The Emergent Role of Digital Technologies in the Circular Economy: A Review
Open accessAbstract
Digital technologies have enabled the formulation of multiple Product Service-Systems (PSS) with considerable economic, environmental and societal benefits. One of the most promising paradigms, which is inspired by business models and value propositions that have already been described in the PSS literature, is the concept of Circular Economy. Circular Economy is characterized as an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design and is attracting significant attention from researchers and policy makers alike. In light of the recent proliferation of digital technologies such as Big Data and the Internet of Things, this article attempts to identify how can digital technologies support the transition to Circular Economy. This article conducted a systematic review of the literature based on a review protocol, in an effort to evaluate the application of key digital technologies in Circular Economy. The study concludes by identifying research gaps, reflecting on the application of digital technologies in the field of PSS and proposing suggestions for future research.
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.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
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.
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?
Antikainen et al. and Pagoropoulous et al. acknowledge the emergent role of digital technologies in the circular economy and the gap in integrated research, but fail to suggest reasons for this gap.
“Other authors such as Antikainen et al., (2018) [56] and Pagoropoulous et al., (2017) [57] acknowledge the emergent role of digital technologies in the circular economy and the gap in integrated research, but fail to suggest reasons for this gap of research.”
From Digitisation and the Circular Economy: A Review of Current Research and Future Trends (2018) · cites this paper as [57]
The concepts of 'digital intelligence' and 'digital technologies' have been observed to be used interchangeably in research.
“Hence the concepts of 'digital intelligence' and 'digital technologies' have been observed to be used interchangeably in research [57].”
From Digitisation and the Circular Economy: A Review of Current Research and Future Trends (2018) · cites this paper as [57]
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
Towards circular economy implementation: A comprehensive review in context of manufacturing industry
Lieder, M., & Rashid, A. (2016) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.12.042 · Cited by 2,762 · see citing works
Reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain: A comprehensive review to explore the future
Govindan, K., Soleimani, H., & Kannan, D. (2014) · European Journal of Operational Research · doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2014.07.012 · Cited by 2,029 · see citing works
Product services for a resource-efficient and circular economy – a review
Tukker, A. (2015) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.11.049 · Cited by 1,961 · see citing works
Designing the Business Models for Circular Economy—Towards the Conceptual Framework
Lewandowski, M. (2016) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su8010043 · Cited by 1,619 · see citing works
The servitization of manufacturing: A review of literature and reflection on future challenges
Baines, T. S., Lightfoot, H. W., Benedettini, O., & Kay, J. M. (2009) · Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management · doi:10.1108/17410380910960984 · Cited by 1,541 · see citing works
A research manifesto for services science
Chesbrough, H. W., & Spohrer, J. (2006) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/1139922.1139945 · Cited by 1,044 · see citing works
The history and current applications of the circular economy concept
Winans, K. S., Kendall, A. M., & Deng, H. (2016) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.123 · Cited by 1,029 · see citing works
Manzini, E., & Vezzoli, C. A. (2003) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/s0959-6526(02)00153-1 · Cited by 770 · see citing works
Distributed manufacturing: scope, challenges and opportunities
Srai, J. S., Kumar, M., Graham, G., Phillips, W., Tooze, J., Ford, S. J., Beecher, P., Raj, B., Gregory, M., Tiwari, M. K., et al. (2016) · International Journal of Production Research · doi:10.1080/00207543.2016.1192302 · Cited by 336 · see citing works
Seeking competitive advantage with service infusion: a systematic literature review
Eloranta, V., & Turunen, T. (2015) · Journal of service management · doi:10.1108/josm-12-2013-0359 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Challenges when evaluating Product/Service-Systems through Life Cycle Assessment
Kjaer, L. L., Pagoropoulos, A., Schmidt, J. H., & McAloone, T. C. (2016) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.048 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Self-citationChallenges and current developments for Sensing, Smart and Sustainable Enterprise Systems
Weichhart, G., Molina, A., Chen, D., et al. (2015) · Computers in Industry · doi:10.1016/j.compind.2015.07.002 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Reuter, M. A. (2016) · Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B · doi:10.1007/s11663-016-0735-5 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Role of information technology and collaboration in reverse logistics supply chains
Jayaraman, V., Ross, A. D., & Agarwal, A. K. (2008) · International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications · doi:10.1080/13675560701694499 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Business Intelligence Guidebook: From Data Integration to Analytics
Sherman, R. (2014) · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Enhancing Product Recovery Value in Closed-Loop Supply Chains with RFID
Visich, J. K., Li, S., & Khumawala, B. M. (2007) · Bryant Digital Repository (Bryant University) · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Digitalization and Big Data Supporting Responsible Business Co-evolution
Salminen, V., Ruohomaa, H., & Kantola, J. (2016) · Advances in intelligent systems and computing · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42070-7_96 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
A service requirements engineering method for a digital service ecosystem
Immonen, A., Ovaska, E., Kalaoja, J., et al. (2015) · Service Oriented Computing and Applications · doi:10.1007/s11761-015-0175-0 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
The Big Data Application Strategy for Cost Reduction in Automotive Industry
Ge, X., & Jackson, J. (2014) · SAE International journal of commercial vehicles · doi:10.4271/2014-01-2410 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Business Intelligence Applications
Sherman, R. (2014) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-411461-6.00013-7 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Oracles: how prediction markets turn employees into visionaries
(2012) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.50-0971 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- J. Biolchini, P. G. Mian, A. Natali, and G. Travassos, "Systematic Review in Software Engineering," 2005.
