A Systematic Review On Drivers, Barriers, and Practices Towards Circular Economy A Supply Chain

International Journal of Production Research
ISSN: 0020-7543 (Print) 1366-588X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tprs20
A systematic review on drivers, barriers, and

practices towards circular economy: a supply chain
perspective
Kannan Govindan & Mia Hasanagic
To cite this article: Kannan Govindan & Mia Hasanagic (2018) A systematic review on drivers,
barriers, and practices towards circular economy: a supply chain perspective, International Journal
of Production Research, 56:1-2, 278-311, DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141
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International Journal of Production Research, 2018
Vol. 56, Nos. 1–2, 278–311, https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141
A systematic review on drivers, barriers, and practices towards circular economy: a supply
chain perspective
Kannan Govindan* and Mia Hasanagic
Center for Sustainable Supply Chain Engineering, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark,
Odense, Denmark
(Received 21 August 2017; accepted 27 October 2017)
In the last few years, the circular economy has received considerable attention worldwide because it offers an opportu-
nity to optimise and promote sustainable production and consumption through new models based on continuous growth
and limitless resources. Although various advantages have been identified that emerge from the application of a circular
economy, no concrete studies exist that investigate current state-of-the-art drivers, barriers and practices in this relevant
field. An in-depth exploration of current practices would enhance the circular economy’s significance and would help
understand its present level of implementation. With this concern, this study provides an analysis of the drivers, barriers
and practices that influence the implementation of the circular economy in the context of supply chains through a sys-
tematic review. In order to analyse the circular economy’s level of implementation, we correlate stakeholders’ perspec-
tives with drivers, barriers, and practices; thus, a multi-perspective framework is proposed. From the results, it is evident
that among various stakeholders, the governmental perspective has the maximum positive impact on the implementation
of the circular economy in supply chains. Specifically, the circular economy can be promoted through laws, policies, risk
reduction (through tax levies) and strict governance.
Keywords: circular economy; drivers; barriers; practices; multi-perspective framework; systematic review
1. Introduction
Experts anticipate the global population will reach around 9 billion by 2050 and 10.1 billion by 2100 (Bastein 2013).
Due to the population growth, there will be an increase in the demand for natural resources, which includes raw
materials, water, energy and fertile land. The increased demand for these resources places pressure on the environment
(Franklin-Johnson, Figge, and Canning 2016). The middle class is also growing, which means consumption behaviours
increase and the demand for more luxury products rises. Moreover, during the twenty-first century, materials consump-
tion worldwide will increase eightfold; by the end of 2050, global demands for resources are expected to triple which
requires a much higher utilisation of natural resources (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten Wolde 2013; Reh 2013).
Furthermore, urbanisation results in the migration of more people to the cities, which adds additional pressure on
the environment. These developments elevate the usage of raw materials for residential construction such as roads,
bridges, dams, sewages and the need for transport (Bastein et al. 2013). The way resources are currently managed must
be improved to locate opportunities for greater wealth for individuals while retaining environmentally friendly practices
(Shi et al. 2017). This transition is already ongoing, and one of its central views is the concept of a circular economy
(Bastein et al. 2013). In 1989, Pearce and Turner presented the concept of a circular economic system based on earlier
studies from Boulding, an ecological economist, in 1966 (Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016). Boulding’s idea of the
economy as a circular system was seen as a precondition for the sustainability of human life on earth. Further, with the
support of Boulding’s idea, Pearce and Turner explained their theoretical framework, which highlights the transition
from linear economy to circular economy (Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016).
However, the linear economy model has dominated the industrial evolution for the last 150 years (MacArthur 2015).
The conventional linear economy model is based on products that are manufactured from raw materials, sold and depos-
ited as waste after use (Jawahir and Bradley 2016); generally, that model is defined as take-make-use-destroy (Ghisellini,
Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016). Moreover, this model does not consider other factors such as the impact on societal capitals,
including human resources, and on the conservation of scarce resources (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten Wolde 2013).
*Corresponding author. Email: kgov@iti.sdu.dk
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

International Journal of Production Research 279
The circular economy model, on the other hand, considers factors that can reduce waste and monitor more closely the
consumption of resources. The circular economy decreases the need of new, raw materials by reusing existing materials,
and this practice can be accomplished by rethinking how the product functions in a closed loop (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten
Wolde 2013). Because of the momentous advantages of the circular economy system over conventional economy, many
studies are evident in the literature in recent years. These studies examine different perspectives of the circular economy
within a wide range of applications. For instance, studies exist on manufacturing (Lieder and Rashid 2016), construction
(Smol et al. 2015), supply chain (Zhu, Geng, and Lai 2010), service (Tukker 2015) and so on. The circular economy
has positive impacts on many applications, including supply chains, which requires a paradigm shift when moving from
a conventional to a sustainable supply chain. Hence, it is mandatory to explore the implementation concepts of the cir-
cular economy within the supply chain perspective where other studies are limited. To uncover the present status of
implementation, many researchers have reviewed the circular economy concepts in general. For instance, Su et al.
(2013) reviewed the Chinese circular economy concepts, practices and assessment tools. Geng et al. (2009) reviewed
the progress and scope of implementation of the circular economy in Chinese regional levels. Ghisellini, Cialani, and
Ulgiati (2016) reviewed the transitions involved with interlinking environmental and economic systems. These general
findings and recommendations might not have the same impact on all applications. Hence, it is necessary to review the
circular economy perspective, particularly as it applies to a theory like supply chain management. Many studies have
argued that the effectiveness of supply chain management directly influences the organisational performance regardless
of the application. With this concern, circular economy integration becomes one of the vital strategies in supply chain
innovation. Some studies have reviewed the circular economy with a supply chain perspective. For instance, Pan et al.
(2015) reviewed the circular economy implementation strategies in supply chain management, but this study did not
address the key components (drivers, barriers and practices) of circular economy implementation.
With this consideration, this paper aims to identify the main drivers, practices and barriers to implement circular
economy with the focus of supply chain management through a systematic literature review. Organisations have identi-
fied the key drivers for influencing, key barriers for eradication and key practices for implementing the circular economy
in supply chain management. The paper is divided into five sections and is structured as follows. Section 2 justifies the
need for the content analysis presented in this paper and positions its results to contemporary scientific research. Previ-
ous reviews of scientific literature on circular economy are summarised. Section 3 contains the background that focuses
on the theoretical aspect of circular economy. In Section 4, the methodological design of this study is presented. In Sec-
tion 5, the classification of drivers, barriers and practices is examined and collected in tables towards a multi-perspective
framework. Research findings are discussed in Section 6 and suggestions for future work are presented in Section 6.
Finally, the conclusion of this study is presented in Section 7. The research study is also shown in a framework in
Figure 1.
2. Previous literature reviews

