Application of digital technologies for sustainable product management in a circular economy – a review

Abstract

Digital technologies (DTs), such as the internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence or blockchain, are considered as enablers for a more sustainable and circular economy. So far, literature on these topics has mostly focused on specific DTs and sub-areas of sustainable product management (SPM). The aim of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive overview of current and potential examples of DT applications in SPM (e.g., product design/assessment, supply chain management, business models). The collected examples (n=146) were analyzed based on a systematic literature review, using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Deductive and inductive analyses of the examples revealed the potential of DTs in terms of their useability along the product life cycle, their role as enablers for circular economy strategies and in specific SPM activities. DT application often entails only incremental improvements, e.g., increased efficiency of existing processes, with more radical forms of improvement remaining relatively scarce. There is clear room for greater adoption and optimization of DTs, in various areas of SPM, so as to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy.

Implementation of digital technologies for a circular economy and sustainability management in the manufacturing sector

“…Here, the European Commission defined the following four DTs as being essential enablers in the CE transition: (1) artificial intelligence (AI), (2) big data analytics, (3) blockchain and (4) IoT technology. These four DTs can enable digital manufacturing in the sense of an Industry 4.0 and a growing body of scientific literature is detailing their potential for improving robustness, accuracy, efficiency and transparency in CE and sustainability-related operations and decision-making (Liu et al, 2022;Rodríguez-Espíndola et al, 2022;Rusch et al, 2022). More generally, they are key technologies for solving complex problems and allow real-time information sharing and a wide range of analytics for improved management and decision making (Gill et al, 2019;Sodhi et al, 2022).…”

“…J More extensive discussion concerning the description, application potential, or functionalities of the four DTs is beyond the scope of this paper. For such information the reader is referred to dedicated journals 1 and literature reviews summarizing the potentials of one or more of these DTs for corporate sustainability and CE management (Cagno et al, 2021;Okorie et al, 2018;Rosa et al, 2020;Rusch et al, 2022). Among these reviews, Rusch et al (2022) focused on all four DTs and compiled 146 examples of application and then classified these in terms of their useability along the product life cycle, and their role as enablers in CE strategies and in specific sustainable product management activities.…”

“…For such information the reader is referred to dedicated journals 1 and literature reviews summarizing the potentials of one or more of these DTs for corporate sustainability and CE management (Cagno et al, 2021;Okorie et al, 2018;Rosa et al, 2020;Rusch et al, 2022). Among these reviews, Rusch et al (2022) focused on all four DTs and compiled 146 examples of application and then classified these in terms of their useability along the product life cycle, and their role as enablers in CE strategies and in specific sustainable product management activities. The 146 examples analyzed by Rusch et al (2022) frequently come from large companies and most are related to IoT technology, followed by big data analytics, blockchain technology and AI.…”

“…Among these reviews, Rusch et al (2022) focused on all four DTs and compiled 146 examples of application and then classified these in terms of their useability along the product life cycle, and their role as enablers in CE strategies and in specific sustainable product management activities. The 146 examples analyzed by Rusch et al (2022) frequently come from large companies and most are related to IoT technology, followed by big data analytics, blockchain technology and AI. Examples of application for all four DTs are most often linked to optimizationrelated CE strategies, and are characterized by increased efficiency and/or by improved circularity performance of products or production processes.…”

“…Research on the CE and on the related potential of digital technologies (DTs) has thus increased substantially in recent years (Di Maria et al, 2022;Rosa et al, 2020). Except for occasional warnings, for example, "[…] the alleged sustainability benefits of digital technologies may turn out to be ill-founded […]" (Andersen et al, 2021, p. 97), there is now a broad consensus among scholars that DTs play an essential role in the transition from the current linear economy towards a CE (Kristoffersen et al, 2020;Lieder and Rashid, 2016;Pagoropoulos et al, 2017;Rusch et al, 2022). Much of the related research to date consists either of literature reviews identifying the potential benefits of DTs (Agrawal et al, 2021;Demestichas and Daskalakis, 2020;Lopes de Sousa Jabbour et al, 2018), or of reports on single or multiple case studies illustrating the actual benefits of using DTs for a CE and in sustainability management (Bressanelli et al, 2018;Ingemarsdotter et al, 2021;Nascimento et al, 2019).…”