Assessing the Role of Big Data and the Internet of Things on the Transition to Circular Economy: Part II

Abstract

This paper presents the main findings of a literature-based study of circular economy (CE) extending the technology attributes present on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) Regenerate, Share, Optimise, Loop, Virtualise and Exchange (ReSOLVE) framework. The introduction and methods were presented in Part I (1). Part II concludes that there are 39 capabilities grouped into six elementary CE principles and five action groups, with public administration being the most interested sector, forming the CE information technology (IT) capabilities framework. It is expected the framework can be used as a diagnostic tool to allow organisations to evaluate their technological gaps and plan their IT investments to support the transition to CE.

Industry 4.0 and circular economy: An exploratory analysis of academic and practitioners' perspectives

“…Nowadays, researchers can analyse large amounts of data, classifying and using multiple information sources. CA is widely implemented in different research streams with the aim to highlight specific literature and thematic trends (Amini, Bienstock, & Narcum, 2018; Landrum & Ohsowski, 2018; Nobre & Tavares, 2020). For instance, Bhatt, Ghuman, and Dhir (2020) used CA for developing the intellectual structure of sustainable manufacturing (SM) literature, whereas Sihvonen and Partanen (2017) employed CA to examine how companies in ICT sector report the information concerning CE.…”

Circular Economy and Digital Technologies: A Review of the Current Research Streams

“…Finally, other researchers focus on the metallurgy process(Reuter, 2016) and intelligent robotics technology applied in waste management(Sarc et al, 2019). With respect to research gaps, most of the papers emphasize the need to test and validate concepts, frameworks, and models developed by the authors (Lopes de SousaJabbour et al, 2018;Chauhan, Sharma and Singh, 2019;Garrido-Hidalgo et al, 2019;Nobre and Tavares, 2020b). These findings reinforce the initial stage of knowledge in the area since many studies claimed practical applications and empirical evidence of I4.0 to CE (Lopes de SousaJabbour et al, 2018;Chauhan, Sharma and Singh, 2019;Rosa et al, 2020).…”

“…Other critical research topics are DTs economic viability and the need for measures and indicators to analyze gains and circularity in organizations (Kerin and Pham, 2019;Nobre and Tavares, 2020b). Only the I4.0 research stream emphasized the lack of studies addressing required capabilities to a Smart CE (Lopes de Sousa Jabbour et al, 2018;Nobre and Tavares, 2020b). Besides, researches of emerging countries such as India and Brazil are the only ones insisting on the urgency of more studies focusing on multi-cultural challenges and barriers of employ DTs (Lopes de Sousa Jabbour et al, 2018;Cezarino et al, 2019;Rajput and Singh, 2019).…”

“…LCA based on Blockchain usage can guide decisions that affect the supply chain design (Zhang et al, 2020). Design is one of the CE principles demonstrating a greater propensity to obtain benefits of the DTs' employment (Nobre and Tavares, 2020b). For example, the design is addressed either to the development of new circular businesses (Rosa et al, 2020) to support components' design that facilitates recycling and remanufacturing processes (Nobre and Tavares, 2020b) or to design smart cities (Esmaeilian et al, 2018;Nobre and Tavares, 2020b).…”

“…Design is one of the CE principles demonstrating a greater propensity to obtain benefits of the DTs' employment (Nobre and Tavares, 2020b). For example, the design is addressed either to the development of new circular businesses (Rosa et al, 2020) to support components' design that facilitates recycling and remanufacturing processes (Nobre and Tavares, 2020b) or to design smart cities (Esmaeilian et al, 2018;Nobre and Tavares, 2020b). DTs to CE offer opportunities to further investigation in all lifecycle phases, distinct application levels (micro, meso, and macro), and different research streams.…”