TY - JOUR
T1 - Circular economy to enhance sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises
AU - Dey, Prasanta Kumar
AU - Malesios, Chrisovaladis
AU - De, Debashree
AU - Budhwar, Pawan
AU - Chowdhury, Soumyadeb
AU - Cheffi, Walid
N1 - Funding Information:
This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant 788692; European Regional development Fund reference OC12R16P0367; United Arab Emirates University grant Reference UPAR G00003292.
Funding Information:
This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska‐Curie Grant 788692; European Regional development Fund reference OC12R16P0367; United Arab Emirates University grant Reference UPAR G00003292.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - The circular economy (CE) represents a major paradigm shift of moving from the concepts of linear to circular supply chains across multiple industries. Although some aspects of CE adoption within industrial supply chains have been researched extensively (particularly addressing challenges of design, implementation, and operations), the research that relates CE practices with sustainability performance to reveal the current state of CE practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is scant. The aim of this research was to facilitate SMEs to achieve greater sustainability through CE implementation. This research addresses three research questions—How are CE fields of action related to sustainability performance? What are the issues, challenges, and opportunities of adopting CE in SMEs? And what key strategies, resources, and competences facilitate effective implementation of CE in SMEs? This study adopts a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) using survey research, focus group, and case studies; 130 randomly selected SMEs within the Midlands of the United Kingdom have been surveyed, and the responses are analysed using statistical tools along with findings from focus groups and case studies. The study reveals that all CE fields of action (take, make, distribute, use, and recover) of SMEs are correlated to economic performance, but only make and use are related to environmental and social performance. The study further derives strategies, resources, and competences for achieving sustainability across all the CE field of actions. Additionally, this research reveals the issues and challenges, strategies, resources, and competences required for implementing CE in SMEs.
AB - The circular economy (CE) represents a major paradigm shift of moving from the concepts of linear to circular supply chains across multiple industries. Although some aspects of CE adoption within industrial supply chains have been researched extensively (particularly addressing challenges of design, implementation, and operations), the research that relates CE practices with sustainability performance to reveal the current state of CE practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is scant. The aim of this research was to facilitate SMEs to achieve greater sustainability through CE implementation. This research addresses three research questions—How are CE fields of action related to sustainability performance? What are the issues, challenges, and opportunities of adopting CE in SMEs? And what key strategies, resources, and competences facilitate effective implementation of CE in SMEs? This study adopts a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) using survey research, focus group, and case studies; 130 randomly selected SMEs within the Midlands of the United Kingdom have been surveyed, and the responses are analysed using statistical tools along with findings from focus groups and case studies. The study reveals that all CE fields of action (take, make, distribute, use, and recover) of SMEs are correlated to economic performance, but only make and use are related to environmental and social performance. The study further derives strategies, resources, and competences for achieving sustainability across all the CE field of actions. Additionally, this research reveals the issues and challenges, strategies, resources, and competences required for implementing CE in SMEs.
KW - circular economy
KW - environmental and social practices
KW - small and medium-sized enterprises
KW - structural equation modelling
KW - sustainability performance
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U2 - 10.1002/bse.2492
DO - 10.1002/bse.2492
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082136706
SN - 0964-4733
VL - 29
SP - 2145
EP - 2169
JO - Business Strategy and the Environment
JF - Business Strategy and the Environment
IS - 6
ER -