perceive that the strategic relevance of information lies in novel data combinations. Practical implications The study provides a contemporary perspective on the prevailing information resource protection doctrine in the context of industrial services. Most importantly, the results challenge the hitherto unquestionable strategic relevance of customer relationships in Internet of Things (IoT)-driven service businesses. Furthermore, the results identify the need for flexible organizational structures that aim to leverage the complexity of the market environment. Originality/value Through providing a theoretically grounded and empirically backed contemporary perspective on the role of information in IoT-driven service businesses, the study expands the strategic understanding of industrial service providers.

S trategy research posits that in dynamic environments, firms must base their strategies not on leveraging the past, but on fostering constant change. This research explores how platforms can be used as semistructures to pursue strategic opportunities in manufacturers' service networks. A platform strategy combining product and organization approaches is identified at the interfirm level. The results show that platforms are perceived to extend the physical product's capacity to produce new usage scenarios, facilitate interfirm information flows and enable collective benefits, and create awareness of new value potentials. The study calls for more research regarding a systemic approach to solution business.