Innovation adoption is of utmost importance for company survival. That is why it is important to develop a thorough understanding of this research domain and the themes it encapsulates. Since the early work of Everett Rogers, the adoption of innovation literature has attracted considerable attention and has continued to grow rapidly, resulting in a large but fragmented body of literature. The goal of this study is to provide a coherent overview of the theoretical cornerstones as well as recent research trends in the innovation adoption literature. To this end, we conducted a bibliometric review and performed bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis. First, based on co-citation analysis, we illustrate that innovation adoption research is built on four theoretical cornerstones including: institutional theory; theory of reasoned action; theory concerning the determinants of adoption, and; diffusion theory. Second, bibliographic coupling was used to assess the current research trends. This review is the first to identify thematic areas in an exhaustive manner revealing five clusters of thematic related publications or "research trends": determinants of IT adoption; adoption of technological standards; organizational rationales associated with adoption; modelling diffusion, and; adoption of agricultural innovations. We conclude this review with the limitations and future research orientations in the field of innovation adoption.

Decarbonisation in the construction sector, consisting of a process based on the abandonment of fossil resources and the achievement of greater resource efficiency, is increasing in both new construction and renovation. The concept of circularity is seen as a strategy to reach this goal. The direct environmental impact of building designs can be quantitatively evaluated by assessing total mass, embodied energy, and embodied CO2 in combination with circularity criteria, such as design for disassembly, materials and product origin, as well as recovering potential. This paper presents a method for easily assessing these parameters, thus obtaining a Building Circularity Indicator. To validate the method, its application in a pilot case of a manor villa located in Argelato (Bologna, Italy) is provided in the framework of the European Horizon 2020 project “DRIVE 0—Driving decarbonization of the EU building stock by enhancing a consumer-centred and locally based circular renovation process”. The deep renovation intervention developed is aimed at increasing energy performance by pursuing a circular approach that has rarely been tackled in protected heritage. Furthermore, the benefits of a circular versus a linear strategy are demonstrated through an LCA as well as LCC analyses assessing the environmental and economic impact of the intervention. The research results validate the proposed method as a tool to support operators in the construction sector.

No abstract

The construction and demolition industry (CDI) became a priority area for the EU circular economy as the industry has the largest waste stream by volume. Most of the CDI waste, however, ends up in incinerators for energy production or as downcycled content for road surfaces despite its enormous potential for recycling and reuse. This study focuses on the application of circularity in the CDI. We recognize that the construction industry provides a prominent decision context for studying circularity since many scrap materials resulting from demolished buildings and houses could be recycled, reused and refurbished in newly constructed edifices from foundation to rooftops. Adopting the fundamental circularity concepts, the study intends to compare how selected countries as early adopters of circularity in the EU apply distinct concepts of the circular economy in the CDI. The study investigates the manner circularity in CDI is achieved in the selected countries using determinants for project success in integrating the three dimensions of sustainability to identify and determine best practices. These determinants are: 1) stage of circularity as described in the waste hierarchy and circularity ladder, 2) building design principles, 3) life cycle stages specific to construction, and 4) availability and extent of policy or strategy on circularity in the EU countries where the selected projects are located. The EU countries covered are: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, and Denmark who are among the top 10 waste generators in Western Europe. The projects chosen are: (i) Superlocal project in the Netherlands; (ii) the Circular Retrofit Lab (CRL) project in Belgium; (iii) Open Air Library in Germany; (iv) Rehafutur Engineer’s House project in France; and (v) Upcycle Studios in Denmark.

No abstract