CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 20Sustainable Supply Chain ManagementEnvironmental Sustainability in BusinessSustainable Design and Development

User circularity practices: Adopting a user stewardship perspective for a circular economy

Open access
Conduit, Jodie, Karpen, Ingo Oswald, Willmott, Taylor·2023·AMS Review
DOI 10.1007/s13162-023-00262-6
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Humanity is depleting the planet’s natural resources at an unsustainable rate. The pursuit of a circular economy is a strong, viable means of reversing this trend; however, it will require users to take responsibility for the proper application and protection of resources for future generations. While the daily practices of users play a significant role in enabling a circular economy, this role has largely been overlooked in current literature. Our research synthesizes knowledge from the circular economy and marketing literatures, and draws on stewardship theory to better understand the user’s role in the circular economy. Specifically, we introduce a resource stewardship framework from a user perspective. This framework specifies a set of user circularity practices to minimize the extraction of finite resources, while conserving and regenerating resources already in circulation for future use. These practices occur at various stages in the resource life cycle and include minimizing the sourcing and use of finite resources, (re)designing products and services to use less resources, and optimizing the value potential from resources through extending their life cycle and recovering resources for future use. With this framework, we redefine the role of users as resource stewards and advance the rather narrow and fragmented considerations of user contributions to the circular economy, laying the foundation for more caring and responsible users and a future research agenda.

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 · 10.1007/s13162-023-00262-6

Cites

5 of 5 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?

