Value Co-Creation and Co-Destruction in Digital Product Passport Ecosystems

Digital product passports (DPPs) are emerging as key enablers of the circular economy, promising transparency, traceability, and data accessibility across product lifecycles. Still, organisations remain hesitant to engage with their implementation due to unclear value outcomes and concerns about data exposure. In this ongoing study, we explore how DPPs shape circular value within service ecosystems. We ground our study in the service innovation literature with a particular focus on value co-creation and co-destruction. Our tentative observations unveil that DPPs can unlock circular value co-creation in service ecosystems, benefiting all actors. Yet, emerging tensions among actors can hinder the full value creation, giving rise to scenarios of value co-destruction where opportunities are lost. Our study contributes to the service innovation literature and the broader discourse on circular economy by uncovering how novel technologies, such as DPPs, influence value co-creation and co-destruction in service ecosystems oriented towards circularity.