In this section, the need for content analysis and framework development will be justified by summarising former
reviews of scientific literature on circular economy. Most literature has been published within the last two years due to
growing interest in the subject area. This section analyses current research to identify more clearly the topics of concern
that require further exploration. In addition, this section helps to define state-of-the-art practices in the circular economy
and the need to explore them further. Lastly, this section deals with the necessary shift from a linear economy to a circu-
lar economy.
The earliest related literature reviews focus on the developing circular economy (CE) policy within China. These lit-
eratures examine its relationship to China’s information technology (Sarkis and Zhu 2008) and its socioeconomic con-
text (Naustdalslid 2014). Other reviews address environmental degradation associated with rapid economic development
and eco-industrial initiatives taken in China; using a common graphical representation, these topics are compared with
initiatives taken in the West and elsewhere in East Asia (Geng et al. 2008; Sarkis and Zhu 2008; Mathews 2011; Su
et al. 2013). Reviews published after 2014 on the circular economy are given in a Table 1; this overview provides the
title, author, and a short summary.
In contrast to this study, none of the other literatures has examined the different drivers, barriers and practices
towards circular economy with a supply chain perspective. Most articles focus on the circular economy in general
and feature a biological context. While these published reviews paved the way for circular economy research, they
do not investigate the drivers, barriers and practices towards circular economy, so the focus of this research remains
novel.
280 K. Govindan and M. Hasanagic
Figure 1. Research study.
Table 1. Summary of previous literature.
Title Author Year Summary
Biological processes for advancing lignocellulosic waste Liguori, R., 2016 Reviewed bio treatment concepts such as bio
biorefinery by advocating circular economy Faraco, V. refineries and waste management that promote
the implementation of the circular economy
Towards circular economy implementation: A Lieder, M., 2016 Reviewed the status of the circular economy in
comprehensive review in context of manufacturing Rashid, A. manufacturing context, including waste
industry management, usage of scarce resources and eco-
efficient activities
A review on circular economy: The expected transition Ghisellini, P., 2016 Reviewed the circular economy features over
to a balanced interplay of environmental and Cialani, C., the last two decades. This study examines the
economic systems Ulgiati, S. implementation of the circular economy at
different levels of an organisation’s structure,
including micro, meso and macro, and it
identifies its merits and demerits
Designing the business models for circular economy – Lewandowski, 2016 Reviewed existing circular economy business
towards the conceptual framework M. models to determine gaps that remain in the
literature. Further, this study proposed a new
framework for better implementation of CE
Product services for a resource-efficient and circular Tukker, A. 2015 Reviewed the existing literature that deals with
economy – A review the circular economy employing a focus of
resource efficiency in the application of product
services systems
3. Theoretical background
The circular economy has been defined in a variety of ways from different researchers. Two of the most acclaimed defi-
nitions are ‘the central of circular economy is the circular (closed) flow of materials and the use of raw materials and
energy through multiple phases’ (Franklin-Johnson, Figge, and Canning 2016) and ‘an economy based on a “spiral-loop
system” that minimises matter, energy-flow and environmental deterioration without restricting economic growth or
social and technical progress’ (Geng et al. 2008).
The circular economy has recently received major consideration among researchers because it fosters both environ-
mental protection and social well-being (Jawahir and Bradley 2016). The shift from a linear economy to a circular econ-
omy is needed before increased demands for natural resources place pressure on the environment. One of the target
goals of the circular economy is to reduce the use of natural resources, reduce waste amounts, decrease greenhouse gas
emissions and usage of hazardous substances and to move to renewable and sustainable energy suppliers, thereby reduc-
ing pressure on the suppliers (Bastein et al. 2013). One strength of the circular economy is that it can decouple eco-
nomic growth using a new business model based on services instead of natural resources (Eijk 2015). The circular
economy can decrease value destruction in the overall system and correspondingly increase value creation in each link
of the system (Bastein et al. 2013). Moreover, a circular economy will decrease waste through recycling and reuse of
products which will create both environmental and economic benefits, increase the lifetime of products and have the
opportunity to create more jobs if the circular economy is implemented (Ilić and Nikolić 2016). According to a recent
report, a decrease in resource consumption will lead to 1.4–2.8 million new job opportunities in the European Union by
2020 (MacArthur 2012). In addition, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation states that a circular economy could have a posi-
tive impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 (MacArthur 2015).
HP Instant Link services offers a practical example of innovative success. They provide printing service to individu-
als and small business around the world. The model uses connected printers to send customers replacement cartridges,
along with pre-paid envelopes for returning used cartridges, before the customer runs out of ink. The model successfully
demonstrates a component recovery and recycling programme in the consumer electronics sector, as it enables HP to
put their cartridges through multiple uses (MacArthur 2017a). Through this business model, packaging use is reduced
and up to 57% of waste is eliminated. A second practical example comes from Renault, a company that remanufactures
engine parts, creates a ‘second life’ for electric batteries and increases the ‘short-loop’ recycling of raw materials in the
sector. Currently, 36% of the total mass of a newly produced Renault vehicle in Europe comes from recycled materials,
and 85% of an ELV is recyclable (MacArthur 2017b).
Initially, the ‘3R’ principles of materials and energy – reduction, reuse and recycling – propose the three dominant
methods in practice for circular economy (Yuan, Bi, and Moriguichi 2006). In recent years, however, due to an
increased awareness of sustainable innovation, 6R approaches are relevant in the circular economy. 6R adds on the con-
cepts of recover (Kim and Goyal 2011; Govindan, Jha, and Garg 2016), redesign (Lu, Tsai, and Chen 2012; Ying and
Li-jun 2012) and remanufacture (Dowlatshahi 2005; Wu et al. 2016; Diaz and Marsillac 2017), and 6R practices have
already shown better results all over the world. For example, the International Iron and Steel Institute report demon-
strates that lifecycle costs and energy requirements for reuse are significantly lower than those for recycling (Nederland
Circulair 2015). In addition, the report finds that whereas recycling reduces costs by 10% and energy use by 50%, reuse
reduces costs by approximately 40% and energy approximately by 80%. Moreover, recycling products garner their high-
est value and reduce the level of risk associated with price volatility, resource scarcity, energy demand and environmen-
tal impact (Gerner et al. 2005). The EU report reveals that total waste production in 2010 was 2520 million tonnes,
which is quite progressive when compared to other parts of the world. From this number, around 36% is recycled; the
remainder is sent to landfills or burned (European Commission). The above discussion shows the importance of the
circular economy.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation depicts the concerns of the circular economy in Figure 2. The main idea of this
circular model is to take full advantage of reusability of products and raw materials to minimise waste. There are differ-
ent fundamental characteristics to describe the circular economy such as that waste is ‘designed out’. The Ellen
MacArthur Foundation asserts that the circular economy strategy is more complete if the circles in the figure are tighter;
the products should be in the loop for as long as possible and reclaim as high a value as possible (Bastein et al. 2013;
MacArthur 2015).
Figure 2 shows that the model distinguishes between two loops: the biotic (green loop) and the technical nutrients
(blue loop). These two loops find their way into the circular economy in two different ways (MacArthur 2015).
Technical materials are recovered and mostly restored in the technical cycle. The technical nutrients contain products
and materials such as metals and plastics. These should be reused and stay in the closed loop to minimise the use of
non-renewable resources and to prevent potential pollution.
Figure 2. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2015).
The bio-nutrients go through the cascades to safely return to the biosphere (MacArthur 2015). The concept of cas-
cading – the process that returns bio-nutrient materials safely to the biosphere – has been identified as a cornerstone of
the bio-economy and the circular economy strategies (Bezama 2016). Cascading is often mentioned as a measurement
of the current material stocks associated with each product in a system; it is used to estimate the potential type and
amount of materials that are available for the recycling infrastructures at any given time. The second aspect related to
cascading is the quality of the materials streams; it provides a qualitative assessment of the material streams after the
lifecycle of the product so their technical and economic utilisation alternatives can be better understood (Bezama 2016).
This is an important factor if the loops have to be closed or improved as it is possible to define the highest value-added
alternatives for the available resources. The third dimension of cascading that is important for the implementation of a
circular economy is the consideration of the lifetime associated with a particular product. This enables evaluation of the
potential impacts associated with the product and provides a way to evaluate the system’s overall behaviour. This is
important to evaluate alternatives to implement the circular economy and bio economy strategies (Bezama 2016).
Whereas, the circular economy has been widely regarded as an important topic, on 16 December 2014 the European
Commission issued a statement that re-evaluated the concepts of circular economy; they sought to evaluate the advan-
tages and disadvantages associated with the circular economy (Bartl 2015). The purpose for the re-evaluation was clear:
with higher recycling rates, it is anticipated that more materials will go back into the production process and, corre-
spondingly, the demand for virgin materials will decrease. Because Europe imports many raw materials, their depen-
dence on imports would become less critical and will increase European policy (Bartl 2015). In 2015, Andreas Bartl
states that although the recycling of materials reduces resource consumption, it does not offer the single best solution
for increasing both quality and efficiency. Hence, there is a need to consider environmental impacts during recycling
and to follow the European waste management policies regarding waste prevention and exports (Bartl 2015). The grow-
ing awareness on the circular economy forces researchers to consider its role in various fields of application; supply
chain management currently serves as one of the key debate topics. Many controversies exist with the green supply
chain management and the circular economy. Both strategies are closely related to one another, but no clear agenda for
the circular economy yet exists within the perspective of the supply chain. From the overview, it is evident that a
number of initiatives are associated with the circular economy worldwide. On the other hand, many practitioners are still
unaware of the concepts and implementation of the circular economy, so it is important that more research is emerging
on the topic. In order to contribute to the relevant literature, this study seeks to review the drivers, barriers and practices
of circular economy implementation with a particular focus on supply chain management. The methodology used and
its respective outcomes will be discussed in upcoming sections.
The research question that has defined in this study is: What are the drivers, practices, and barriers towards the circular econ-
omy in a supply chain?
4. Methodology
Few instructional texts are available that address philosophical approaches to social science research and methods for
empirical investigation (Denyer and Tranfield 2009). While literature reviews play a critical role in journal publications,
their potential to create knowledge and to affect policies and practices is even greater.
This study adopted a systematic review, a method of collecting available literature in a systematic way (Quarshie,
Salmi, and Leuschner 2016; Jaegler et al. 2017). According to Denyer and Tranfield (2009), a systematic review is a
methodology that may help researchers analyse the exact status of their field of concern and reach clear conclusions.
However, the focus in this paper is to identify the drivers, practices and barriers regarding implementation of the circular
economy in a supply chain perspective. This research method shows how the data will be collected, analysed and
reported through this paper. The first step was to establish the right criteria for the study: to select the right papers. The
second step was to search for other potential papers. The third step was to evaluate the papers and then determine if the
articles were appropriate for the topic and were in scope. The fourth step was to analyse the assembled papers noting
the works’ year of publication, methodology used, geographic context and industry settings. The research process is pre-
sented below in Figure 3.
4.1 Search criteria

In a systematic review, the first step is to identify which studies should be considered and which should be declined. In
addition, from the beginning of the study, the review must provide a clear scope of the areas to be investigated. Hence,
pre-specified criteria were proposed to select the studies to be included in this review.
A transparent approach was used, and in order to secure the validity of the data, specific databases and certain years
were selected. The criteria for this research study are as follows:
(1) This review includes only formal literature (excluding books, research reports and so on), and it considers publi-
cations, abstracts and citations. According to Falagas et al. (2008), Tukker (2015) and Pinho and Mendes
(2017), Scopus is a respected bibliographic database that strongly assists researchers with existing literatures,
especially with works published after 1995. For these reasons, a structured keyword search was conducted in
Figure 3. Methodology overview.

Scopus (www.scopus.com). Furthermore, the database Web of Science (www.webofscience.com) was also used
in the research to improve the reliability of the collected data.
(2) The selected papers should be English-speaking peer-reviewed papers on the circular economy.
(3) The paper should be published in the period from 2000 to 2016, to be sure that the newest data is used in this
research.
(4) The criteria in the databases Scopus and Web of Science were that the papers should be reviewed, articles in
press or editorial material. The keyword ‘circular economy’ was searched for Article title, abstract and keywords
in the papers, which is named as ‘topic’ in that specific database.
4.2 Article search

The search resulted in 173 articles from both databases. All the articles that met the criteria for potentially relevant
works were collected. There were 107 articles from the Scopus database and 66 from Web of Science. The 107 articles
from Scopus were 48 papers reviewed, 43 articles in press and 16 from editorial material. Furthermore, the 66 articles
from the database Web of Science were 43 reviewed papers and 23 papers from editorial material.
In order to eliminate search errors, a manual search was deployed to avoid word search limitations, which could
overlook relevant articles. Furthermore, as this topic focused on circular economy in supply chains, some keywords used
in supply chains were searched. The search terms ‘circular economy in supply chain’ produced a maximum of five
papers.
Therefore, in the search’s second stage, a keyword search was performed in order to ensure all the relevant studies
were included. In circular economy, the following keywords were used: ‘drivers’, ‘practices’, ‘barriers’ and ‘closed loop’
to be jointly found in title, keywords or abstract. Keywords such as ‘remanufacturing’, ‘reduce’, ‘reuse’ and ‘recycling’
were also accepted during the publication gathering process, searching in titles, abstracts, keywords and subject terms.
An additional 22 articles were added. Most of them had been scanned before and found that they did not appear to meet
the criteria.
4.3 Evaluation of articles and inclusion

After the second stage, 215 papers were collected. All articles were evaluated to ensure that the paper considered clearly
fit the scope of the topic. Any article that did not deal with the topic area or that played a minor role was excluded.
However, articles in which the topic emerged as a significant sub-theme were included. After this stage, 155 articles
were eliminated and a final sample of 60 articles were considered.
4.4 Article content analysis

In this section, the final sample of 60 articles will be examined considering the year of publication, methodology used,
geographical context and industry settings.
4.4.1 Distribution of papers by year of publication

