CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 7Sustainable Supply Chain ManagementEnvironmental Sustainability in BusinessSustainable Industrial Ecology

Systematic Review on Barriers, Enablers, and Interdependencies: Sectoral Challenges and Opportunities Towards Adoption of Circular Practises in the Mobile‐Phone Industry

Open access
Rittershaus, Philipp, Aryan, Venkat, Renner, Manfred·2025·WIREs Energy and Environment
DOI 10.1002/wene.70006
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

This study addresses a critical research gap by examining sector‐specific barriers and enablers of circular economy adoption in the mobile phone industry, focusing on their influence on the value framework of circular business models. Through a systematic literature review, network mapping, and causal loop diagram, the study synthesises insights into feedback mechanisms driving or hindering CE adoption. Key findings reveal 51 barriers and 48 enablers categorised into six domains: financial and market, operational, organisational, policy and regulation, intrinsic, and technology and knowledge. Barriers include cost uncertainties, limited infrastructure, and consumer reluctance to repair, while enablers such as product lifecycle extension, reverse logistics, and regulatory incentives offer pathways for CE adoption. The feedback mechanisms identified through the causal loop diagram inform the study's four key propositions. First, aligning value creation with CE principles requires modular design, operational efficiencies, and collaborative ecosystems to address industry challenges and extend product lifecycles. Second, refining the value proposition demands balancing environmental, economic, and technological competitiveness, addressing consumer perceptions, and employing circularity metrics to drive adoption. Third, optimising value delivery and capture necessitates collaboration, regulatory support, and restructured mechanisms to preserve utility, enable material recirculation, and ensure sustainability across lifecycles. Fourth, overcoming cooperation barriers and fostering inclusive partnerships are vital to enhance stakeholder collaboration and achieve CE's environmental, economic, and social goals. Through these propositions, this study provides actionable strategies for operationalising CE principles, aligning CBMs with sustainability goals, that could enable a systemic transition towards circularity in the mobile phone industry.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/wene.70006

Cites

116 of 116 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • LCA's integration into business model innovation is limited, especially in the fast-paced smartphone sector.

    “Despite LCA's robustness in revealing environmental hotspots, its integration into business model innovation (BMI) is limited, especially in the fast-paced smartphone sector where innovation cycles and profit motives impede the adoption and implementation of circular strategies (Rittershaus et al. 2025).”

    From Integrating Life Cycle Assessment, Monetised Externalities and Value Alignment for Strategic Reconfiguration of Circular Business Models: The Case of Smartphones (2026) · cites this paper as Rittershaus et al. 2025

    The section “Strategic Adaptations in Value Creation” identifies shorter innovation cycles and uncertainty about profitability as barriers to circular practices in the mobile-phone industry. However, neither that section nor the passages retrieved for “LCA” and “life cycle assessment” say that LCA’s integration into business model innovation is limited or discuss its ability to reveal environmental hotspots. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Scoring was guided by a structured rubric derived from sector-specific CE literature and scenario attributes and was further subjected to expert review.

    “To mitigate this, scoring was guided by a structured rubric derived from sector-specific CE literature and scenario attributes (Rittershaus et al. 2025) and was further subjected to expert review.”

    From Integrating Life Cycle Assessment, Monetised Externalities and Value Alignment for Strategic Reconfiguration of Circular Business Models: The Case of Smartphones (2026) · cites this paper as Rittershaus et al. 2025

    The Methodology section describes a coding framework for mobile-phone circular-economy barriers and enablers, with categories drawn from the literature. It does not describe a scoring rubric derived from scenario attributes. The citation is attached to the rubric’s basis, not to the subsequent expert review, so expert review is not assessed here. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. 2041840x, 2025, 2, · DOI
  2. Jørgensen, S., and L. J. T. Pedersen. 2018. RESTART Sustainable Business Model Innovation. Springer International Publishing.
  3. 2041840x, 2025, 2, · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Rittershaus, P., Aryan, V., & Renner, M.
Affiliations
Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT (DE)
Corresponding author
Rittershaus, Philipp
ORCID
Venue
WIREs Energy and Environment
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2025-04
Volume
14
Issue
2
ISSN
  • 2041-8396 (ISSN-L)
  • 2041-840X
DOI
10.1002/wene.70006
OpenAlex
W4409177448
Cited by
6
References
116
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 2
FWCI
1.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Energy and Environment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Fraunhofer-Publica (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering › Sustainable Industrial Ecology
Keywords
circular economy adoption, mobile phone industry, circular business models, barriers and facilitators, product life extension, reverse logistics, modular design, regulatory incentives, stakeholder collaboration, causal loop diagrams, network mapping, value creation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review