In the last decades, economic growth has been driven by technological innovations, yet this has often neglected the constraints imposed by our planet (i.e., its finite resources) and the impact of human activities on the environment (e.g., CO2 emissions). Currently, technological and organisational trends are heading away from the so-called linear economy, moving to a circular economy (CE). More recently, representing a more challenging “nature-positive” and “net-positive” sustainability paradigm, regenerative economy, innovation, and business models are generating increasing interest (Konietzko, Das & Bocken, 2023; Salonen, Ritala & Bocken, 2025).

However, progress in implementing CE initiatives has been slow so far, with the global economy becoming less rather than more “circular” (Circle Economy, 2025). Furthermore, sustainable initiatives often focus on doing “less harm” rather than on more positive impacts (World Economic Forum, 2023). These developments have sparked the emergence of new paradigms, such as regenerative business, promoting restoration and regeneration of natural resources and social systems (Salonen et al., 2025; World Economic Forum, 2023). One possible reason behind this slow progress may be linked to the fact that CE and regenerative innovations require a system perspective rather than an organisational one (Tate et al., 2019; Trevisan et al., 2021), which entails collaborative efforts. In other words, networks, ecosystems and platforms (NEPs) can play a key role in reversing the trend.

Prior studies recognise benefits of dyadic interorganisational collaboration with suppliers and networks to implement CE initiatives (Lisi et al., 2024), as well as the positive effects of inter-organisational collaboration – specifically horizontal and vertical collaboration – on reverse logistics (Cricelli et al., 2021). Not surprinsingly, open innovation and circular business models often go hand in hand (Bocken & Ritala 2022). Recent research also suggested that collaborations for the CE can be scaled up using digital platforms (Blackburn et al., 2023; Ritala, 2024) and CE ecosystems (Aarikka-Stenroos et al., 2021). However, such collaboration presents challenges (Vivona et al., 2022), as highlighted in the case of SMEs, where different goals among partners and a lack of financial resources hinder CE collaboration (Lisi et al., 2025), or in the case of second-life-battery ecosystems, where, intellectual property- and data sharing-related challenges hamper collaboration (Stefan & Chirumalla, 2025). Similarly, collaboration towards regenerative innovation may present difficulties; Salonen et al. (2025) suggest several guiding questions to address them.

Despite the growing interest, several questions regarding CE, regeneration, and NEPs remain open, for instance:
• scalability and governance of such initiatives: how companies can move from bilateral collaborations to NEPs that promote circular and regenerative innovation, while being economically viable;
• dynamics of NEPs: the temporal, emergent, and longitudinal aspects of circular and regenerative ecosystems and platforms;
• the intertwining of circular, regenerative and digital (or data-related) issues in NEPs, such as data sharing and ownership;
• examining how NEPs enable combining aspects of the CE and regeneration as mutually supportive and innovative business models, practices, and organizing schemes.

Therefore, this track invites manuscripts that investigate the link between NEPs, CE and regenerative innovation, including the aforementioned open questions and encouraging novel inquiries. The scope of this call is left open to promote comprehensive and diverse research in this area.