The distribution of all 60 papers is presented in Figure 3. The figure shows that the first year of publication was 2006.
The number of publications was found to rise significantly from 2015 to 2016. This increase in publications shows a
growing interest in the circular economy as related to topics such as drivers, barriers and practices in supply chains.
Figure 4 depicts that scholarly interest in the circular economy began to appear around 2006, and the number of
publications generally correlate to the first intervention of circular economy concepts in China. China was seriously
affected by their growing population and the decrease in natural resources that accompanied their economic crisis.
Hence, during this time, China introduced a new strategy, circular economy, to overcome these national challenges. The
first law on the circular economy was proposed by the Chinese Government in 2009, ‘Circular Economy Promotion
Law of the People’s Republic of China’. After the approval of this law, many researchers shifted their focus towards the
circular economy with a variety of perspectives. Recently, the European Union emphasised the concept of the circular
economy and proved that implementing a circular economy decreases the material cost and increases profits. With this
concern, this study seeks to promote the circular economy through a comprehensive review of its literatures.
Total: 60
Distribution of papers
25
20
15
23 Total
10
15
5
1 2 2 1 3 5 3 3 2
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Figure 4. Distribution of papers by year of publication.
Table 2. Methodology, industry setting and geographic context cited in the research database of 60 papers.
Entire data-set 60 (in %)
Research methodology
Case study 33
Literature review 13
Models 3
Survey 7
Theoretical and conceptual papers 44
Industry settings
Not specified 70
Mobile phones 3
Electronic 3
Chemical and food 3
Iron and steel 3
Water and energy 2
Leather 2
Other 14
Geographic context
None 40
Asia 32
Europe 23
Oceania 2
Worldwide 3
4.4.2 Results of content analysis

The 60 papers selected for this study have been analysed regarding the methodology, industry settings and the geo-
graphic context from each paper, and the results are presented in Table 2. The numbers given reflect the percentage of
the total data-set. In the next sections below, the different parts will be described.
4.4.2.1 Research methodology. Most of the studies published in circular economy include literature reviews, reports,
case studies and conceptual frameworks. Note that the majority of works focused on China rather than on other geo-
graphical contexts. Hence, China is clearly more dedicated towards circular economy implementation in response to
their growing population, the rapid depletion of nonrenewable resources and the nation’s social problems (Ghisellini,
Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016).
The most common research methods used in this study are theoretical and conceptual frameworks and case studies.
Furthermore, from Figure 5 below, it is clear that the number of case studies increases from 2015 to 2016, whereas the
number of literature reviews decreases.
45% Case study
40% Literature Review

Research methodology
35% Models
Survey
% of grand total
30% 18%
25%
7%
20% 2%
2%
15% 8% 3%
10%
2% 13%
5% 2% 10%
2% 2% 2%
3% 2% 3% 5% 3% 2% 2%
0% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Year
Figure 5. Distribution of research methodology.
4.4.2.2 Industry settings. The scope of papers identified in Table 1 demonstrates that different industries are explored
among the research used in this study. One industry mentioned, in two of the papers, is the mobile phone industry. Sales
of mobile phones have consistently increased over the last years, which results in a higher waste of mobile phones.
Mobile phones are also an interesting topic due to their important role in consumption and environmental impact; they
have a high rate of sales and a short lifetime (Franklin-Johnson, Figge, and Canning 2016).
A second industry commonly mentioned in the papers is the steel industry. The steel industry has an important place
in the Chinese economy (Ma et al. 2013), and the output of these Chinese steel sectors continues to increase from the
combined impact of urbanisation, growth and heavy industrial developments.
Food and chemical supplies are also mentioned in some of the papers used in this study. The food processing sector
has limited resources mainly due to the complexity in reusing resources and due to greenhouse gas emissions. Within
the chemical industry, there is the potential for a negative impact on the environment at every stage of its life cycle, and
the industry is presumed to increase over the next years (Genovese et al. 2015).
Leather is also used as a case study in one of the papers regarding the circular economy. Leather is widely used in
terms of import/export throughout the world. Leather industries contribute significantly towards the global economy,
reaching an annual value of approximately 100 billion US dollars (Pringle, Barwood, and Rahimifard 2016). This busi-
ness is expected to grow further as the population rises due to a larger consumer market for leather products. The disad-
vantage of the global leather market is the waste that is generated during every stage in the life cycle of leather goods
production (Pringle, Barwood, and Rahimifard 2016). Furthermore, there is only a small percentage of options to
recover the waste generated; those options include the extraction of organic material for fertilisation and the incineration
of waste for energy recovery. A large proportion of the total leather waste is still sent to landfills with no materials or
energy recovered (Pringle, Barwood, and Rahimifard 2016).
4.4.2.3 Geographic context. The geographic context identifies in which country the methodology part is carried out.
Three different parts of the world – Oceania, Europe and Asia – are cited, and the regions have been split up in this
way because many authors use the more general designation of EU rather than naming the specific different countries.
In the table, ‘Worldwide’ refers to papers in which countries all over the world have been studied. Furthermore, ‘None’
refers to those papers in which no specific country has been cited.
Figure 6 depicts the geographical context during the years of publication, and it shows that China has published
papers about circular economy in every year in this research. Moreover, Europe has increased their publications since
2015. Again, the ‘None’ field identifies papers that did not have a specific country in their research.
From this content analysis, three main interesting findings emerge. The first demonstrates clearly that interest in the
circular economy in supply chains is steadily rising. Secondly, the increasing number of case studies implies that the cir-
cular economy is being enacted in various industries, so scholarship is moving beyond literature reviews. Thirdly, this
content analysis shows that countries in Asia were the first to publish research about the circular economy, but European
countries have increased their interest significantly.
45% Oceania
40% None Geographic context
Europe 2%
35%
Worldwide
30%
Asia 20%
25%
20%
17%
15%
10% 15%
5% 8% 2% 2% 7%
2% 5% 2%
2% 2% 3% 2% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2%
0%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Figure 6. Distribution of geographic context.
5. Content analysis and framework

A content analysis can be defined as (Krippendorff 2004):
A research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their
use. (Krippendorff 2004)
Content analysis involves specialised procedures which are expected to be reliable, replicable and valid. Content analy-
sis helps researchers to understand the reliability of the results under various circumstances and periods. According to
Neuendorf (2002), content analysis is ‘to identify and record relatively objective (or at least intersubjective) characteris-
tics of messages’. However, it is better to involve multiple researchers into the content analysis to ensure the validity
and reliability of the results rather than involving various judgements from a single researcher (Seuring and Gold 2012).
Kassarjian (1977) specifies that content analysis should follow a clear process structure. The process structure of the
research paper has been presented in Figure 3 and explained in Section 4. Afterwards the paper has been analysed
regarding drivers, practices and barriers in the circular economy. The specific drivers, barriers and practices have been
divided into internal and external levels, and they are related to one or more stakeholders. The stakeholders used in this
research are defined from the stakeholder theory (Bonnafous-Boucher and Rendtorff 2016). The drivers, barriers and
practices have been split into internal environments and external environments, because the most effective circular econ-
omy implementation depends on policies that correspond to both external and internal levels of application. At internal
levels, producers are encouraged to implement circular economy practices in their production strategies right from the
initial design. On the other hand, at the external level, the sustainable relationship has to be built between the industries
and industrial parks in order to promote cleaner production (Su et al. 2013).
The main purpose of the analysis of the drivers, barriers and practices presented in the tables is to develop a concep-
tual framework that can outline the results in a transparent way. This multi perspective framework shows how the
drives, barriers and practices relate to each other. The multi perspective framework is presented in Figure 10.
5.1 Circular economy drivers

To identify and understand the motivational factor to implement the circular economy in a supply chain, the drivers will
be first examined. These drivers are shown in Table 3. Thirteen motivational drivers to implement the circular economy
in a supply chain are emphasised. These drivers have been classified into categories based on their similarities and
meaning. The drivers are classified into internal and external environments, and each is related to one or more stake-
holders. The internal level identifies what has to be done inside the enterprise; the external level describes what has to
be done outside the enterprise so it can be adopted into the supply chain.
The selected drivers were then classified into five clusters. These clusters appeared inductively from the paper collec-
tion, based on functional aspects of circular economy, as well as inspired by previous classification schemes found in lit-
erature. The clusters are:
• Policy and economy: this cluster includes drivers such as laws concerning product take back and economy
growth.
• Health: this cluster refers to increasing animal and public health.
Table 3. Drivers.
Internal/
Drivers Description External Stakeholder Industry/market Sources
(1) Policy and economy

