IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v28y2024i2p277-288.html

Categorization of manufacturing companies’ readiness profiles for the transition to the circular economy: A multidimensional cluster analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Thayla Zomer
  • Tim McAloone
  • Daniela Pigosso

Abstract

The circular economy (CE) field has moved from purely conceptual research into empirical studies. However, the literature does not provide generalized conclusions regarding the overall state of CE transition in manufacturing companies. Existing studies lack a perspective in explaining differences among companies planning or already transitioning to the CE because most empirical research so far is based on single or few case studies, generally assuming that the transition to CE, once undertaken as a purpose, moves along a continuum from a linear model to a circular one. This paper identifies differences among manufacturing companies planning and transitioning to CE and conceptualizes readiness profiles along eight dimensions of change identified in the literature as essential to CE implementation in organizations. A cluster analysis of a sample of manufacturing companies from different sectors, sizes, and locations identified five readiness profiles: the laggards, the explorers, the frontrunners, the strategizers, and the information oriented. The results show that companies may follow different approaches when exploring the potential of CE in their businesses. While some companies decide to explore and experiment across all dimensions of change, others follow a more strategic or operational approach, suggesting different states in which companies find themselves. The findings offer evidence of the change happening across the manufacturing industry and how CE transition unfolds in practice, extending existing literature by providing more overall conclusions on how the transition might unfold in manufacturing companies and different states that companies might be regarding the multiple dimensions of change that should be considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Thayla Zomer & Tim McAloone & Daniela Pigosso, 2024. "Categorization of manufacturing companies’ readiness profiles for the transition to the circular economy: A multidimensional cluster analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(2), pages 277-288, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:28:y:2024:i:2:p:277-288
    DOI: 10.1111/jiec.13460
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13460
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jiec.13460?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wisdom Kanda & Martin Geissdoerfer & Olof Hjelm, 2021. "From circular business models to circular business ecosystems," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 2814-2829, September.
    2. Parida, Vinit & Burström, Thommie & Visnjic, Ivanka & Wincent, Joakim, 2019. "Orchestrating industrial ecosystem in circular economy: A two-stage transformation model for large manufacturing companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 715-725.
    3. Rosa Maria Dangelico & Devashish Pujari & Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo, 2017. "Green Product Innovation in Manufacturing Firms: A Sustainability‐Oriented Dynamic Capability Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 490-506, May.
    4. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    5. David J. Teece, 2007. "Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(13), pages 1319-1350, December.
    6. Gianmarco Bressanelli & Federico Adrodegari & Daniela C. A. Pigosso & Vinit Parida, 2022. "Towards the Smart Circular Economy Paradigm: A Definition, Conceptualization, and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, April.
    7. Patrick Schroeder & Kartika Anggraeni & Uwe Weber, 2019. "The Relevance of Circular Economy Practices to the Sustainable Development Goals," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 23(1), pages 77-95, February.
    8. Ida K. Rovanto & Anu Bask, 2021. "Systemic circular business model application at the company, supply chain and society levels—A view into circular economy native and adopter companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1153-1173, February.
    9. Samoilenko, Sergey & Osei-Bryson, Kweku-Muata, 2010. "Determining sources of relative inefficiency in heterogeneous samples: Methodology using Cluster Analysis, DEA and Neural Networks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 206(2), pages 479-487, October.
    10. Zhu, Qinghua, 2016. "Institutional pressures and support from industrial zones for motivating sustainable production among Chinese manufacturers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(PB), pages 402-409.
