Policy instruments\rs effectiveness for facilitating industrial symbiosis: A UK–China comparative study from firms\rs perspectives

Industrial symbiosis (IS) can be a powerful business concept to achieve sustainability and generate significant co-benefits by utilizing waste from one factory as an input to another. However, the adoption of IS is not as expected as it should be, partly due to the diverse institutional contexts in different regions. Existing research on facilitating IS has primarily focused on individual countries or industries, lacking the focus on the mechanisms and pathways adopted in countries with different economic development levels and policy approaches in facilitating IS. Thus, this study comparatively analyses what policy instrument works well under what conditions in fostering facilitated IS from firms' perspectives between the United Kingdom and China. Based on a conceptual framework, this study ultilizes thematic coding to find out how each of the ten policy instruments works well under the speed-dating/exogenous IS model both in the United Kingdom and China. The findings are expected to help inform better policy support mechanisms in facilitating broader and more successful IS practice. [Correction added on 14 July, 2025 after first online publication: The complete abstract content has been revised.]