D1. Keep within laws and Governments in different External Organisation, EU, Serbia, Ilić and Nikolić (2016),
policies of waste countries have made laws to Supplier China Xinan and Yanfu (2011),
management promote cleaner production, Park, Sarkis, and Wu
consumption, and end of (2010), Hazen, Mollenkopf,
life management in order to and Wang (2017), Quina,
secure resources, health and Soares, and Quinta-Ferreira
safety. However, these (2017)
policies act as mandatory
drivers for many developing
context organisations
D2. Economic growth by Implementing circular Internal Organisation, General Franklin-Johnson, Figge,
implementing CE in SC economy in supply chain Supplier and Canning (2016), Geng
could increase the long-term et al. (2008), Ilić and
revenue generation through Nikolić (2016)
effective recycling and
remanufacturing activities
(2) Health
D3. Public health pays Public health is largely External Society Serbia, leather Ilić and Nikolić (2016),
heavy prices for ‘taken for granted’ and is industry Pringle, Barwood, and
overconsumption of no longer a major driver. Rahimifard (2016)
resources and energy ‘Health is not everything,
but without health
everything is nothing’. Lots
of people suffer from
illnesses caused by dirty air
and water.
D4. Animal health pays The animals have to live in External Society Food Quina, Soares, and Quinta-
heavy prices for a healthy environment Ferreira (2017)
overconsumption of
resources and energy
(3) Environmental protection
D5. Due to Climate Climate changes occur due External Government Serbia, leather Ilić and Nikolić (2016),
change /Global up to the amount of waste industry, China Pringle, Barwood, and
warming it is important produced and the Market, General Rahimifard (2016), Hazen,
that CE is implemented greenhouse gas emissions Mollenkopf, and Wang
in SC associated with the (2017), Clark et al. (2016),
consumption used. Unique Quina, Soares, and Quinta-
landscapes may be lost. Ferreira (2017)
Furthermore, climate
changes result in bad air
and water quality
D6. Modern agriculture Modern agriculture quickly External Society China Market Jun and Xiang (2011),
rapidly improves increases productivity but it Xuan, Baotong, and Hua
productivity, but it pays pays a heavy price for over- (2011)
a heavy price for consumption of resources
overconsumption of and energy
resources and energy
D7. Demand for Demand for renewable External Government General Clark et al. (2016), Schiller,
renewable energy is energy is increasing. Müller, and Ortlepp (2017)
increasing and therefore Renewable resources should
it is important to be protected
protect the environment
(Continued)
Table 3. (Continued).
Internal/
Drivers Description External Stakeholder Industry/market Sources
(4) Society
D8. To protect the future Increasing population External Government General Yuan, Bi, and Moriguichi
growth of population worldwide results in (2006), Ilić and Nikolić
the implementation of increased consumption, (2016), Pringle, Barwood,
CE is important which poses severe demand and Rahimifard (2016)
on basic resources in near
future. This urge drives the
implementation of circular
economy in supply chain
D9. Urbanisation is More people are moving External Government China Market Sun et al. (2017)
increasing and the into big cities
environment has been
negatively affected by
this increase
D10. Job creation Circular economy will Internal Organisation, General Morone and Navia (2016),
potential in supply contribute to higher local Supplier Esposito, Tse, and Soufani
chain employment, especially in (2017), Ilić and Nikolić
entry-level and semi-skilled (2016), Li et al. (2010),
jobs Schiller, Müller, and
Ortlepp (2017)
D11. Consumers’ Consumers are starting to External Consumer Serbia, General Ilić and Nikolić (2016)
environmental get knowledge about
awareness places industries’ impact on
pressure on industries environment
to develop CE in SC
(5) Product development
D12. Improve the To use circular economy as Internal Organisation, China Su et al. (2013)
efficiency of materials a strategy, it will improve Supplier
and energy use in the efficiency of materials
supply chain and energy use
D13. Increase the value of Products developed in this Internal Organisation Serbia Ilić and Nikolić (2016)
products by increasing way will have a longer
the quality lifetime and will
automatically increase their
value
• Environmental protection: this cluster includes climate change, quality of agriculture and the protection of renew-
able resources.
• Society: this cluster includes population growth, urbanisation, job creation potential and consumer awareness.
• Product development: this cluster refers to improving the efficiency of materials and energy use and to increasing
the value of products.
From the 13 drivers, 9 drivers were related to the external environment and 4 correspond to the internal environ-
ment. Internal drivers are those that exist within the firm itself and are related to resources in the organisation that pro-
mote the implementation of circular economy, whereas the external drivers involve motivational factors outside the
company that promote the implementation of the circular economy.
The drivers were also classified according to the stakeholders involved. Stakeholders used in this research are con-
sumers, society, the organisation, suppliers and the government, all of which are secured from the stakeholder theory.
The stakeholder classification is as follows: consumers are related to 1, government concerns are related to 4, the organ-
isation is related to 1, society is related to 3 and the combination of organisation and suppliers is related to 4.
This research also analysed the popularity of circular economy drivers in the supply chain according to the number
of times the driver appeared in the article portfolio. Three drivers tied for the top ranking of popularity: the potential to
get more jobs by implementing circular economy, climate change and the ability to follow laws and policies. The next
most common motivational factor is population growth and opportunities in economic growth, which appeared 3 times
in the studied papers. ‘A graph showing the drivers’ frequency of inclusion is presented in Figure 7’.
6 Drivers
External
Internal
5
4
Numbers of articels
5 5 5
2
3 3
1 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1
0
Figure 7. Frequency of drivers.
5.2 Circular economy practices

To describe and explain how the circular economy should be adopted into a supply chain via different enterprises, 34
practices are depicted in Table 4. These practices have been classified into categories based on their similarities and
meaning and by guidelines from different literatures.
Each practice identified is related to one or more stakeholders and corresponds to the internal or external environ-
ment. The same stakeholders were used as pertains to the drivers: consumers, society, suppliers, the organisation and the
government. Consumers are related to 2 of the practices, the government is related to 12, the organisation is related to
1, society is related to 5 and the combination of organisation and suppliers is related to 17 of the practices.
Selected practices are then classified into eight clusters. These clusters appeared inductively from the collection of
papers, based on functional aspects of circular economy, as well as inspired by previous classification schemes found in
literature. The clusters are:
• Governance initiatives: this cluster includes practices such as laws and policy, pilot projects, performance indica-
tors, the need of marketing about remanufactured products and increasing employment rates in the circular econ-
omy.
• Economic initiatives: this cluster states that economic growth must be decoupled from environmental impacts, and
that economic initiatives should increase environmental accounting, monitor external taxation, set the right price
and reduce risk for enterprises by developing financial instruments.
• Cleaner production: this cluster includes increasing eco-efficiency in production, cleaner purchases, cooperation
with other companies and the implementation of new paths of logistics systems.
Table 4. Practices.
Internal/
Practices Description External stakeholder Industry/Market Sources
(1) Governance initiative

P1. Establish Laws and Policies Countries all around the world have to External Government China Market, EU, Xue et al. (2010), Genovese et al. (2015),
towards CE in SC implement laws to secure that the circular water industry, steel Sauvé, Bernard, and Sloan (2015), Ma et al.
economy will be implemented. This has to industry, automotive (2013), Geng et al. (2008), Soo, Compston,
be implemented as many companies are industry and Doolan (2016), Zhu, Geng, and Lai
only profit driven (2010), Li, Zhang, and Liang (2013),
Maitre-Ekern and Dalhammar (2016), Li and
Yu (2009), Yuan, Bi, and Moriguichi (2006),
Su et al. (2013)
P2. Pilot projects for CE in SC Implementing pilot projects so these projects External Government China Market Su et al. (2013), Zhijun and Nailing (2007),
can be role models for the others Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
P3. Performance indicators on Measuring the enterprises’ implementation Internal Organisation, China Market, mobile Su et al. (2013), Geng et al. (2012),
recycling, reuse and of circular economy and how they are Supplier phones Franklin-Johnson, Figge, and Canning
remanufacture in SC doing, so it can be done better. It should be (2016), Reuter (2016), Pan et al. (2015)
able to evaluate how much the products
affect the environment and it must be
known to the consumer
P4. Marketing of Government has to secure more marketing External Government General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
remanufactured products in by television about remanufacturing
SC products and green public procurement
P5. Increase employment rates Give incentives to increase employment Internal Organisation, General Lieder and Rashid (2016)
in SC towards CE rates in a circular economy Supplier
(2) Economic initiatives
P6. Decouple economy in SC Decouple economic growth from Internal Organisation, General, China, Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016), Ilić
with environmental impacts environmental impacts so the enterprises can Supplier Serbia and Nikolić (2016), Su et al. (2013), Lieder
survive by implementing circular economy and Rashid (2016), Sauvé, Bernard, and
Sloan (2015)
P7. Increase environmental Increase environmental accounting on both External Organisation, General Xinan and Yanfu (2011)
accounting in SC for national and corporate levels. Use pollution Supplier
enterprises impacts
P8. External taxes The external tax approach secures that External Government General Andersen (2007)
marginal costs of external effects will be
reflected in market prices, so market players
will incorporate these in their common
transactions
External taxation provides motivation to
develop new, cleaner technologies, which
can reduce impacts cost-effectively
P9. Tax benefits Tax benefits for the firm implementing External Government General Lieder and Rashid (2016)
circular economy by the government can
increase the willingness towards the firm’s
shareholders to become more involved in
cleaner production. In addition, if circular
291
(Continued)
Internal/
Practices Description External stakeholder Industry/Market Sources 292
products qualify for tax benefits, then