    11. Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes & Ailin Salomé Valls & Simon Peter Nadeem & Anthony Anosike & Vikas Kumar, 2019. "A circularity measurement toolkit for manufacturing SMEs," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(23), pages 7319-7343, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adrian LUNGU & Mihai Daniel ROMAN & Diana Mihaela STANCULESCU, 2024. "Eu Convergence: A Pathway To Economic Stability," Eastern European Journal for Regional Studies (EEJRS), Center for Studies in European Integration (CSEI), Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (ASEM), vol. 10(1), pages 6-30, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Castillo-Ospina, Danika A. & Facin, Ana Lucia Figueiredo & Ferreira, Camila dos Santos & Ometto, Aldo Roberto, 2023. "Circular ecosystem innovation portfolio management," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    2. Roberta De Angelis & Robert Morgan & Luigi M. De Luca, 2023. "Open strategy and dynamic capabilities: A framework for circular economy business models research," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4861-4873, November.
    3. Sjödin, David & Liljeborg, Alexander & Mutter, Sermed, 2024. "Conceptualizing ecosystem management capabilities: Managing the ecosystem-organization interface," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Marta Negri & Alessandra Neri & Enrico Cagno & Gabriele Monfardini, 2021. "Circular Economy Performance Measurement in Manufacturing Firms: A Systematic Literature Review with Insights for Small and Medium Enterprises and New Adopters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-27, August.
    5. Federica Scandurra & Roberta Salomone & Sandra Caeiro & Ana Pinto Moura, 2025. "Circular Economy in the Agri-Food Sector: Insights into Portuguese Companies’ Practices," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 25-50, February.
    6. Luca Marrucci & Tiberio Daddi & Fabio Iraldo, 2022. "Do dynamic capabilities matter? A study on environmental performance and the circular economy in European certified organisations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2641-2657, September.
    7. Dimitri Petrik & Simon Hiller & Dominik Morar, 2025. "Digital platforms for circular economy: Empirical development of a taxonomy and archetypes," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 35(1), pages 1-25, December.
    8. Virginie Litaudon & Yiran Chen, 2023. "Transforming existing local ecosystems to circular economy ecosystems for plastics: The case of the PlastiCity ecosystem," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(5), pages 1406-1419, October.
    9. Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Faria, Aline Mariane de & Braz, Antonio Carlos & Mello, Adriana Marotti de & Borini, Felipe Mendes & Ometto, Aldo Roberto, 2023. "Circular ecosystem management: Orchestrating ecosystem value proposition and configuration," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    10. Luthra, Sunil & Kumar, Anil & Sharma, Manu & Arturo Garza-Reyes, Jose & Kumar, Vikas, 2022. "An analysis of operational behavioural factors and circular economy practices in SMEs: An emerging economy perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 321-336.
    11. Bruno Michel Roman Pais Seles & Janaina Mascarenhas & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour & Adriana Hoffman Trevisan, 2022. "Smoothing the circular economy transition: The role of resources and capabilities enablers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1814-1837, May.
    12. Sjödin, David & Parida, Vinit & Kohtamäki, Marko, 2023. "Artificial intelligence enabling circular business model innovation in digital servitization: Conceptualizing dynamic capabilities, AI capacities, business models and effects," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    13. Owais Khan & Tiberio Daddi & Fabio Iraldo, 2020. "The role of dynamic capabilities in circular economy implementation and performance of companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 3018-3033, November.
    14. Govindan, Kannan, 2023. "How digitalization transforms the traditional circular economy to a smart circular economy for achieving SDGs and net zero," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    15. Lucio Laureti & Alessandro Massaro & Alberto Costantiello & Angelo Leogrande, 2023. "The Impact of Renewable Electricity Output on Sustainability in the Context of Circular Economy: A Global Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-29, January.
    16. Lee, Min-Jae & Kim, Yanghee & Roh, Taewoo, 2024. "Exploring the role of digital servitization for green innovation: Absorptive capacity, transformative capacity, and environmental strategy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    17. Scheuer, Luca Joachim & Thaler, Julia, 2023. "How do dynamic capabilities affect performance? A systematic review of mediators," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 914-931.
    18. Dragana Ostic & Ummar Faruk Saeed & Angelina Kissiwaa Twum & Rahmatu Chibsah, 2025. "Transition Toward a Sustainable Circular Economy: A Perspective on Green Innovation and Governance Policy Using a Novel MMQR Approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 5719-5741, August.
    19. D. D’Amato, 2021. "Sustainability Narratives as Transformative Solution Pathways: Zooming in on the Circular Economy," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 231-242, June.
    20. Kamalaldin, Anmar & Sjödin, David & Hullova, Dusana & Parida, Vinit, 2021. "Configuring ecosystem strategies for digitally enabled process innovation: A framework for equipment suppliers in the process industries," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:28:y:2024:i:2:p:277-288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.