Abstract for: Endogenous Drivers of Cascading Rebound: Mapping Feedback Loops in Digitally-enabled Sharing Platforms

Digitally-enabled sharing platforms (DSPs) are increasingly promoted as potential enablers of circular economy transitions. Yet, growing evidence shows that DSPs can trigger rebound effects—systemic responses that offset or reverse anticipated sustainability gains. Existing research typically conceptualizes rebound mechanisms in isolated, static, and linear terms, overlooking how they emerge from endogenous, feedback-driven interactions across micro, meso, and macro levels. This study adopts a system dynamics perspective to investigate how rebound mechanisms arise from the underlying, inherently complex system structure of DSPs. Building on a systematic literature review followed by a Gioia-informed coding process, we identified key variables, causal relationships, and partially-described mechanisms. These were translated into causal loop diagrams. Three integrated causal loop diagrams articulate the dominant reinforcing loops driving rebound in consumption dynamics, ownership-related dynamics, and socially mediated dynamics. Within these CLDs, we present the feedback loops leading to the rebound effect, showing how individual mechanisms cascade and interact within the system. This study shows that rebound effects in DSPs result from the system's structure—including their multi-level nature. Specifically, our CLDs reveal how feedback loops interact across micro, meso, and macro levels, showing how these rebound effects cascade across the system. It uncovers interdependencies, nonlinearities, and feedback structures, explaining why rebound effects persist. This work clarifies how DSP-induced rebound effects unfold endogenously through complex, multi-level feedback processes Grammarly used for improving readability.