customers may be motivated to buy the
circular products in low cost
P10. Taxation on non-renewable Taxation based on non-renewable energy External Government General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
energy to make it attractive rather than on labour or renewable energies.
for suppliers to buy Create business opportunities and
renewable products employment
P11. Setting the right price of Consumers are more likely to avoid Internal Organisation, General Hazen, Mollenkopf, and Wang (2017)
the product in regards of how switching if they notice the prices of their Supplier
much it costs to reuse/ current products or service providers are
remanufacture/recycle in SC higher. If prices for new products increase,
consumers will seek alternative solutions to
meet their needs
P12. Economy initiatives to Financial innovation can assist the circular External Government Construction industry Smol et al. (2015), Pan et al. (2015)
reduce the risk for enterprises economy through bearing the initial
as there are high up-front investment towards its implementation.
investment costs in SC However, this financial innovation helps the
firm to change their financial expenses from
the linear model to the circular approach
(3) Cleaner production
P13. Increase eco-efficiency in Integrating more 6R practices can result in Internal Organisation, General, steel, pulp Jawahir and Bradley (2016), Ghisellini,
production increased eco-efficiency in production Supplier and paper, China Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016), Lieder and
Market, water Rashid (2016), Ying and Li-jun (2012), Zhu,
desalination, mobile Geng, and Lai (2010), Su et al. (2013),
phones Zhijun and Nailing (2007), Landaburu-
Aguirre et al. (2016), Franklin-Johnson,
Figge, and Canning (2016), Supino et al.
(2016), Reuter (2016), Reh (2013)
P14. Cleaner purchases from Enterprise should purchase more clean and Internal Organisation, China Market Su et al. (2013), Ghisellini, Cialani, and
K. Govindan and M. Hasanagic
purchasing green, instead of only taking the price into Supplier Ulgiati (2016), Lieder and Rashid (2016),
account Ying and Li-jun (2012)
P15. New strategies in SC Various strategies depending upon the levels Internal Organisation, General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016),
of application are needed in order to Supplier Xinan and Yanfu (2011)
implement circular economy
P16. Cooperate with other Collaboration and cooperation with other Internal Organisation, General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
companies to make it industries and industrial parks can improve Supplier
possible to reuse/recycle/ the effectiveness of circular economy
remanufacture implementation through sharing economy
P17. Introducing reclassification To achieve circular economy, the materials Internal Organisation, General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016),
in production are classified as technical and nutrient Supplier Bezama (2016)
whereas the technical are forced to reuse/
recycle/remanufacture whereas the nutrients
are safely return to the biosphere or in a
cascade of consecutive uses
(Continued)
Internal/
P18. Implement new pathways Implement new pathways of logistics Internal Organisation, Cement Supino et al. (2016)
of logistics systems systems Supplier
P19. Technical equipment and Technical equipment is required to develop Internal Organisation, China Market Zhu, Geng, and Lai (2010)
facilities to remanufacturing products in different ways if they are to be Supplier
remanufactured
P20. Standards for This leads to a great variety in product External Government General, mobile Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016)
refurbishment quality quality and recognition among authorities, phones
companies and consumers
P21. Measurable data to There should be measurable data so the Internal Organisation, General Reuter (2016)
measure the environment enterprises can account and predict Supplier
performance in regards of the environmental performance in the right way
initiatives by implementing
CE in SC
(4) Product development
P22. Appreciable design and Design of durable products for multiple Internal Organisation, China Market, Ness (2008), Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati
durable design to make it cycles of use as well as incentives for Supplier General, steel (2016), Lieder and Rashid (2016), Su et al.
possible to implement in SC companies to favour take-back of products. industry in China, (2013), Sauvé, Bernard, and Sloan (2015),
Products should be designed for disassembly automotive industries, Ma et al. (2013), Soo, Compston, and
and reuse water desalination Doolan (2016), Jawahir and Bradley (2016),
Liu (2016), Zhijun and Nailing (2007), Zhu,
Geng, and Lai (2010), Landaburu-Aguirre
et al. (2016), Lihong (2011), Amato et al.
(2016), Sihvonen and Partanen (2016), Smol
et al. (2015)
(5) Management support
P23. Support from top Support from top management is an Internal Organisation, General Sihvonen and Partanen (2016)
management towards essential link to enhancing these practices Supplier
introducing CE in SC
(6) Infrastructure
P24. Easier regional eco- Products passport, network of industrial External Government China Market, Su et al. (2013), Lieder and Rashid (2016)
industry network to make it symbiosis initiatives or sustainable sourcing General
possible to recycle standards have to be more efficient if the
enterprises adopt circular economy
P25. Redesign infrastructure Redesign infrastructure system delivery External Government China Market Su et al. (2013), Ghisellini, Cialani, and
system delivery services services, so it will be easier to service Ulgiati (2016), Sauvé, Bernard, and Sloan
products (2015), Spring and Araujo (2017), Tukker
(2015), Velis (2015)
P26. A sustainable Not only process but also the workplace has External Government China Market Ness (2008), Su et al. (2013), Zhijun and
infrastructure to make it a high impact on the implementation of Nailing (2007), Wen and Meng (2015)
easier to implement CE for circular economy. However, such
enterprises infrastructure supports the whole industry
with sustainable perspective through its
optimised usage of resources, managing
health and safety
293
(Continued)
Internal/
294
P27. Efficient information Precise and easily available information External Government China Su et al. (2013)
system to track materials in systems help decision-makers and managers
recycling to react quickly and reliably to meet their
eco-efficient standards through circular
economy
(7) Knowledge
P28. More awareness on More public awareness on circular economy. External Society China Market Su et al. (2013), Zhijun and Nailing (2007),
circular economy to make it Many are not aware of circular economy. Jawahir and Bradley (2016), Lieder and
attractive for suppliers and Consumers’ knowledge on refurbishment Rashid (2016), Ghisellini, Cialani, and
end consumers to buy products is not far-reaching today. Many Ulgiati (2016), Sauvé, Bernard, and Sloan
remanufactured products think that new products are better than (2015), Liu et al. (2009), Geng et al. (2008),
refurbished products. Provide information Ilić and Nikolić (2016), Weelden, Mugge,
about environmental benefits gained by and Bakker (2016) Reuter (2016), Pan et al.
using refurbished products (2015)
P29. Education on recycling, Sustainable education serves as a tool to Internal Organisation, China Market, Su et al. (2013), Jawahir and Bradley
remanufacturing and reuse educate and increase awareness among the Supplier General (2016), Lieder and Rashid (2016), Xinan
actors involved in supply chain. It assists and Yanfu (2011), Sihvonen and Partanen
top-level managers to know about the long- (2016)
term importance of implementing cleaner
production. In addition, this practice can
bring change in the social thinking towards
the circular economy
P30. Training in regards of CE Not only university education is important, Internal Organisation, China Market, Su et al. (2013), Jawahir and Bradley
in supply chain but also virtual education is essential to Supplier General (2016), Lieder and Rashid (2016), Ilić and
educate and prepare the workforce for the Nikolić (2016)
new shift in the manufacturing industry
towards the circular economy
P31. Visionary Thinking To implement circular economy in supply Internal Organisation, General Jawahir and Bradley (2016)
chain, the firm should have visionary Supplier

thinking and the same should be integrated
with the firms overall motto. However, this
kind of thinking involves technical
creativity, on-site thinking and so on
(8) Social and Culture
P32. Change attitude through Change attitudes throughout whole society External Society China Market Su et al. (2013), Hazen, Mollenkopf, and
whole society of recycling, on remanufactured products Wang (2017)
reuse and remanufacturing
P33. Consumers shift from the Consumers shift from the present business- Internal Consumer China Market Zhijun and Nailing (2007), Ness (2008),
linear model to CE as-usual model to circular economy Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
P34. More simplified lifestyle Simplified lifestyle, so not as many complex Internal Consumer General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
by end consumers products have to be produced
18
Practices External
16
Internal
14
12
Number of articels
10
8 16
13
6 12 12
4
6
5 5 5 5
2 4 4
3 3
2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0
Figure 8. Frequency of practices.
• Product development: this cluster refers to the importance of durable design.

• Management support: this cluster includes the necessary support from top management to adopt the circular econ-
omy.
• Infrastructure: this cluster refers to the regional network, infrastructure system and the need for an efficient infor-
mation system.
• Knowledge: this cluster includes the importance of the public being aware of the circular economy, encouraging
education about the circular economy, offering training and exploring the requirement for visionary thinking.
• Social and culture: this cluster refers to changing the whole society’s attitude regarding remanufactured products,
shifting consumers’ views from the traditional line model to the circular economy model and creating a more sim-
plified lifestyle.
Among the 34 practices, 15 practices relate to the external environment and 19 to the internal environment.
This research also analysed the popularity of circular economy practices in a supply chain according to the number
of times that practice appeared in the portfolio of articles. The main practice is to design a product in such a way that it
can be remanufactured again; with 16 occurrences, this objective is by far the leading practice. The next most common
practice is to make sufficient laws and policies so that enterprises are willing to adopt the circular economy in their sup-
ply chains; this practice appeared 13 times in the papers. The next practices that are popular include awareness on the
circular economy and the importance of increasing eco-efficiency in production. Both of these appeared 12 times in the
studies. An overview of the popularity of the practices is presented in Figure 8 below.
5.3 Circular economy barriers

Many authors have considered and discussed the barriers that correspond to the implementation of the circular economy.
Like drivers and practices, barriers that appear can be situated internally to the enterprise or outside in the external envi-
ronment.
The barriers are classified similarly to the drivers and practices by their placement in either internal or external
environments, and by how one or more stakeholders are related to the barriers. These barriers are shown in Table 5.
Table 5. Barriers.
296
Internal/ Industry/
Barriers Description External Stakeholder Market Sources
(1) Governmental issues

B1. Lack of a standard system for Lack of a standard system for performance Internal Organisation, China Su et al. (2013), Li and Yu (2009)
performance indicators with assessment Supplier market
regard to measuring CE in SC
B2. Recycling policies in waste Recycling policies are ineffective to obtain high External Government Netherlands de Man and Friege (2016)
management are ineffective to quality recycling
obtain high quality recycling
B3. Unclear vision in regards of Regulatory barriers encompass the unclear External Government General Pan et al. (2015)
CE in SC national vision such as goals, objectives, targets
and indicators
B4. Circular economy laws have The laws on circular economy are not strong, External Government China Li and Yu (2009), Su et al. (2013), Zhijun and
been insufficiently implemented and there is no existing tool to analyse the Nailing (2007)
effectiveness of the proposed rules and laws.
Most laws are posed with personal opinion rather
than technical expertise
B5. Existing laws in waste Existing environmental laws in some systems do External Government China Li and Yu (2009)
management are not supporting not fit circular economy concepts
CE
(2) Economic issues
B6. Weak economic incentives Weak economic incentives should support External Government China Su et al. (2013), Sauvé, Bernard, and Sloan
make it difficult for enterprises enterprises to shift from linear economy to the Market (2015), Geng et al. (2008)
to implement CE in SC circular economy
B7. Insufficient internalisation of Environment costs (externalities) are not taken External Government EU, Lieder and Rashid (2016)
external costs into account Netherland
B8. Difficulties in establishing Get the prices right. It is difficult to ascertain the Internal Organisation, Netherlands Lieder and Rashid (2016)
correct price of products in SC correct cost of resources Supplier

