Horizontal inter-municipal collaboration driving innovation through circular public procurement
Vergani, Francesca LU
(2026)
In Construction Management and Economics
- Abstract
- Horizontal collaboration in municipalities is increasingly promoted as a means to foster innovation in circular construction through circular public procurement (CPP), yet the diffusion of such practices remains uneven. Drawing on a qualitative study of Swedish municipalities, this paper explores how municipalities collaborate horizontally to address the challenges associated with implementing CPP. By conceptualizing CPP as a form of system innovation, the paper positions municipalities as key intermediaries and examines how inter-municipal collaboration supports learning, capacity building, and experimentation across projects and organizations. The findings show that municipalities face persistent legal, organizational, operational,... (More)
- Horizontal collaboration in municipalities is increasingly promoted as a means to foster innovation in circular construction through circular public procurement (CPP), yet the diffusion of such practices remains uneven. Drawing on a qualitative study of Swedish municipalities, this paper explores how municipalities collaborate horizontally to address the challenges associated with implementing CPP. By conceptualizing CPP as a form of system innovation, the paper positions municipalities as key intermediaries and examines how inter-municipal collaboration supports learning, capacity building, and experimentation across projects and organizations. The findings show that municipalities face persistent legal, organizational, operational, cultural, and financial challenges. Yet, they demonstrate how horizontal collaboration enables shared learning, collective sensemaking, and the pooling of resources needed to move beyond isolated pilot projects. An analysis of six dimensions and three functions of horizontal inter-municipal collaboration, namely shared knowledge creation, collective capacity building, and experimentation, contribute to the literature on CPP and circular construction transitions. This position is achieved by having conceptualized municipal collaboration as a form of connectivity, specifically, a dynamic process enabling coordinated learning and systemic innovation. From a practice perspective, the study’s findings show how inter-municipal collaboration can function as an institutional infrastructure for scaling circular practices across fragmented construction systems, while also revealing the uneven diffusion of such innovation across the municipalities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/0033d45b-9f58-4d10-a8ec-39bb1eab1e01
- author
- Vergani, Francesca
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- submitted
- subject
- in
- Construction Management and Economics
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- ISSN
- 1466-433X
- project
- Building circular futures.
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 0033d45b-9f58-4d10-a8ec-39bb1eab1e01
- date added to LUP
- 2026-04-09 13:05:00
- date last changed
- 2026-04-13 13:05:44
@misc{0033d45b-9f58-4d10-a8ec-39bb1eab1e01,
abstract = {{Horizontal collaboration in municipalities is increasingly promoted as a means to foster innovation in circular construction through circular public procurement (CPP), yet the diffusion of such practices remains uneven. Drawing on a qualitative study of Swedish municipalities, this paper explores how municipalities collaborate horizontally to address the challenges associated with implementing CPP. By conceptualizing CPP as a form of system innovation, the paper positions municipalities as key intermediaries and examines how inter-municipal collaboration supports learning, capacity building, and experimentation across projects and organizations. The findings show that municipalities face persistent legal, organizational, operational, cultural, and financial challenges. Yet, they demonstrate how horizontal collaboration enables shared learning, collective sensemaking, and the pooling of resources needed to move beyond isolated pilot projects. An analysis of six dimensions and three functions of horizontal inter-municipal collaboration, namely shared knowledge creation, collective capacity building, and experimentation, contribute to the literature on CPP and circular construction transitions. This position is achieved by having conceptualized municipal collaboration as a form of connectivity, specifically, a dynamic process enabling coordinated learning and systemic innovation. From a practice perspective, the study’s findings show how inter-municipal collaboration can function as an institutional infrastructure for scaling circular practices across fragmented construction systems, while also revealing the uneven diffusion of such innovation across the municipalities.}},
author = {{Vergani, Francesca}},
issn = {{1466-433X}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{Construction Management and Economics}},
title = {{Horizontal inter-municipal collaboration driving innovation through circular public procurement}},
year = {{2026}},
}