From Individual Action to Organizational Capability: the Mediating Role of Organizational Routines in Building Circular Intellectual Capital
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Abstract
Businesses are increasingly moving from linear take–make–dispose models toward circular economy (CE) configurations that require new ways of creating, sharing, retaining, and applying knowledge. Circular intellectual capital (CIC) has emerged as a useful lens for understanding these knowledge-based foundations, yet empirical evidence on how individual employee behavior becomes an organization-level circular capability remains limited. Building on the microfoundations perspective, intellectual capital theory, and organizational routines theory, this study examines whether organizational routines mediate the relationship between individual learning-oriented and proactive behavior and CIC. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted among working professionals. The final dataset contained 96 valid responses, with no missing values on the 15 core Likert-scale items. Internal consistency was strong for individual behavior (α = .89), organizational routines (α = .89), and CIC outcomes (α = .91). Individual behavior was positively associated with organizational routines (r = .642, p < .001) and CIC (r = .487, p < .001), while organizational routines showed a stronger association with CIC (r = .780, p < .001). Regression results showed that individual behavior explained 23.7% of the variance in CIC (β = .487, p < .001). When organizational routines were added, explained variance increased to 60.9%, with organizational routines emerging as a strong predictor (β = .795, p < .001), while the direct effect of individual behavior became non-significant. Bootstrapped mediation analysis confirmed a significant indirect effect through organizational routines (B = .597, 95% CI [.418, .811]), consistent with full mediation. The findings support a sequential micro-to-meso account in which employee learning and proactivity become durable circular capability when embedded in routines that capture, share, apply, and retain knowledge. The study contributes an empirically testable mechanism to CIC research and offers practical implications for organizations seeking to institutionalize circular learning.
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