Drivers and barriers to circular economy implementation

By Martin Agyemang, Simonov Kusi‐Sarpong, S. Khan, Venkatesh Mani, Syed Tahaur Rehman, Horsten Kusi-Sarpong. Management Decision, 2019

221 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose Circular economy (CE) has gained considerable attention from researchers and practitioners over the past few years because of its potential social and environmental benefits. However, limited attention has been given in the literature to explore the drivers and barriers in CE implementation in emerging and developing countries besides China. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify the drivers and barriers to implementing a CE in Pakistan’s automobile manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts an explorative approach to understand the drivers and barriers at the micro-level CE implementation in Pakistan’s automobile industry. The research design includes both qualitative and quantitative methods using a survey instrument and interviews to gather data. The use of the two main sources of data provides the opportunity for triangulation of the data to improve the validity of the findings, and enables greater inferences from the results. Findings This study shows that “profitability/market share/benefit” (30 percent), “cost reduction” (22 percent) and “business principle/concern for environment/appreciation” (19 percent) are the top three drivers. Similarly, “unawareness” (22 percent), “cost and financial constraint” (20 percent) and “lack of expertise” (17 percent) are the top three barriers in implementing CE principles in Pakistan automobiles industry. Research limitations/implications This study considers only Pakistan automobiles industry, and the practical implications potentially limit to emerging Asian economies. Originality/value This study is the first of its kind that has investigated the drivers and barriers of CE at the organizational level in the automobile industry of Pakistan. Thus, it helps to advance the understanding of the subject matter and enables the formulation of effective policies and business strategies by practitioners for upscaling CE and sustainability.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Marketing, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b78b62c0f0128f574fdfb37257c2c8bb5cbf5176

How researchers see this paper

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

In Building and Construction

1. Eduardo Aguiñaga
2. Andrea Cantú
3. Carlos Scheel

In Marketing

1. Eduardo Aguiñaga
2. Andrea Cantú
3. Carlos Scheel

In Strategy and Management

1. Eduardo Aguiñaga
2. Andrea Cantú
3. Carlos Scheel

Citations in the corpus

• Learning from Failure and Success: The Challenges for Circular Economy Implementation in SMEs in an Emerging Economy (2021, background): “[6,10,15,32,59 ,61] ‐ Guaranteed quantity and quality of the recycled materials.”
• Circular economy in manufacturing companies: A review of case study literature (2021, background): “, 2020), drivers and barriers (Agyemang et al., 2019; Garc es-Ayerbe et al., 2019; Gusmerotti et al., 2019; Kumar et al., 2019), attitudes toward and awareness”