B9. Major upfront investment costs Implementing circular economy in supply chain Internal Organisation, General Pan et al. (2015)
in SC by implementing CE results in redesigning the shop floor and Supplier
production unit including trained staff,
construction, technology and so on. This initial
process seems a tough job for SMEs and micro
industries
B10. There are both high short- High short-term costs and low short-term Internal Organisation, General Shahbazi et al. (2016)
term costs and low short-term economic benefits are problems for the Supplier
economic benefits in SC enterprises
B11. High costs are related to Generally, virgin products are cheaper than Internal Organisation, EU Lieder and Rashid (2016)
recycled materials in SC and recycled ones, so consumers are often more Supplier
therefore they are often more focused on price rather than on the product’s
expensive than virgin in the entire lifecycle
market
(Continued)
Internal/ Industry/
B12. High purchasing cost of High purchasing cost of environmentally friendly Internal Organisation, General Shahbazi et al. (2016)
environmentally friendly materials and packaging Supplier
materials by the supplier
B13. Production costs are getting Production costs are getting higher in circular Internal Organisation, EL, Palm, Nilsson, and Åhman (2016), Shahbazi
higher economy Supplier Swedish et al. (2016)
(3) Technological issues
B14. Technological limitations by The increasing complexity of products makes the Internal Organisation, General, Genovese et al. (2015), Su et al. (2013),
tracking recycled materials effective and efficient recovery and reuse of Supplier China Pringle, Barwood, and Rahimifard (2016),
products and components a massive challenge Market Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016), Velis
and Vrancken (2015), Shahbazi et al. (2016)
B15. It is difficult for enterprises to Difficult to manage product quality through the Internal Organisation, General Singh and Ordoñez (2016), Ghisellini, Cialani,
manage product quality through lifecycle of a product Supplier and Ulgiati (2016), Sabaghi, Mascle, and
the lifecycle of a product Baptiste (2016)
B16. Maintaining quality of Difficult to manage quality of products made Internal Organisation, General Singh and Ordoñez (2016), Ghisellini, Cialani,
products made from recovered from recovered materials Supplier and Ulgiati (2016)
materials
B17. Design challenges to reuse Design challenges to durable, reuse and recovery Internal Organisation, General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
and recovery products products Supplier
B18. Challenges to safe return to Challenges to separate materials. Technology in Internal Organisation, General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
the biosphere how to safely return to the biosphere or to a Supplier
cascade of subsequent uses is needed (Bio
refinery)
B19. Make the right decision in Decision making on effective technologies, Internal Organisation, General Pan et al. (2015)
SC to implement CE in the most practices and actors can improve the chances of Supplier
efficient way CE implementation in SC
B20. Accurate information Precise information is not available to decision- Internal Organisation, China Su et al. (2013)
regarding materials/tracking in makers, or it is not provided in a timely way Supplier
SC towards recycling is not
available
(4) Knowledge and skill issues
B21. Lack of reliable information Lack of reliable information to the enterprises Internal Society China Su et al. (2013), Liu et al. (2009), Maitre-Ekern
to public and therefore it is Market, EU and Dalhammar (2016)
difficult to reuse/recycle/
remanufacture products
B22. Lack of public awareness; Lack of awareness and sense of urgency by Internal Society China Su et al. (2013), Lieder and Rashid (2016),
therefore, it is difficult to reuse/ public Market Sauvé, Bernard, and Sloan (2015), Liu et al.
recycle/remanufacture products (2009), Geng et al. (2008), Weelden, Mugge,
and Bakker (2016)
B23. Lack of skills by employees Enterprises lack the skills to get the circular Internal Organisation, China Liu and Bai (2014)
in CE economy implemented in their supply chains Supplier Market
Internal Consumer Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016)
(Continued)
297
Internal/ Industry/
Barriers Description External Stakeholder Market Sources 298
B24. Consumers knowledge and Consumer knowledge and awareness about China
awareness about refurbishment refurbishment products are not correct. Many Market
people think today that new products are of
better quality than refurbished products
(5) Management issues
B25. Poor leadership and Poor leadership and management increases the Internal Organisation, China Su et al. (2013), Liu and Bai (2014), Shahbazi
management towards CE in SC chances of lack of interest on circular economy Supplier Market et al. (2016)
implementation. For instance, nearly 70% of the
firms did not adopt cleaner production auditing
and 93% did not establish a special circular
economy management department. Limited top
management commitment and support for
sustainability initiatives (Liu and Bai 2014)
B26. Higher priority of other Higher priority of other issues or requirements, Internal Organisation, General Shahbazi et al. (2016)
issues or requirements in SC e.g. production expansion/market share by the Supplier
management
B27. Organisational structure Firm’s organisational structures, such as an Internal Organisation, China Liu and Bai (2014)
makes it difficult to implement inefficient bureaucracy, are a barrier Supplier Market
CE in SC
(6) Circular economy framework issues
B28. Lack of successful business Lack of successful business models and External Government General Scheinberg et al. (2016), Lewandowski (2016)
models and frameworks to frameworks for circular economy. Informal
implement CE in SC recovery and integration into the framework are
needed for the circular economy
B29. The whole SC needs are not Many developed nations outsource their products External Government General Bartl (2015)
included to low wage nations, which brings products as
well as waste generation. However, there is no
such specificity on circular economy dealing
with the focus on sub suppliers
B30. Other solutions might be The circular economy is mainly focused on External Government General Bartl (2015)
more favourable than recycling and increasing recycling rates.
implementing CE in SC However, other options might be favoured
compared to the recycling
(7) Culture and social issues
B31. Lack of enthusiasm towards Research shows that nearly 90% of the industries Internal Organisation, China Liu and Bai (2014), Jawahir and Bradley
CE in SC don’t have the good relationship within the Supplier Market (2016), Shahbazi et al. (2016)
industrial parks and other neighbour industries to
establish eco-industrial chains. Linear
technologies are deeply rooted
B32. Consumer perception towards Customers generally have the wrong perceptions Internal Consumer EU, Genovese et al. (2015), Zhijun and Nailing
components that are reused is on refurbished products and question their General, (2007), Genovese et al. (2015), Ghisellini,
quality, health and safety. Hence, this lack of
(Continued)
Internal/ Industry/
flawed and therefore makes it willingness to buy used products forces the China Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016), Liu and Bai (2014),
more difficult to implement CE remanufacturers to not go for refurbishing/ Market Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016)
remanufacturing
B33. Lack of the thrill of newness Studies show that when the thrill of purchasing a Internal Consumer China Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016)
by consumers is high new product (newness) is lacking, it is difficult Market
to motivate that thrill with refurbished products
(8) Market issues
B34. Challenges of take-back from There are challenges to develop a take-back Internal Organisation, General Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati (2016)
other companies mechanism from other companies Supplier
B35. No standards on As there are no standards on refurbishment Internal Society China Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016)
refurbishment products products, the quality is not consistently high Market
B36. Ownership issues for taking Consumer acceptance of ‘access to service’ Internal Consumer EU Singh and Ordoñez (2016)
advantages of reuse rather than ownership needs to be strengthened
opportunities of CE in SC
B37. Service providers cannot Taking back products for reuse becomes a tough External Government EU Tukker (2015)
legally retain ownership of a task for service providers due to the legal
sold product which makes it problems of retaining the sold product
difficult to implement CE
B38. Limited availability of reuse The availability of refurbishment products is not Internal Consumer China Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016)
products consistently high today and consumers may not Market,
have the opportunity to choose a remanufactured Netherlands
product
B39. Remanufacturing is Remanufacturing process planning is traditionally Internal Organisation, General Jiang et al. (2016)
consuming and labour-intensive heavily dependent on experiences and knowledge Supplier
procedure
299
Again, the stakeholders used by the drivers and practices, barrier stakeholders include consumers, society, the organisa-
tion, suppliers and the government. From the 39 identified barriers, 10 are related to the external environment and 29
are related to the internal environment. Consumers are related to 5 of the barriers, government is related to 10 of the
barriers, society is related to 3 of the barriers, and finally the combination of the organisation and suppliers are related
to 21 of the barriers.
Selected barriers are then classified into eight clusters as follows:
• Governmental issues: this cluster refers to the lack of standard systems for performance assessment, recycling poli-
cies that are ineffective to obtain high quality, new laws that are passed with insufficient coordination and existing
laws that do not support the circular economy.
• Economic issues: this cluster includes financial and economic barriers related to the implementation of the circular
economy in a supply chain.
• Technological issues: this cluster refers to the barriers regarding technological limitations, managing uncertainty at
the end-of-life phase for products, managing product quality through the lifecycle of a product, design challenges
to create or maintain durability, etc.
• Knowledge and skill issues: this cluster includes the lack of reliable information, lack of public awareness, lack of
skills and the lack of consumer awareness to the value of refurbished products.
• Management issues: this cluster refers to the lack of support from top management; other issues have a higher pri-
ority in enterprises and within the organisational structure.
• Circular economy framework issues: this cluster includes the circular economy framework issues; other solutions
might be more favourable than the circular economy framework.
• Culture and social issues: this cluster refers to the lack of enthusiasm towards enacting the circular economy, con-
sumer perception towards reused products and the thrill of purchasing a new product.
• Market issues: this cluster includes considerations such as externalities that prevent companies from taking advan-
tage of refurbished products, regulations around ownership and no industry standards on refurbishment products.
8
Barriers
External
7
Internal
6
Number of articels
4
7
3 6 6
2 4
3 3 3 3 3
1 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0
Figure 9. Frequency of barriers.

This research also analysed the popularity of the circular economy barriers in a supply chain according to the num-
ber of times the driver appeared in the article collection. The main barrier that appeared most often in this research was
the consumer perception towards remanufactured products. If this challenge is not solved, it will not be possible for the
enterprises to implement the circular economy. This barrier appeared seven times among the researched papers. The next
most common barrier is the lack of public awareness of the circular economy, followed by the technology limitations by
the enterprises to make products that can be easily remanufactured. Both of these barriers appeared six times. An over-
view of the popularity of the barriers is presented in Figure 9 below.
5.4 Towards a multi-perspective framework

Five types of stakeholders have been identified based on the existing literatures: customers, employees, shareholders, the
government and society (NGO). Some studies (see Fineman and Clarke 1996) categorise stakeholders as ‘green stake-
holders’. Consumer pressure on companies has become more significant in the past decades. Secondly, a firm’s success-
ful environmental programme must depend on the involvement, participation and commitment of its employees to
sound environmental principles. Because firms want to create value in their business, it is imperative for corporate man-
agers to consider the various relevant stakeholders’ perspectives on the environment and society. Upon occasion, the
firm’s environmental performance depends solely on stakeholder pressure. Because it is virtually impossible for a firm
to satisfy all goals of their stakeholders, corporate managers must pay strategic attention to the level of influence of the
stakeholders. Clearly, stakeholders affect the enterprises. Corporate managers need to carefully monitor their business
strategies with regard to environmental issues to enhance the company’s reputation while simultaneously maintaining
shareholders’ support.
Figure 10. Multi-perspective framework.

Finally, society may play a critical role by encouraging unethical firms to be more socially responsible. These stake-
holders can change opinions all around the world, so more people are aware of environmental issues. Stakeholders work
both directly and indirectly with governments to influence corporate behaviour regarding environmental impacts on busi-
ness activities.
To give the best overview and to show the connections among how the different drivers, barriers and practices influ-
ence each other in relation to the stakeholders, a multi perspective framework is developed. Suppliers, the organisation
and consumers are classified as internal environment, whereas the government and society are classified as external
environment.
To develop this framework, information from Tables 3–5 is utilised. The information from these tables is based the
literature that is been presented in the methodology section. This framework can be seen in Figure 10 below.
6. Discussion
In this section, the drivers, practices and barriers presented in earlier sections will be discussed in relation to the devel-
oped framework in Figure 10. This section is divided into the stakeholders’ point of view on their drivers, practices and
barriers regarding implementation of the circular economy. The stakeholders are government, the organisation, society,
supplier and consumers. Moreover, the stakeholder’s suppliers and organisation will be discussed in same section as
most of the drivers, practices and barriers are the same.
6.1 Circular economy drivers

6.1.1 Government perceptive
This primary reason why the government wants industries to implement the circular economy is that the population is
growing and the demand for natural resources will increase (Bastein et al. 2013). China cannot meet its growing
demand for natural resources. Moreover, the increase in economic growth and heavy industries that began operation in
2002 forms a major reason for the depletion of resources and energy. China’s national energy consumption was 3249
Mt standard coal equivalents in 2010, which is not only the biggest on the globe but also has doubled over the last dec-
ade. Because the country is energy-intensive and consumes massive resources, China must find innovative ways for sus-
tainable economic development such as that offered by the circular economy (Su et al. 2013). Experts anticipate that the
Chinese industrial structure will continue to dominate the global market.
Another feature that motivates the government to implement the circular economy is the promise of job growth. A
large part of job creation comes from the greater labour needs associated with reuse, remanufacturing and repair; these
processes are more labour-intensive than manufacturing. The recycling process will also have a high per cent of the jobs
created, but repair and remanufacturing will create more jobs compared to recycling (van Loon and Van Wassenhove
2017). The reuse process will create higher-skilled jobs where recycling and waste management creates low or interme-
diate skilled jobs in the areas of collection, handling and processing. Reuse gives a high placement rate in areas where
unemployment tends to be higher; remanufacturing, service and repair creates employment near existing manufacturing
(MacArthur 2012).
According to a report of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, implementing the circular economy can contribute to a
significant reduction of carbon emission by 2030. In addition, greenhouse gas emission may be reduced in the UK by
7.4 million tonnes per annum, if organic waste was managed properly rather than sending it to landfills. Furthermore, a
circular economy implementation could reduce materials consumption by 32% by 2030 and 53% by 2050 compared
with today.
6.1.2 Organisational and suppliers perspective

