Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual framework and research agenda

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-12-2019-0332
• Published date: 08 December 2020
• Date: 08 December 2020
• Pages: 510-537
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics
• Author: Benjamin T. Hazen,Ivan Russo,Ilenia Confente,Daniel Pellathy

Supply chain management for

circular economy: conceptual

framework and research agenda

Benjamin T. Hazen

Logistikum, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria –Campus Steyr,

Steyr, Austria

Ivan Russo and Ilenia Confente

Department of Business Administration, Universita degli Studi di Verona,

Verona, Italy, and

Daniel Pellathy

Grand Valley State University –Robert C Pew Grand Rapids Campus, Grand Rapids,

Michigan, USA

Abstract

Purpose –Circular economy (CE) initiatives are taking hold across both developed and developing nations.

Central to these initiatives is the reconfiguration of core supply chain management (SCM) processes that

underlie current production and consumption patterns. This conceptual article provides a detailed discussion

of how supply chain processes can support thesuccessful implementation of CE. The article highlights areas of

convergence in hopes of sparking collaboration among scholars and practitioners in SCM, CE, and related

fields.

Design/methodology/approach –This article adopts a theory extension approach to conceptual

development that uses CE as a “method”for exploring core processes within the domain of SCM. The

article offers a discussion of the ways in which the five principles of CE (closing, slowing, intensifying,

narrowing,dematerialising loops) intersect with eight core SCM processes(customer relationship management,

supplier relationship management, customer service management, demand management, order fulfilment,

manufacturing flow management, product development and commercialization, returns management).

Findings –This article identifies specific ways in which core SCM processes can support the transition from

traditional linear approaches to production and consumption to a more circular approach. Thispaper results in

IJLM

32,2

510

© Benjamin T. Hazen, Ivan Russo, Ilenia Confente and Daniel Pellathy. Published by Emerald Publishing

Limited. This articleis published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone

may reproduce, distribute, translateand create derivative works of this article(for both commercial and

non-commercialpurposes),subject to full attributionto the original publication and authors.The full terms

of this licence maybe seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode.

Erratum:It has come to the attentionof the publisher that the article,Hazen, B.T., Russo,I., Confente, I.

and Pellathy, D. (2020), “Supply chain management for circular economy: conceptual framework and

researchagenda”,publishedinTheInternational Journalof Logistics Management, Vol.ahead-of-print No.

ahead-of-print.https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-12-2019-0332,contained a number of errors.

These were:

The placement ofall figures at the end of the paper;

The inclusion of a furtherreading section;

An error in figure 4 that wasdue to misplaced arrows that disrupted the readingof the flowchart;

The inclusion of a reference to Zhu et al., 2018 in the ‘concluding remarks’section.

The errorswere either introducedduring the editorial process or by theauthors, but were not corrected

priorto publication due to a productionerror. All errors have now been correctedin the online version. The

figuresnow feature in the respectivesections in the bodyof the article, the furtherreading section has been

removed,figure 4 has now been corrected to showthe correct workflow and the referenceZhu et al., 2018

has now been changedto Liu et al., 2018.

The publisher sincerely apologises forthe errors and for any inconveniencecaused.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 5 December 2019

Revised 16 June 2020

Accepted 27 September 2020

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 32 No. 2, 2021

pp. 510-537

Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-12-2019-0332

a conceptual framework and research agenda for researchers and practitioners working to adapt current

supply chain processes to support the implementation of CE.

Originality/value –This article highlights key areas of convergence among scholars and practitioners

through a systematic extension of CE principles into the domain of SCM. In so doing, the paper lays out a

potential agenda for collaboration among these groups.

Keywords China, Sustainability

Paper type Conceptual paper

Introduction

Human activity is pushing Earth towards a series of “tipping points”, with the potential to

trigger dramatic changes in the environmental conditions that support modern society

(Barnosky et al., 2012;Heikkurinen, 2018). Climate change, widespread land degradation and

precipitous loss of biodiversity are all currently observable effects of human activity that

have the potential to destabilize the very ecosystems that support human development and

sustainment. As Sir Robert Watson, chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform

on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), recently reported: “The health of

ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than

ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health

and quality of life worldwide”(IPBES, 2018). Pulling back from these tipping points requires

new models of social and economic organization that better align Earth’s service capacity

with the needs of human populations (Steffen et al., 2015).

The concept of circular economy (CE) represents one of the most promising approaches to

organizing sustainable economic activity for the future. CE refers to “a regenerative system in

which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimised by slowing,

closing, and narrowing material and energy loops”(Geissdoerfer et al., 2017, p. 776). Although

not new, CE has recently emerged on the global stage as a potential organizing principle

around which multiple economic, political and social stakeholders can rally in their effort to

pull the Earth back from the brink of environmental catastrophe (Pearce and Turner, 1990;

Andersen, 2007;Ghisellini et al., 2016;Su et al., 2013). Although challenges have been

identified (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017), the rewards of implementing CE are notable. The

European Commission (2020) estimates that a shift to a functioning CE would grow Europe’s

GDP by almost 0.5% by 2030 and the net increase in jobs will be approximately 700,000

compared to actual baseline case and a GDP increase of as much as 7% relative to the current

development scenario.

Yetdespite the growingprominence ofCE, the concept hasgarnered relativelylittle attention

in the supplychain management (SCM)literature (Tjahjono and Ripanti, 2019). This absenceof

CE-related research is striking, given that efficient management of global supply chains is

critical to advancing CE. Indeed , a World Economic Forum (2014) report titled “Toward the

Circular Economy: Accelerating The Scale-Up Across Global Supply Chains”argues that

supplychains are the key unitof action with regard toCE implementation andsuccess, and will

be the foundation for driving needed change. As the bedrock of the world economy, supply

chain processes arguablyrequire the greatest, and mostimmediate attention(Ying and Li-jun,

2012,Govindan andHasanagic, 2018;Min et al., 2019). Thus,a robust framework for planning

and managing a CEsupply chain is needed (Tjahjono and Ripanti, 2019).

This paper seeks to develop a conceptual understanding of SCM’s role in CE, with the aim

of providing a framework and research agenda for stakeholders and scholars working to

adapt current supply chain processes to support the implementation of CE. Through a

systematic process of theoretical extension–which adopts CE as its overarching “method”for

exploring processes within the theoretical domain of SCM–the paper maps the intersections

between CE principles and SCM processes (Lukka and Vinnari, 2014;Jaakkola, 2020).

Supply chain

management

for circular

economy

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