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: 79

  1. Abdulrazak, S., & Quoquab, F. (2018). Exploring consumers' motiva- tions for sustainable consumption: A self-deterministic approach. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 30(1), 14-28.
  2. Baines, T. S., Lightfoot, H. W., Evans, S., Neely, A., Greenough, R., Peppard, J., Roy, R., Shehab, E., et al. (2007). State-of-the-art in product-service systems. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part B, Journal of Engineering Manu- facture, 221(10), 1543-1552.
  3. Beamon, B. M. (1999). Designing the green supply chain. Logistics Information Management, 12(4), 332-342.
  4. Belk, R. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and col- laborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1595-1600.
  5. Bennett, N. J., Whitty, T. S., Finkbeiner, E., Pittman, J., Bassett, H., Gelcich, S., & Allison, E. H. (2018). Environmental steward- ship: A conceptual review and analytical framework. Environ- mental Management, 61(4), 597-614.
  6. Benoit, S., Baker, T. L., Bolton, R. N., Gruber, T., & Kandampully, J. (2017). A triadic framework for collaborative consump- tion (CC): Motives, activities and resources & capabilities of actors. Journal of Business Research, 79, 219-227.
  7. Bocken, N. M. P., de Pauw, I., Bakker, C., & van der Grinten, B. (2016). Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy. Journal of Industrial and Production Engi- neering, 33(5), 308-320.
  8. Bolton, R. N. (2022). The convergence of sustainability and mar- keting: Transforming marketing to respond to a new world. Australasian Marketing Journal, 30(2), 107-112.
  9. Braungart, M., McDonough, W., & Bollinger, A. (2007). Cradle- to-cradle design: Creating healthy emissions -a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 15(13), 1337-1348.
  10. Briceno, T., & Stagl, S. (2006). The role of social processes for sus- tainable consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 14(17), 1541-1551.
  11. Brown, G., & Stone, L. (2007). Cleaner production in New Zealand: Taking stock. Journal of Cleaner Production, 15(8), 716-728.
  12. Brozović, D., D'Auria, A., & Tregua, M. (2020). Value creation and sustainability: Lessons from leading sustainability firms. Sus- tainability, 12(11), 4450.
  13. Calzolari, T., Genovese, A., & Brint, A. (2021). The adoption of circular economy practices in supply chains-An assessment of European Multi-National Enterprises. Journal of Cleaner Production, 312, 127616.
  14. Camacho-Otero, J., Boks, C., & Pettersen, I. N. (2018). Consumption in the circular economy: A literature review. Sustainability, 10(8), 2758.
  15. Chamberlin, L., & Boks, C. (2018). Marketing approaches for a cir- cular economy: Using design frameworks to interpret online communications. Sustainability, 10(6), 2070.
  16. Chapin, F. S., Pickett, S. T. A., Power, M. E., Jackson, R. B., Carter, D. M., & Duke, C. (2011). Earth stewardship: A strategy for social- ecological transformation to reverse planetary degradation. Jour- nal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 1(1), 44-53.
  17. Conduit, J., Vinh, Lu., & Veer, E. (2022). (Re) Gaining our voice: Future of marketing in Australasia. Australasian Marketing Journal, 30(3), 168-177.
  18. Contrafatto, M. (2014). Stewardship theory: Approaches and per- spectives. Accountability and social accounting for social and non-profit organizations. In E. Costa, L. D. Parker, & M Andreaus (Eds.), Advances in Public Interest Accounting (Vol. 17, pp. 177-196) Emerald Group: Bingley.
  19. Davis, J. H., Schoorman, F. D., & Donaldson, L. (1997). Toward a stewardship theory of management. Academy of Management Review, 22(1), 20-47.
  20. Dew, N., & Sarasvathy, S. D. (2016). Exaptation and niche construc- tion: Behavioral insights for an evolutionary theory. Industrial and Corporate Change, 25(1), 167-179.
  21. Diddi, S., & Yan, R.-N. (2019). Consumer perceptions related to clothing repair and community mending events: A circular economy perspective. Sustainability, 11(19), 5306.
  22. Durrani, M. (2018). People gather for stranger things, so why not this? Learning sustainable sensibilities through communal garment-mending practices. Sustainability, 10(7), 2218.
  23. ElHaffar, G., Durif, F., & Dubé, L. (2020). Towards closing the atti- tude-intention-behavior gap in green consumption: A narrative review of the literature and an overview of future research direc- tions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 275, 122556.
  24. Etzioni, A., & Etzioni, A. (1999). Voluntary simplicity: Characteri- zation, select psychological implications, and societal conse- quences. In Essays in Socio-Economics, 1-26. Berlin, Heidel- berg: Springer.
  25. Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N. M. P., & Hultink, E. J. (2017). The circular economy -A new sustainability paradigm? Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, 757-768.
  26. Ghisellini, P., Cialani, C., & Ulgiati, S. (2016). A review on circular economy: The expected transition to a balanced interplay of envi- ronmental and economic systems. Journal of Cleaner Produc- tion, 114, 11-32.
  27. Gonzalez-Arcos, C., Joubert, A. M., Scaraboto, D., Guesalaga, R., & Sandberg, J. (2021). "How do I carry all this now?" Understand- ing consumer resistance to sustainability interventions. Journal of Marketing, 85(3), 44-61.
  28. Gruen, A. (2017). Design and the creation of meaningful consumption practices in access-based consumption. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(3-4), 226-243.