The circular economy framework has become an important topic in business agendas over recent years. The implemen-
tation of the circular economy presents a framework with opportunities for organisational gains in supply chain. With
enthusiasm shown by governments, particularly in Europe, government programmes have been established with a motto
of completing the circular economy objectives. Business communities particularly motivate the implementation of circu-
lar economy due to the predicted financial gains over the supply chain. (Nederland Circulair 2015). Because many enter-
prises are profit-driven, the circular economy is an attractive option. Thus, a primary driver for enterprises to implement
the circular economy is that they must keep within current laws for waste management. Recently, economic opportuni-
ties from the usage of circular economy concepts have been pursued in the European Union (EU). These opportunities
emerge from the advantages highlighted for industrial sectors in supply chains through the reduction of material costs or
larger profit pools (MacArthur 2013; Field and Sroufe 2007).
Furthermore, by implementing circular economy practices in supply chain, organisations can gain economic growth.
This financial gain has been achieved by recovering all the raw materials that are currently disposed of in the linear
‘take, make, and waste’ system. Studies from the MacArthur (2012) show that
based on detailed product level modelling, the report estimates that the circular economy represents a net material cost saving
opportunity of $340–$380 billion per year at EU level for a ‘transition scenario’ and $520–$630 billion per year for an ‘ad-
vanced scenario’. (Nederland Circulair 2015)
6.1.3 Society perspective

Public health is a major driver in European countries, but in recent years public health has failed to serve as a major dri-
ver (Ilić and Nikolić 2016). However, in developing countries public health remains a key driver, as it was in the nine-
teenth century for waste collection (Wilson 2007). In developing countries, human health still suffers due to poor waste
management practices. Waste directly affects public health because if it is managed improperly, disease spreads. Respira-
tory illnesses occur from consuming or inhaling bio-aerosols and volatile organics, and dermatological problems emerge
from contact with dirty materials. In addition, open waste dumps, with disease-carrying insects, are highly infectious,
particularly to weaker beings like children. According to the study of World Health Organisation in 2007 it was found
that these types of environment are solely responsible for 20% of total disease burdens (Ilić and Nikolić 2016).
Modem agriculture rapidly improves productivity, but a heavy price is paid due to its overconsumption of resources
and energy and due to the damages it enacts on the agricultural environment (Jun and Xiang 2011; Huang and Song
2017).
6.1.4 Consumer perspective

From the perspective of consumers, refurbished products have not been explored much in the past. This is because
refurbishment is mainly used in the business-to-business market (example: copiers). But recently, refurbishment is gain-
ing interest among consumer companies (Cheng, Lin, and Tian 2013). Consumers are more wary if they think their
mobile phones, laptops or tablets are reused products. Similarly, in clothing and baby products, such as prams, travel
cots or car seats, consumers seem to prefer virgin products (Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker 2016).
6.2 Circular economy practices

6.2.1 Governmental perceptive
Governmental regulations are crucial for the circular economy in supply chains, and a number of laws and policies serve
as the foundation for critical practices. The first established is ‘Cleaner Production Promotion Law’, which became
effective in January 2003. Next, the Pollution Prevention and Control of Solid Waste law was proposed on 1 April
2005. After the introduction of these laws, many initiatives emerged all around the world in order to promote cleaner
production activities. These initiatives include research, pilot studies and proposals that enhance knowledge through
training and education regarding cleaner production. One law that features a primary focus on the circular economy –
the Circular Economy Promotion Law – was proposed on 1 January 2009. This policy was implemented in China, and
many other developed nations then began to promote their own national interest in the circular economy (Su et al.
2013). Until this point, the government’s focus was mainly on the single entity (focal company) of the supply chain
and generally ignored elements of the whole supply chain.
The government’s next step is to propose indicators by which to assess circular economy implementation and perfor-
mance throughout supply chain. These good indicators are an effective tool to measure the status of implementation,
and the indicators allow decision makers to propose new guidelines and development plans. New sets of indicators that
correspond to the type and level of applications, such as geography, industry, size of the firm and so on, are needed
(Geng et al. 2012; Su et al. 2013).
Laws and policies are needed to introduce relevant environmental taxes and charges to make it more feasible for
enterprises to adopt the circular economy in a supply chain. Two reasons help to identify why such an approach is supe-
rior. The first reason is economic. Based on the externality tax approach, the marginal costs of external effects will be
reflected in market prices, so that market actors will consider these in their mutual transactions. It is clear that the
environment is not a free commodity but has a price tag (Andersen 2007). Another approach is that externality taxation
often gives an opportunity to develop new and cleaner technologies. Finally, externality approaches give flexibility for
individual enterprises as they will get more freedom to find their own solution.

There are a couple of practices organisations must adopt if they plan to implement a circular economy in supply chain.
Organisations must set up an eco-efficient industrial chain by the in-house circulation of materials and energy. Secondly,
they should strive to gain profit by growing their business and by maximising resources and minimising pollution (Zhi-
jun and Nailing 2007). According to Su et al. (2013) the implementation of the circular economy in supply chain man-
agement can only be possible through integrating advanced technology in the processes. Advanced technology,
especially helps producers to redesign, remanufacture and reuse the used product effectively (Tang, Grubbström, and
Zanoni 2004). However, in many cases the lack of technology is the major threat to the implementation of a circular
economy. In China, for instance, available technology slows the pace of CE implementation due to weak financial initia-
tives.
To implement a circular economy in supply chain for organisations, novel strategies, technologies, practices, frame-
works, vision, mission, unique thinking and training are needed. The product and process innovation includes advances
in technology, but also the optimisation of current products, processes and systems in supply chain (Su et al. 2013;
Jawahir and Bradley 2016). Education and training is also necessary to implement a circular economy in supply chain.
Not only university education is important, but also virtual education is essential to educate and prepare the workforce
for the new shift in the manufacturing industry. Education should develop novel methodologies, including both quantita-
tive and qualitative methodologies, to initiate innovations. Furthermore, there will also be a need for visionary thinking
that can implement the circular economy in supply chain to address real-world problems (Jawahir and Bradley 2016).

While governmental regulations and industrial efforts are crucial for the development of a circular economy in supply
chains, a fundamental requirement for the successful adoption of a circular economy rests on attitude changes through-
out the whole society (Su et al. 2013). Practices in many countries indicate that public participation is crucial to the
development of an effective circular economy (Zhijun and Nailing 2007; Su et al. 2013). The circular economy strategy
requires that the whole system of human activity will be reformed, beginning with consumption activities (Zhijun and
Nailing 2007).

Finally, the circular economy requires consumers to become more active participants in the recycling or reuse of prod-
ucts and to change from the attitude of living in a passive throwaway culture (Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016). If
enterprises have adopted the circular economy, consumers need not only to return products after use, but also to will-
ingly accept remanufactured products. However, research suggests that consumers have a poor opinion of remanufac-
tured products and are typically not prepared to adopt them (Zhijun and Nailing 2007; Zhou et al. 2013). In addition,
there need to be a tight relationship between the stakeholders including the customers (Yu and Ramanathan 2015). For
instance, if a product doesn’t come under the closed-loop economy, then the producer need not produce the product and
the customer need not buy it. From this discussion, it is evident that the implementation of circular economy is a shared
responsibility of all stakeholders. For instance, in the Japanese system for electrical equipment, the government posed a
law that says it is the customer’s responsibility to return their used product for recycling (Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati
2016).
Among other stakeholders, the customer’s responsibility is the key driver, which forces the firms to implement a cir-
cular economy. Further, this responsibility of the customer results in the introduction of more sustainable materials and
practices (Ghisellini, Cialani, and Ulgiati 2016). Hence, many researchers have studied the topic of customer responsibil-
ity and other collaborative stakeholder responsibility models to explore the effective implementation of circular econ-
omy. Collaboration models emphasise sharing, lending, renting; the basic idea is shared ownership among multiple
consumers. That means consumers do not own the product but can use it by paying a charge (Ness 2008).
Studies have shown that customer willingness towards the refurbished product can be increased with the approval of
the original manufacturers towards that refurbished product. Also, it is necessary to give awareness of the environmental
benefits of refurbished products to the customer to improve their willingness to buy the refurbished products (Weelden,
Mugge, and Bakker 2016).
6.3 Circular economy barriers

6.3.1 Governmental perceptive
Research shows that there are many barriers that make it difficult for enterprises to adopt a circular economy in supply
chain. One of them is the government’s unwillingness to take initiatives to develop better economic and financial instru-
ments for industries. Lack of financial support from governments through banks, tax reductions and incentives hinder
the interest of implementing circular economy through eco-efficient strategies (Su et al. 2013). For example, in China, a
major barrier to the implementation of circular economy is poor legislation. The enforcement laws are not strict, and
there are complex systems in place with corruption. Hence, it is mandatory to construct proper systems to redefine the
performance and practices through corresponding indicators and to make the supply chain transparent. However, local
governments should collect the exact status of their provinces with the concern of circular economy and these data
should be further transferred to central governments for policymaking. Currently, no such practices and relationships
exist between local and central governments.
This frustrates local government officials because they do not know what needs to improve or what goals they
should pursue. The government should make specific local indicators to each region rather than relying on national indi-
cators because differences exist between the rich and poor regions.
Furthermore, developed nations (EU) generally outsource their products to developing and low-wage countries, so
that the waste generation is also outsourced. Hence, it is vital to govern the whole supply chain including two and
three-tier suppliers involved in the supply chain. However, these areas are generally untouched in the proposed laws
and agendas; there are no specific insights on managing circular economy with sub suppliers. 6R strategies are only pre-
scribed to the focal company. In addition, as discussed earlier, a sole reliance on recycling cannot implement effective
circular economy regulations because export and import activities play a major part in implementation.

