Insights from Circular Economy Literature: A Review of Extant Definitions and Unravelling Paths to Future Research

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) has become one of the prominent topics in both natural science and management literature over the last few decades. CE is a dual-loop regenerative system that focuses on the effective and efficient utilization of resources in the ecosystem, which is beneficial to environmental and economic performance optimization. Dual CE initiatives allow firms to increased resource eco-efficiency, as well as resource effectiveness. CE has profound consequences for economic and operational advantage. This reinforces the need for reflection on the definition that may provide guidelines to assess and advance the depth and diversity of the field. We aim to provide a definitional analysis of the CE and suggest future research streams to advance the existing literature. For this purpose, we employed a systematic literature review to collect related publications in the CE. As a result of this, a total of 91 papers were selected, studied, and analyzed. We proposed a sound definition of a circular economy that includes the main identified elements, organizational planning processes, customers and society, utilization of the ecosystem, and economic resource flows. Moreover, future direction agenda, in CE research, is suggested considering three research streams: (1) circular design as value creation and capture, (2) antecedents of key activities, and (3) consequences of key processes. There is limited empirical research conducted on CE, and much of the existing research focuses on theoretical, conceptual, and normative. A few empirical research studies are mainly cross-sectional in their focus and are confined to developing and emerging economies. We hope this study’s findings will extend the field of CE, in which some of the most influential information regarding CE literature is provided. This study suggests that the development of CE initiatives plays an important role in the growing digital transformation in the value chain. There have been limited research studies in the interface of circular economy and Industry 4.0. Future research studies may investigate the extent to which digital transformation can increase the implementation of CE, and their influence on digital performance management.

Financial development, oil resources, and environmental degradation in pandemic recession: to go down in flames

“…The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is focused mainly on a high-tech strategy to improve industrial production embodied internet of things (Awan et al 2021a ). The importance of circular economy also proliferated in the twenty-first century that remains focused on efficient economic and environmental resources to conserve natural ecosystem (Alhawari et al 2021 ). The resulting impact of the fusion of digitalization started a new era of green product innovation, enabling policymakers to devise long-term sustainable environmental policies (Awan et al 2021b , c ).…”

A Review of Reductionist versus Systems Perspectives towards ‘Doing the Right Strategies Right’ for Circular Economy Implementation

“…Systems thinking is a radical departure from reductionism in which inclusivity tends to expand the scope of atomistic models/frameworks by drawing together relevant but fragmented ones to form a cohesive whole at the conceptual level. It adheres to the basic essence of a circular economy as systemic to begin with [48], which is reported in the review of seven works by Suárez-Eiroa et al [49] for the CE's definitional issues. The use of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) complements the analytical frameworks for this aspect because of the fact that it illustrates the configuration of the system under study to exhibit the feedback loops that show the interactions of the system's "chains of cause-and-effect relationships" [50].…”

“…Lu and Halog [54] emphasized this kind of mindset for the CE in the improvement and interconnectedness of analytical frameworks for food systems and diet sustainability issues. The systems frame of thinking provides an essential service in the discourse of CE to support consequent empirical research, since that is what it is lacking at this point to establish the feasibility of CE as implemented in numerous sectors across the world [48,51]. Importantly, the overlaps of principles and goals as well as synergistic mechanisms are potential points of integration of atomistic models for a systems level of analysis in view of the advancement of the circular economy [55].…”

Research on the Grinding Energy Density in a Jet Mill

“…It was then necessary to stop these trends, resulting in the development of assumptions for the circular economy [1][2][3]. The idea of a new way of looking at the process of manufacturing goods has become, among other things, the tendencies to look for raw materials and energy savings.…”