Heterogeneous associations between organizational circularity and enterprise economic performance in Ukraine and the EU

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
The performance-related associations of circular practices may differ because waste recovery, recycled-input use, and circularity-related investment involve distinct costs, investments, and organizational mechanisms. This study examines heterogeneous associations between organizational circularity components and economic performance across 25 industrial enterprises in the Ukrainian operating and European comparison subsamples during 2013–2023. Fixed-effects regressions, decomposition, lagged and subgroup models, a non-imputed subsample, a balanced common-support window, pooled interactions, wild-cluster-bootstrap inference, and Holm adjustment were applied.
The aggregate circularity index shows no statistically significant short-term association with EBITDA margin (β = +0.0222; p = 0.894).
The decomposed components show different coefficient profiles, but formal heterogeneity is sample-sensitive: coefficient equality is not rejected in the full-panel decomposed model (M2) (p = 0.101) but is rejected in the non-imputed model (M3) (p = 0.002). Recycled-input use is predominantly negative and nominally significant in the one-period lag-only (M4) and Ukrainian operating subsample (M6) models, although neither coefficient survives Holm adjustment and the lagged estimate is not reproduced in the combined model. Circularity-related eco-capex is positive in M3 and the European comparison subsample model (M5), where it is supported by unadjusted wild-cluster-bootstrap (p = 0.0198) and Holm-adjusted CR1 inference (p = 0.0273). The country-context interaction block is jointly significant (p = 0.042), with RI × UA as the only individually significant interaction (β = –1.566; p = 0.038).
The findings indicate that aggregate measures may conceal component-specific patterns, but most associations remain sample- or specification-sensitive and should not be interpreted causally. Enterprise assessment should distinguish recovery, material-substitution, and investment-modernization channels.

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    • Figure 1. Dynamics of the aggregate circularity index (CI) in the Ukrainian operating and European comparison subsamples, 2013–2023
    • Figure 2. Circularity component coefficients with 95% confidence intervals
    • Table 1. Descriptive statistics of key variables, full panel, 2013–2023
    • Table 2. Welch t-test results for differences between Ukrainian operating and European comparison subsamples
    • Table 3. Pearson correlations among core variables
    • Table A1. Sample selection and panel construction algorithm
    • Table A2. Operational harmonization and data-status rules for circularity components
    • Table B1. Enterprise-level provenance of circularity components in the non-imputed subsample, 2013–2023
    • Table C1. Main panel regression results (M1 to M9)
    • Table D1. Formal tests and model diagnostics
    • Table E1. Hypothesis verification based on panel model estimates and formal tests
    • Conceptualization
      Stanislav Suslikov, Volodymyr Kuchynskyi
    • Data curation
      Stanislav Suslikov, Maryna Gliznutsa
    • Formal Analysis
      Stanislav Suslikov, Volodymyr Kuchynskyi
    • Investigation
      Stanislav Suslikov, Maryna Gliznutsa
    • Methodology
      Stanislav Suslikov, Volodymyr Kuchynskyi
    • Writing – original draft
      Stanislav Suslikov
    • Writing – review & editing
      Stanislav Suslikov, Volodymyr Kuchynskyi, Iryna Dolyna, Maryna Gliznutsa, Iegor Vozniuk, Volodymyr Dumchykov
    • Project administration
      Volodymyr Kuchynskyi, Iryna Dolyna
    • Supervision
      Volodymyr Kuchynskyi, Iryna Dolyna
    • Resources
      Maryna Gliznutsa, Iegor Vozniuk, Volodymyr Dumchykov
    • Validation
      Iegor Vozniuk, Volodymyr Dumchykov
    • Visualization
      Iegor Vozniuk, Volodymyr Dumchykov