Several researchers have attempted to explain the limited appeal of refurbishment products in the today’s consumer mar-
ket. Various companies fail to acknowledge the value of refurbishment, and they are dissuaded by the idea of high
upfront investments costs to implement circular economy in supply chain (Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker 2016).
Enterprises face many challenges to adopting the circular economy in a supply chain. First, technology requires that
products must be designed to be recycled or remanufactured. From the report of the European Commission (2014),
improper and complex product designs become a major challenge for remanufacturers and recyclers. On the other hand,
customer’s specific requirements force the manufacturers to make their product unique and to serve a specific purpose
(Kang and Hong 2010). With these cases, refurbishment, disassembly and reuse become a tough task, so it is necessary
to design the product with the concerns of a circular economic perspective from the initial design (Nederland Circulair
2015).
A company’s lack of technical capabilities, skilled people and product quality concerns create difficulties to develop-
ing well-functioning refurbishment facilities. Further, there are no guidelines and standards on refurbishment, which
results in a variety of product quality on the market for refurbishment. A lack of recognition of these facts exists among
authors, companies and consumers in the refurbishment products (Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker 2016).

Practices in Germany and Japan show that public participation is crucial to the development of the circular economy
programme. Different researchers have shown that the human and institutional capabilities to inspire public participation
in the circular economy and environmental management programmes and facilities at many academic organisations are
limited. This limitation is clearly expressed in Tianjin, a pilot city for a circular economy, where the public has limited
awareness and poor understanding about the circular economy programme. A survey from Xue et al. (2010) reveals a
result where only 16.70% of the people interviewed had heard of the circular economy; this figure indicates that there is
still a serious need for government activities to educate the population about the circular economy (Su et al. 2013).
Furthermore, research from Weelden, Mugge, and Bakker (2016) shows that the availability of refurbishment
products is not high, so consumers do not frequently have the opportunity to consider refurbishment; they believe new
alternatives are better than refurbished products. For example, one consumer interviewed states that new phone alterna-
tives had extra gigabytes which were not available in refurbishment products. However, this presumed limitation can be
resolved because there are opportunities to add such features in phones.

According to Jiménez-Parra, Rubio, and Vicente-Molina (2014), there is a need of new strategies and frameworks to
shift the insights of refurbished products among customers, because they often have negative opinions on these products
(Khor and Hazen 2017). Consumers’ perspectives on refurbished products are largely unexplored. However, previous
research reports that the extra functionalities offered by the new product are not the barrier that prevents a refurbished
product from being chosen. Instead, the customers’ lack of acceptance of second hand products is the major barrier. In
addition, when the availability of used products is uncertain, the firm holds back from refurbished product. Consumer
acceptance is critical if enterprises expect to benefit from refurbishment products. Literature confirms that the con-
sumer’s response towards refurbishment products focuses on willingness to pay (WTP). The result shows that consumers
show a lower WTP for refurbishment products due to a higher perception of risk and a lower perception of quality for
refurbishment products. This lack of understanding and knowledge on refurbishment products is a critical factor. Current
insights are not sufficient to understand how consumers evaluate refurbishment products, but some results show that
consumers’ acceptance to buy refurbishment products is central to the success of a circular economy.
6.4 Further insights

This content analysis is based on 60 papers located by the criteria described in Section 4.1. The factors identified in this
research are the drivers, practices and barriers that can affect the implementation of the circular economy in a supply
chain. These factors were both analysed for the macroenvironment and the micro environment. The choice of stakehold-
ers for this project was successful, and the framework regarding drivers, practices and barriers that can influence imple-
mentation of circular economy in supply chain has been successful.
This analysis has shown some insights into the circular economy with regard to the drivers, barriers and practices
for enterprises to adopt a circular economy. This research reveals that there are few studies that mention the drivers,
practices and barriers in society and by consumers. Furthermore, the government has a big role and a high impact
regarding implementation for the circular economy. It is very important that governments are aware of the problem and
continue to have it on their agenda. Moreover, it is also important that the laws made by the government are imple-
mented in a sufficient way; other laws make it difficult for enterprises to develop a circular economy in their supply
chain. The research also shows that the big drivers are job potential, climate change and population growth. The biggest
limitation to adopting a circular economy concerns limitations in technology to make a product in a durable design. The
biggest practices changes that must be made to adopt a circular economy are to increase awareness on the economy and
on performance indicators, both of which are crucial to the development of the circular economy programme.
Literature resources that did not fulfil the criteria of this methodology section were examined but not included in this
study; literatures that were sufficient have contributed to the analysis. More drivers and barriers could be identified for
the multi perspective framework. Other literatures have identified additional drivers to the circular economy in a supply
chain, including developing and spreading knowledge, a more secure supply of raw materials, new incentives for manu-
facturing sectors, innovation in logistic sectors and gaining more innovative technology (MacArthur 2015). These dri-
vers will be important to consider because they describe why enterprises should implement circular economy in their
supply chains. Furthermore, drivers for the green supply chain have been analysed, some of which have not been men-
tioned in the papers for circular economy. These drivers are as follows: enterprises can gain competitive advantage by
becoming greener (Zaman et al. 2016), employee and customer satisfaction (Jilcha and Kitaw 2017), working conditions
(Jilcha and Kitaw 2017), quality of products (Jilcha and Kitaw 2017), green marketing (Jilcha and Kitaw 2017),
improved customer interaction (MacArthur 2015), customer loyalty (MacArthur 2015) and certification (Montabon et al.
2000).
Additional barriers to the circular economy are identified in other literatures but not used in this research. These bar-
riers could exist on either the micro-level or the macro-level. The 12 identified barriers include: the lack of clarity on
recycling and reuse techniques and their importance, that regulations are not very strict, which should be strengthened
with considerations of waste import and export (EEA 2012), innovation policies should be upgraded with the concern
on implementing circularity effectively (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten Wolde 2013), public procurement standards are not
specific enough on recycled products (Eijk 2015), insufficient access and infrastructure for reuse (European Commission
2014), lack of information exchange system (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten Wolde 2013), exchange of materials is limited by
capacity of reverse logistics (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten Wolde 2013), limited application of business models (Kok, Wurpel,
and Ten Wolde 2013), challenges to separate the bio from the technocycle (Kok, Wurpel, and Ten Wolde 2013), share-
holders with short-term agendas dominate corporate governance (Eijk 2015), uncooperative suppliers (Shahbazi et al.
2016) and that a champion has developed circular economy in an effective way (Eijk 2015).
7. Conclusion
The growing population places pressure on natural resources, and this unfettered growth makes it imperative to shift
from the traditional linear model (take-make-dispose) to a circular economy. With this great need for the circular econ-
omy, researchers are urged to explore the implementation of the circular economy through identifying the drivers, barri-
ers and practices with a focus of the supply chain. Data gathered through a systematic literature review begins with the
purpose of understanding the motivational factors relevant to the implementation of a circular economy in a supply
chain. A second objective is to gain insight into the best way to get a CE implemented in an enterprise’s supply chain
from different stakeholders’ perspectives. Moreover, the purpose is to understand the barriers that challenge enterprises
to implement a circular economy in their supply chain. In this research, 60 papers were examined to determine what dri-
vers, barriers and practices pertain to developing the circular economy in a supply chain. In general, the number of pub-
lications in the field is growing as interest in the circular economy increases worldwide. A systematic approach of
content analysis was applied to enhance the reliability and validity of results. From the review, 13 drivers, 34 practices
and 39 barriers were identified. Furthermore, a multi-perspective framework regarding stakeholders and their involve-
ment in adopting circular economy was proposed based on the systematic review. All these factors were classified in
relation to the importance of the stakeholders; further, the factors are related to both the microenvironment and the
macro environment depending on their nature. However, the overall contribution of this study was to obtain insights
about the factors that influence a successful adoption of the circular economy in organisations, using perspectives from
government, society and consumers.
Results show that in general the government has an important role regarding implementation of the circular economy
in supply chain due to high upfront investment costs. Furthermore, because many companies are profit-driven, profits
are often considered before environmental impacts. Therefore, it is important for the government to make laws and poli-
cies that the organisations should follow. The study also shows that organisations have problems in solving technologi-
cal challenges because products should be designed with environmentally friendly technology. Moreover, an awareness
of the circular economy should be more highly regarded in society and by consumers. These are key barriers that hinder
the implementation of the circular economy, and awareness of these factors could be an important source of information
to managers and decision-makers. On the organisational side, managers should acknowledge the drivers to successfully
implement the circular economy. The proposed framework should be tested and empirically investigated. Factors are
identified and classified to facilitate further investigation and analysis. Further research can be done by including multi-
ple stakeholders into the framework and other organisational theoretical frameworks or adapting this structure to con-
sider a specific country’s needs. Finally, further research can be done by analysing multiple cases looking into circular
economy from different sectors.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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International Journal of Production Research

ISSN: 0020-7543 (Print) 1366-588X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tprs20

A systematic review on drivers, barriers, and

Kannan Govindan & Mia Hasanagic

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141

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2. Previous literature reviews

Figure 1. Research study.

Table 1. Summary of previous literature.

Title Author Year Summary

Figure 2. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2015).

4.1 Search criteria

Figure 3. Methodology overview.

4.2 Article search

4.3 Evaluation of articles and inclusion

4.4 Article content analysis

4.4.1 Distribution of papers by year of publication

Figure 4. Distribution of papers by year of publication.

Entire data-set 60 (in %)

4.4.2 Results of content analysis

45% Case study

40% Literature Review

Figure 5. Distribution of research methodology.

Figure 6. Distribution of geographic context.

5. Content analysis and framework

5.1 Circular economy drivers

(1) Policy and economy

Figure 7. Frequency of drivers.

5.2 Circular economy practices

(1) Governance initiative

products qualify for tax beneﬁts, then

chain, the ﬁrm should have visionary Supplier

Figure 8. Frequency of practices.

• Product development: this cluster refers to the importance of durable design.

5.3 Circular economy barriers

(1) Governmental issues

correct price of products in SC correct cost of resources Supplier

Figure 9. Frequency of barriers.

5.4 Towards a multi-perspective framework

Figure 10. Multi-perspective framework.

6.1 Circular economy drivers

6.1.2 Organisational and suppliers perspective

6.1.3 Society perspective

6.1.4 Consumer perspective

6.2 Circular economy practices

6.2.2 Organisational and suppliers perspective

6.2.3 Society perspective

6.2.4 Consumer perspective

6.3 Circular economy barriers

6.3.2 Organisational and suppliers perspective

6.3.3 Society perspective

6.3.4 Consumer perspective

6.4 Further insights

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