Future research avenues at the nexus of circular economy and digitalization

Abstract

PurposeThe authors posit that one of the key enablers of the circular economy will be the digital transformation – in other words, “digitalization.” In this study, the authors examine and visualize the interaction of the circular economy and digitalization by using scientific publications. They explore possible synergies and future research avenues at this junction.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first apply bibliometrics to explore and visualize the relationships between the circular economy and digitalization in the academic literature. Following the clustering of topics, they define key emerging factors for each cluster. Based on this analysis, they suggest future research avenues.FindingsThe authors find that there are four main clusters at the junction of circular economy and digitalization, including (1) sharing economy, (2) additive manufacturing, (3) business models and (4) industrial ecology and remanufacturing. They then dig deeper into these topics to better understand what factors would shape the future of the clusters. They conclude that sharing economy perspective and additive manufacturing may be enhanced by regulation-based and behavioral change-based approaches. Circular business models should be developed to maintain circularity in industry. Finally, digital manufacturing should be implemented within the framework of industrial ecology and remanufacturing principles to increase efficiency, productivity and traceability in the circular economy.Originality/valueDigitalization offers significant potentials toward breakthrough sustainability by creating a circular economy. Hence, understanding the relationship between circular economy and digitalization is important to achieve sustainable development goals.

The role of digital technologies in supporting the implementation of circular economy practices by industrial small and medium enterprises

“…AM and especially 3D printing are considered strong enablers for the circular transition (Hettiarachchi, Brandenburg, & Seuring, 2022), due to their ability to build parts with geometrical and material complexity, not feasible with traditional manufacturing processes (Garza‐Reyes et al, 2019). AM can be adopted at different stages of the supply chain (Patyal et al, 2022; Ponis et al, 2021; Tavares‐Lehmann & Varum, 2021), and it helps reduce waste (Burmaoglu et al, 2022) and favor the use of recovered materials instead of virgin raw materials (de Mattos Nascimento et al, 2022; Kayikci, Gozacan‐Chase, et al, 2022).…”

A Systematic Literature Review on the Transition to Circular Business Models for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

“…The transition to a regenerative and distributive CBM is intrinsically linked to innovations that enable the development of new products, processes, and techniques that increase the capacity to reuse, remanufacture, and recycle resources as per business circularity principles [6,34,47]. Entrepreneurs such as SME leaders are regarded as innovators in that they contribute either revolutionary or incremental changes to existing goods, services, or manufacturing processes [28,40,49,50]. This drives a "creative destruction" process that results in fundamental economic changes and digitalisation, ultimately leading to improved employment, economic expansion, and prosperity.…”

“…According to some research studies [25,26] to adopt an existing business model towards greater circularity, it is necessary to offer a clear value proposition. This value proposition should be supported by internal awareness and capacity to deliver the proposed value, align it with the strategy of the enterprise, communicate it to customers, and find ways to engage them in the process [23,25,43,49,52].…”

“…Some CBMs [3,5,9,23] of service providers, like Uber and Airbnb, are built on the idea of the sharing economy; yet, they could not have achieved their level of success without the assistance of digital technologies, such as real-time data, the internet of things, and digital platforms. By optimising material flows and enabling reverse material flows [20,42,51]; by integrating value chains through data collection and sharing [1,13,33]; and by improving traceability and transparency through the product timeline [5,49], digital innovations can enable business circularity both directly and indirectly [16,55].…”

Circular economy and sustainable development: a review and research agenda

“…Co-citation analysis was performed using co-cited references to find clusters of topics (Al Refaie et al, 2021;Ferreira et al, 2021;Burmaoglu et al, 2022). The analysis was done using VOSviewer, and articles with a minimum co-citation of nine were taken for this analysis.…”