  29. Hansen, E. G., & Revellio, F. (2020). Circular value creation archi- tectures: Make, ally, buy, or laissez-faire. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 24(6), 1250-1273.
  30. Hensen, N., Keeling, D. I., de Ruyter, Ko., & Wetzels, M. (2016). Me, myself, and future generations: The role of affinity and effec- tiveness in the creation of consumer environmental stewardship (CENS). Psychology & Marketing, 33(5), 389-406.
  31. Hernandez, M. (2008). Promoting stewardship behavior in organiza- tions: A leadership model. Journal of Business Ethics, 80(1), 121-128.
  32. Hernandez, M. (2012). Toward an understanding of the psychol- ogy of stewardship. Academy of Management Review, 27(2), 172-193.
  33. Hobson, K., Holmes, H., Welch, D., Wheeler, K., & Wieser, H. (2021). Consumption work in the circular economy: A research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 321, 128969.
  34. Horton, P., & Horton, B. P. (2019). Re-defining Sustainability: Liv- ing in Harmony with Life on Earth. One Earth, 1(1), 86-94.
  35. Huang, M.-H., Malthouse, E., Noble, S., & Wetzels, M. (2021). Moving service research forward. Journal of Service Research, 24(4), 459-461.
  36. Kalmykova, Y., Sadagopan, M., & Rosado, L. (2018). Circular econ- omy -From review of theories and practices to development of implementation tools. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 135, 190-201.
  37. Karpen, I. O., Bove, L. L., & Lukas, B. A. (2012). Linking service- dominant logic and strategic business practice: A conceptual model of a service-dominant orientation. Journal of Service Research, 15(1), 21-38.
  38. Knot, M., & Luiten, H. (2006). User involvement in the development of sustainable product-service systems: The Case of the Per- sonal Mobility System 'Mitka'. 263-276. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
  39. Labroo, A. A., & Goldsmith, K. (2021). The dirty underbelly of prosocial behavior: Reconceptualizing greater good as an eco- system with unintended consequences. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 31(3), 417-428.
  40. Lertzman, K. (2009). The paradigm of management, management systems, and resource stewardship. Journal of Ethnobiology, 29(2), 339-358.
  41. Lewandowski, M. (2016). Designing the business models for circular economy-Towards the conceptual framework. Sustainability, 8(1), 43.
  42. Lim, W. M. (2017). Inside the sustainable consumption theoretical toolbox: Critical concepts for sustainability, consumption, and marketing. Journal of Business Research, 78, 69-80.
  43. Lin, P.-C., & Huang, Y.-H. (2012). The influence factors on choice behavior regarding green products based on the theory of con- sumption values. Journal of Cleaner Production, 22(1), 11-18.
  44. Machado, M. A., Dutra, S. O., de Almeida, L., Bollick, C., & Bragagnolo, G. (2019). Second-hand fashion market: Consumer role in circular economy. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 23(3), 382-395.
  45. Madon, J. (2021). Free repair against the consumer society: How repair cafés socialize people to a new relationship to objects. Journal of Consumer Culture, 1469540521990871.
  46. Malik, A., Sharma, P., Sharma, P., Vinu, A., Karakoti, A., Kaur, K., Gujral, H. S., Munjal, S., & Laker, B. (2022). Circular econ- omy adoption by SMEs in emerging markets: Towards a mul- tilevel conceptual framework. Journal of Business Research, 142, 605-619.
  47. Matsumoto, M., Chinen, K., & Endo, H. (2018). Remanufactured auto parts market in Japan: Historical review and factors affect- ing green purchasing behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 4494-4505.
  48. McLaren, A., & McLauchlan, S. (2015). Crafting sustainable repairs: practice-based approaches to extending the life of clothes. PLATE conference, Nottingham.
  49. Mylan, J. (2015). Understanding the diffusion of sustainable product- service systems: Insights from the sociology of consumption and practice theory. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97, 13-20.
  50. Mylan, J., Holmes, H., & Paddock, J. (2016). Re-introducing con- sumption to the 'circular economy': A sociotechnical analysis of domestic food provisioning. Sustainability, 8(8), 794.
  51. Napier, E., & Sanguineti, F. (2018). Fashion Merchandisers' Slash and Burn dilemma: a consequence of over production and excessive waste? Rutgers Business Review, 3(2)
  52. Nazlı, T. (2021). Repair motivation and barriers model: Investigating user perspectives related to product repair towards a circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 289, 125644.
  53. Nguyen, L. T., Van, J. C., Vinh Nhat, Lu., & Hill, S. R. (2020). Col- lective empowerment in online communities: Conceptualization, scale refinement, and validation. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 28(3), 301-317.
  54. Nobre, G. C., & Tavares, E. (2021). The quest for a circular economy final definition: A scientific perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 314, 127973.
  55. O'Garra, T. (2009). Bequest values for marine resources: How impor- tant for indigenous communities in less-developed economies? Environmental & Resource Economics, 44(2), 179-202.
  56. Ostrom, A. L., Field, J. M., Fotheringham, D., Subramony, M., Gustaf- sson, A., Lemon, K. N., Huang, M.-H., & McColl-Kennedy, J. R. (2021). Service research priorities: Managing and delivering service in turbulent times. Journal of Service Research, 24(3), 329-353.