- M. Moreno and F. Charnley, "Can re-distributed manufacturing and digital intelligence enable a regenerative economy? An integrative literature review," 2016, vol. 52, pp. 563-575.
- F. Lampathaki, "FutureEnterprise, a roadmap for sensing enterprise," CEUR Workshop Proc., vol. 1414, 2015.
- D. N. Thompson, into visionaries. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012.
- T. Baines, H. W. Lightfoot, O. Benedettini, and J. M. Kay, "The servitization of manufacturing," J. Manuf. Technol. Manag., vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 547-567, Jun. 2009.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Kristoffersen, E., Blomsma, F., Mikalef, P., & Li, J. (2020) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.07.044 · Cited by 841 · see citing works
Exploring How Usage-Focused Business Models Enable Circular Economy through Digital Technologies
Bressanelli, G., Adrodegari, F., Perona, M., & Saccani, N. (2018) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su10030639 · Cited by 666 · see citing works
Bonilla, S. H., Silva, H. R. O., Terra da Silva, M., Franco Gonçalves, R., & Sacomano, J. B. (2018) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su10103740 · Cited by 645 · see citing works
Industry 4.0 and the Circular Economy: A Literature Review and Recommendations for Future Research
Awan, U., Sroufe, R., & Shahbaz, M. (2021) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.2731 · Cited by 609 · see citing works
Digitalisation as an Enabler of Circular Economy
Antikainen, M., Uusitalo, T., & Kivikytö-Reponen, P. (2018) · Procedia CIRP · doi:10.1016/j.procir.2018.04.027 · Cited by 532 · see citing works
Digital technologies catalyzing business model innovation for circular economy—Multiple case study
Ranta, V., Aarikka-Stenroos, L., & Väisänen, J.-M. (2021) · Resources Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105155 · Cited by 495 · see citing works
A survey of smart product-service systems: Key aspects, challenges and future perspectives
Zheng, P., Wang, Z., Chen, C.-H., & Pheng Khoo, L. (2019) · Advanced Engineering Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.aei.2019.100973 · Cited by 377 · see citing works
A framework of digital technologies for the circular economy: digital functions and mechanisms
Liu, Q., Trevisan, A. H., Yang, M., & Mascarenhas, J. (2022) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.3015 · Cited by 324 · see citing works
Orchestrating a smart circular economy: Guiding principles for digital product passports
Langley, D. J., Rosca, E., Angelopoulos, M., Kamminga, O., & Hooijer, C. (2023) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114259 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Examining the role of procurement 4.0 towards remanufacturing operations and circular economy
Bag, S., Dhamija, P., Gupta, S., & Sivarajah, U. (2021) · Production Planning & Control · doi:10.1080/09537287.2020.1817602 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pagoropoulos, A., Pigosso, D. C. A., & McAloone, T. C.
- Affiliations
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Pagoropoulos, Aris
- Venue
- Procedia CIRP
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 64
- Pages
- 19-24
- ISSN
- 2212-8271 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2621066565
- Cited by
- 540
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 59 · 2025: 75 · 2024: 75 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 82 · 2021: 69 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 33 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 47.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Procedia CIRP (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Orbit (Technical University of Denmark, DTU) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering › Digital Transformation in Industry
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Service and Product Innovation
- Keywords
- circular economy, digital technologies, product-service systems, big data, Internet of Things, business models, value proposition, circular economy transition, research gaps
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
