From digital technologies to platform circular economy performance: The role of digital platform ecosystem orchestration and platform structural assurance

Despite heavy investment in artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain, cloud computing, and internet of things, platform organizations often struggle to convert these digital technologies into measurable circular economy performance due to a lack of institutional alignment. Drawing on institutional theory, this study examines whether digital platform ecosystem orchestration functions as the governance mechanism that turns technological potential into circular outcomes and whether platform structural assurance, as an institutional safeguard, strengthens that mechanism. A two-wave time-lagged survey of 185 top management representatives from business-to-business digital platforms in China measured the focal constructs and the model was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis and moderated mediation with bootstrap resampling. Results show no direct effect of digital technologies on platform circular economy performance. Instead, digital platform ecosystem orchestration fully mediates this relationship. Platform structural assurance strengthens the positive effect of digital platform ecosystem orchestration on platform circular economy performance and increases the indirect effect of digital technologies on performance. These findings contribute to the literature by revealing the governance-condition nexus, demonstrating that technology requires both agentic coordination and institutional safeguards to deliver circular value. Therefore, platform leaders should invest in digital platform ecosystem orchestration and reinforce structural assurance to translate technology spending into circular value at scale and, for scholars, specify when and how digitalization produces circular performance.