  57. Park, H. J., & Lin, L. M. (2020). Exploring attitude-behavior gap in sustainable consumption: Comparison of recycled and upcycled fashion products. Journal of Business Research, 117, 623-628.
  58. Peronard, J.-P., & Ballantyne, A. G. (2019). Broadening the under- standing of the role of consumer services in the circular econ- omy: Toward a conceptualization of value creation processes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 239, 118010.
  59. Philip, H. E., Ozanne, L. K., & Ballantine, P. W. (2015). Examining tem- porary disposition and acquisition in peer-to-peer renting. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(11-12), 1310-1332.
  60. Prahalad, C. K., & Ramaswamy, V. (2000). Co-opting customer com- petence. Harvard Business Review, 78(1), 79.
  61. Rabiu, M. K., & Jaeger-Erben, M. (2022). Appropriation and rou- tinisation of circular consumer practices: A review of current knowledge in the circular economy literature. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 100081.
  62. Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A Devel- opment in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243-263.
  63. Rejeb, A., Rejeb, K., & Keogh, J. G. (2022). The circular economy and marketing: A literature review. Etikonomi, 21(1), 153-176.
  64. Repo, P., Anttonen, M., Mykkänen, J., & Lammi, M. (2018). Lack of congruence between European citizen perspectives and policies on circular economy. European Journal of Sustainable Develop- ment, 7(1), 249-249.
  65. Riisgaard, H., Mosgaard, M., & Zacho, K. O. (2016). Local circles in a circular economy: The case of smartphone repair in Denmark. Euro- pean Journal of Sustainable Development, 5(1), 109-124.
  66. Satyro, W. C., Sacomano, J. B., Contador, J. C., & Telles, R. (2018). Planned obsolescence or planned resource depletion? A sustain- able approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 195, 744-752.
  67. Schepers, J., Falk, T., De Ruyter, Ko., De Jong, Ad., & Hammerschmidt, M. (2012). Principles and principals: Do customer stewardship and agency control compete or complement when shaping front- line employee behavior? Journal of Marketing, 76(6), 1-20.
  68. Schulz, C., Hjaltadóttir, R. E., & Hild, P. (2019). Practising circles: Studying institutional change and circular economy practices. Journal of Cleaner Production, 237, 117749.
  69. Singh, B., & Tiwari, A. A. (2020). Customer stewardship behavior and stewardship fatigue: A conceptual framework. Marketing Intel- ligence & Planning., 38(3), 386-299.
  70. Skärin, F., Rösiö, C., & Andersen, A.-L. (2022). An explorative study of circularity practices in swedish manufacturing companies. Sustain- ability, 14(12), 7246.
  71. Sørensen, F., & Bærenholdt, J. O. (2020). Tourist practices in the circular economy. Annals of Tourism Research, 85, 103027.
  72. Suchek, N., Fernandes, C. I., Kraus, S., Filser, M., & Sjögrén, H. (2021). Innovation and the circular economy: A systematic literature review. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(8), 3686-3702.
  73. Testa, F., Iovino, R., & Iraldo, F. (2020). The circular economy and consumer behaviour: The mediating role of information seeking in buying circular packaging. Business Strategy and the Environ- ment, 29(8), 3435-3448.
  74. Trischler, J., Svensson, P. O., Williams, H., & Wikström, F. (2022). Citizens as an innovation source in sustainability transitions- linking the directionality of innovations with the locus of the problem in transformative innovation policy. Public Management Review, 1-23.
  75. van Loon, P., Diener, D., & Harris, S. (2021). Circular products and business models and environmental impact reductions: Current knowledge and knowledge gaps. Journal of Cleaner Production, 288, 125627.
  76. Vargo, S. L., Akaka, M. A., & Vaughan, C. M. (2017). Conceptualiz- ing value: A service-ecosystem view. Journal of Creating Value, 3(2), 117-124.
  77. Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2018). The SAGE Handbook of Service- Dominant Logic. SAGE Publications Inc.
  78. Welch, D., Swaffield, J., & Evans, D. (2021). Who's responsible for food waste? Consumers, retailers and the food waste discourse coalition in the United Kingdom. Journal of Consumer Culture, 21(2), 236-256.
  79. Yi, Y., Gong, T., & Lee, H. (2013). The impact of other customers on customer citizenship behavior. Psychology and Marketing, 30(4), 341-435.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Conduit, J., Karpen, I. O., & Willmott, T.
Affiliations
  • The University of Adelaide (AU)
  • Karlstad University (SE)
Corresponding author
Conduit, Jodie
ORCID
Venue
AMS Review
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2023-10-11
Volume
13
Issue
3-4
Pages
211-231
ISSN
  • 1869-814X (ISSN-L)
  • 1869-8182
DOI
10.1007/s13162-023-00262-6
OpenAlex
W4387535182
Cited by
20
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 6
FWCI
4.31
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • AMS Review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Digitala vetenskapliga arkivet (Diva) (Karlstad University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
The University of Adelaide
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 › Building and Construction › Sustainable Design and Development
Keywords
circular economy, resource stewardship, resource conservation, resource regeneration, resource recovery, sustainable consumption

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