Riddled with challenges: Are zero-waste cities transitioning to circular economies? Insights from Chinese cities

Institutional isomorphism provides a framework for latecomers to learn from successful organizations. However, some scholars highlight the drawbacks of mimetic isomorphism, such as the inability to consider unique characteristics. This study uses the 2018 zero-waste city pilot program in China as a natural experiment, evaluating its performance in waste utilization and economic efficiency. We employ the super-efficient SBM-DEA model to estimate the circular economy performance of 269 Chinese cities, uncovering the relationship between zero-waste city pilots and the circular economy from 2002 to 2022. The findings are as follows: 1) Zero-waste city pilots inhibited circular economy. 2) Financial development and technological innovation can mitigate this negative impact, with resource misallocation being a potential pathway. 3) Zero-waste city pilots focused heavily on waste utilization while neglecting governance costs. 4) The negative impact of zero-waste city pilots on the circular economy was more pronounced in heavy industrial cities, non-agricultural cities, and cities with low traffic density. These findings provide unique policy recommendations for improving policy-making models based on institutional isomorphism and for transitioning zero-waste cities to circular economy cities.