From Firm-Level Adoption to System-Level Transformation: The Transparency Paradox of Digital Innovation in German Waste Management

Abstract

Digital technologies are widely seen as key enablers of the circular economy, yet their adoption in waste management remains limited despite evident technological potential. Drawing on semi-structured expert interviews in the German waste management sector, this study integrates the Technology-Organisation-Environment framework with stakeholder theory to examine barriers and enablers of digital innovation. The findings show that digital innovation is constrained more by implementation conditions than by technological availability. Barriers emerge from the interplay of material complexity, legacy systems, organisational inertia, and adverse market and regulatory conditions. A central mechanism is a transparency paradox in which stakeholders acknowledge the strategic value of product- and material-related data sharing yet withhold information under competitive pressure. The result is fragmented and discontinuous data flows across the value chain. Leadership, collaboration, external pressure, and standardisation function as key enablers. The study extends TOE by distinguishing between firm-level digital applications whose benefits can be captured by individual organisations and system-level applications whose value depends on coordinated adoption and data sharing across actors. The transparency paradox may help explain why the latter remains comparatively difficult to implement.