The role of digital technologies in supporting the implementation of circular economy practices by industrial small and medium enterprises

Abstract

The adoption of Industry 4.0's digital technologies can enable the implementation of circular economy practices. Nonetheless, current indications for industrial practitioners on how to exploit the broad set of technologies for circular transition appear unclear. This issue is even more challenging for small and medium enterprises, which are typically endowed with more limited resources than larger firms and are characterised by both a digital and circular divide. This present study contributes to the academic debate by offering an exploratory empirical analysis—based on semi‐structured interviews—that involved 10 Italian industrial small and medium enterprises to deepen the knowledge of the supporting role played by digital technologies in implementing circular economy practices by small and medium enterprises, also considering the potential synergies among such technologies. Results are of interest also to industrial decision‐makers, allowing them to exploit their firms' resources towards the adoption of those digital technologies that could be more effective to foster the circular transition.

What digital‐enabled dynamic capabilities support the circular economy? A multiple case study approach

“…As both CE and DTs are relatively new topics, there is no mature or exhaustive discussion yet on their relationship, particularly the overall guidance on how DTs can support the circular transition of industrial firms is limited (Kristoffersen et al, 2020;Neri et al, 2023).…”

“…Based on recent managerial and academic debates, the integration between CE and DTs can support firms willing to be more competitive and sustainable (Khatami et al, 2023; P. Kumar et al, 2021). As both CE and DTs are relatively new topics, there is no mature or exhaustive discussion yet on their relationship, particularly the overall guidance on how DTs can support the circular transition of industrial firms is limited (Kristoffersen et al, 2020; Neri et al, 2023).…”

“…Z. Yu et al (2022) focus on the automotive sector and assert that I4.0 technologies can improve the adoption of circular purchase and design practices, opening new horizons for CE; nonetheless, they do not investigate any specific DT and approach CE practices from an aggregated perspective. Neri et al (2023), focusing on small and medium enterprises, underline the relevance of, IoT, big data analytics and robots in supporting the implementation of a variety of CE practices. Additionally, they also provide preliminary insights on the support towards circular transition offered by the joint adoption of multiple DTs.…”

“…These valuable efforts are nonetheless centred only on selected aspects for both DTs and CE. On the one hand, focusing only on selected DTs might prevent the understanding of synergies among different DTs (Almeida et al, 2022); indeed, there is more than one configuration allowing the generation of DCs (Van De Wetering et al, 2019) or fostering the CE transition (Neri et al, 2023), and different DTs can contribute in different ways (Demeter et al, 2021). On the other hand, CE as well should be investigated in a holistic manner, taking into consideration the different strategies and levels of adoption (Fehrer & Wieland, 2021), as this is the only way to properly explicate it (Negri et al, 2021).…”

Exploring the role of digitalization as a driver for the adoption of circular economy principles in agrifood SMEs – an interpretive case study

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive understanding of the intricate dynamics and outcomes stemming from the interaction between digitalization and the CE in the specific context of Italian SMEs remains largely unexplored. This knowledge gap impedes our ability to fully understand and harness the potential synergies and effectively address the challenges associated with integrating digitalization and CE in SMEs (Dey et al, 2020;Neri et al, 2023). This is especially true considering the existing critical issue in managerial, organizational and technological modernization that Italian SMEs firms encounter, further exacerbated by a cultural predisposition rooted in long-standing traditions (Thrassou, 2016;Vrontis et al, 2016).…”