Corporate social responsibility (CSR) was historically a business-oriented idea that companies should voluntarily improve their social and environmental practices. More recently, CSR has increasingly attracted governments' attention, and is now promoted in public policy, especially in the European Union (EU). Conflicts can arise, however, when advanced welfare states introduce CSR into public policy. The reason for such conflict is that CSR leaves key public welfare issues to the discretion of private business. This voluntary issue assignment contrasts starkly with advanced welfare states' traditions favoring negotiated agreements and strong regulation to control corporate conduct. This article analyzes the conflicts and compatibilities arising when advanced welfare states introduce CSR, focusing on how the two traditions diverge and on how conflicts are reconciled. Empirically

2671 The literature and research in the area is too vast to cite without appearing to argue for a particular 'approach' as superior over another, without comment on strengths and weaknesses in theory, measurement etc., which is not our purpose here. We assume our readers are familiar enough with management through experience and/or higher education to 'find their own way' to through this literature.

Closing the loop for resource efficiency is a well‐known practice in the industry. To concretize the circular economy implementation strategies, closed‐loop thinking requires innovation and adaptation. Circular supply chains (CSCs) are one of the key enablers in closing the loop by design or intention for value recovery and profit maximization. CSC is an emerging area, and the view of CSC where forward and reverse supply chain is seamlessly integrated with the overall aim to achieve system‐wide circularity is missing in the academic debate. By offering a cross‐functional perspective of CSC, this paper presents a CSC guiding framework to structure and understand the underlying complexities and highlight the crucial elements of the CSC implementation. Thus, this framework lays the basis for CSC within the systemic implementation of CE by closing the loop by design or intention. The framework categorizes the CSC into four building blocks, namely, systemic approach, main drivers, levels of decision making, and mechanisms to manage the full loop closure and minimize the inherent uncertainties of a complex system. The building blocks of the framework are synthesized from various streams of supply chain literature and recurring concepts in the circular economy literature. The CSC framework applicability is illustrated using two industrial cases that are transitioning towards the circular economy.

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