The smart circular economy: A digital-enabled circular strategies framework for manufacturing companies

By Eivind Kristoffersen, Fenna Blomsma, Patrick Mikalef, Jingyue Li. Journal of business research, 2020

617 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Digital technologies (DTs), such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and data analytics, are considered essential enablers of the circular economy (CE). However, as both CE and DTs are emerging fields, there exists little systematic guidance on how DTs can be applied to capture the full potential of circular strategies for improving resource efficiency and productivity. Furthermore, there is little insight into the supporting business analytics (BA) capabilities required to accomplish this. To address this gap, this paper conducts a theory- and practice-based review, resulting in the Smart CE framework that supports translating the circular strategies central to the goals of manufacturing companies in contributing the United Nation’s (UN) 12th Sustainable Development Goal, that is, “sustainable consumption and production,” into the BA requirements of DTs. Both scholars and practitioners may find the framework useful to (1) create a common language for aligning activities across the boundaries of disciplines such as information systems and the CE body of knowledge, and (2) identify the gap between the current and entailed BA requirements and identify the strategic initiatives needed to close it. Additionally, the framework is used to organize a database of case examples to identify some best practices related to specific smart circular strategies.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/044b709705edc42cdfd6f2852c5597432cf86295

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

1. Usama Awan
2. Shahbaz Khan
3. T. C. Edwin Cheng
4. Sachin S. Kamble
5. Abid Haleem

In Strategy and Management

1. Amine Belhadi
2. Usama Awan
3. Saqib Shamim
4. Shahbaz Khan
5. T. C. Edwin Cheng
6. Nelson Oly Ndubisi
7. Sachin S. Kamble
8. Zaheer Khan

Citations in the corpus

• Investigation of circular economy practices in the context of emerging economies: a CoCoSo approach (2021, background): “Although the organisations are aware of the benefits of the circular economy practices (hereafter use as circular practices), they face many challenges to adopting these practices (Kristoffersen et al. 2020).”
• Big data analytics capability and decision-making: The role of data-driven insight on circular economy performance (2021, background): “These findings are consistent with those of Kristoffersen et al. (2020).”
• Linkages between big data analytics, circular economy, sustainable supply chain flexibility, and sustainable performance in manufacturing firms (2021, background): “To unlock CE’s full benefits, improvements in resource productivity and efficiency can be achieved by big datadriven technologies such as digital twin and simulations (Kristoffersen et al. 2020).”