Existing circular economy (CE) research has primarily explored capabilities for the principle of closing resource loops (recycle and recover) in limited institutional contexts. However, little is known about the capabilities for the principle of slowing resource loops (reduce and reuse), despite its alignment towards achieving net zero economies. This research investigates capabilities for slowing resource loops at small CE businesses and the influence they experience from institutional logics in three CE‐pioneering countries of China, Japan and Finland, with a focus on low‐technology applications. The study uncovered capabilities in four themes: professional foundations, emotional engagement, interaction with the market community and (re)inventing the profession. The key differentiating influence in China was the markets’ shift to online; in Finland, it was positive attitudes towards sustainability; and in Japan, it was the connection of certain slowing practices to the country's rich cultural history. The study concludes that the influence of the institutional logic of the profession appeared similarly in the three countries, while the market influences differentiated the contexts. In the slowing‐oriented professions, trading mid‐lifecycle items called for specific capabilities for emotional engagement. The capabilities at small businesses were closely attached to persons rather than organizations.

As global climate change intensifies and the Paris Agreement advances low-carbon transformation, frequent local policy adjustments under China’s dual carbon goals have made climate-policy uncertainty a core challenge for corporate sustainability. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance has grown exponentially in international capital markets, evolving from a peripheral concept to a key investment decision-making dimension. This study uses China’s carbon peaking and neutrality policies as a quasinatural experiment, applying the difference-in-differences (DID) method to the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies (2014–2023). Taking high-energy-consuming enterprises as the treatment group, this study identifies net policy effects via the interaction of policy and time dummy variables. The results show that carbon peaking and neutrality policies significantly suppress the ESG performance of energy-intensive firms; mediating effect tests confirm that the policy harms ESG performance by increasing uncertainty. Implications include enhancing policy transparency and predictability and optimizing resource allocation to strengthen ESG resilience. Future research should focus on micro-level policy indicators and long-term effect tracking to provide theoretical and practical support for synergizing dual carbon goals with high-quality economic development.

With the global climate governance development, climate policy uncertainty has shifted as one of the most important institutional factors influencing corporate sustainability. However, existing studies have shown mixed evidence regarding the effects of governance and have paid little attention to the boundary conditions that climate policy uncertainty shapes corporate sustainability. The relationship between climate policy uncertainty and corporate sustainability performance will be investigated in this study using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2025, which is proxy measured through ESG (environmental, social, and governance) performance scores. We utilized a two-way fixed-effects model, including various robustness, endogeneity, and heterogeneity tests. The empirical findings suggest that the uncertainty of climate policies boosts corporate sustainability. Moreover, this positive impact is particularly significant for enterprises situated in southern China, firms engaged in sectors benefitting from industrial policy support and large enterprises. According to this finding, climate policy uncertainty’s governance impact is predicated on the interaction of external institutional settings and firms’ organizational features. By offering a more comprehensive clarification of how climate policy uncertainty affects governance, this study contributes to the literature on corporate sustainability and climate policy uncertainty and advances our knowledge of firms’ sustainability responses in the context of policy uncertainty.