IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i13p7970-d852231.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Framework to Assess Social Indicators in a Circular Economy Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Augusto Bianchini

    (Department of Industrial Engineering DIN, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy)

  • Patricia Guarnieri

    (Faculty of Economics, Business, Accounting and Public Policies, University of Brasília—UnB, Brasilia 70910-900, Brazil)

  • Jessica Rossi

    (Department of Industrial Engineering DIN, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy)

Abstract

The thriving circular economy is expected to contribute to all three dimensions of sustainable development: environmental, economic, and social. This paper aims to propose a framework to assess social indicators to support circular business models. To validate the framework, we conducted a case study in a medium-size Italian footwear luxury industry, using the Value Focused Thinking–VFT. This approach was used to define proper social indicators to measure the perception of the company’s managers related to the level of incorporation of social dilemmas in the company. We collect data through interviews, documental analysis and direct observation from October/2019 until August/2020 and apply a questionnaire in 2020/2021. The novelty of this paper lies in the proposition of a framework to assess the social indicators in broad categories, capable of covering all supply chains: Corporation, Community; Consumers; Suppliers; Human Rights and Human Resources. Another novelty is related to the analysis of indicators in terms of strategic, tactical, and operational levels, similarly to the idea of a Balanced Scorecard, which was allowed by applying the VFT approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Augusto Bianchini & Patricia Guarnieri & Jessica Rossi, 2022. "A Framework to Assess Social Indicators in a Circular Economy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7970-:d:852231
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7970/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7970/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Augusto Bianchini & Jessica Rossi & Marco Pellegrini, 2019. "Overcoming the Main Barriers of Circular Economy Implementation through a New Visualization Tool for Circular Business Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-33, November.
    2. Sirish Kumar Gouda & Haritha Saranga, 2018. "Sustainable supply chains for supply chain sustainability: impact of sustainability efforts on supply chain risk," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(17), pages 5820-5835, September.
    3. Kirchherr, Julian & Reike, Denise & Hekkert, Marko, 2017. "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 221-232.
    4. Annachiara Longoni & Raffaella Cagliano, 2018. "Sustainable Innovativeness and the Triple Bottom Line: The Role of Organizational Time Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1097-1120, September.
    5. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    6. Alan Murray & Keith Skene & Kathryn Haynes, 2017. "The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 369-380, February.
    7. Mateusz Lewandowski, 2016. "Designing the Business Models for Circular Economy—Towards the Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, January.
    8. Badri Ahmadi, Hadi & Kusi-Sarpong, Simonov & Rezaei, Jafar, 2017. "Assessing the social sustainability of supply chains using Best Worst Method," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 99-106.
    9. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    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. Cathaysa Martín-Blanco & Montserrat Zamorano & Carmen Lizárraga & Valentin Molina-Moreno, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals: Achievements and Expectations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Rubee Singh & Shahbaz Khan & Piera Centobelli, 2022. "Investigating the Interplay between Social Performance and Organisational Factors Supporting Circular Economy Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.

    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. Gilbert Silvius & Aydan Ismayilova & Vicente Sales-Vivó & Micol Costi, 2021. "Exploring Barriers for Circularity in the EU Furniture Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Maryam Hina & Chetna Chauhan & Rajat Sharma & Amandeep Dhir, 2023. "Circular economy business models as pillars of sustainability: Where are we now, and where are we heading?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 6182-6209, December.
    3. Chembessi Chedrak & Gohoungodji Paulin & Juste Rajaonson, 2023. "“A fine wine, better with age”: Circular economy historical roots and influential publications: A bibliometric analysis using Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS)," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1593-1612, December.
    4. Frank Figge & Andrea Stevenson Thorpe & Siarhei Manzhynski & Melissa Gutberlet, 2022. "The us in reUSe. Theorizing the how and why of the circular economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2741-2753, September.
    5. Ewa Mazur-Wierzbicka, 2021. "Towards Circular Economy—A Comparative Analysis of the Countries of the European Union," Resources, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-25, May.
    6. Florian Hofmann & Melanie Jaeger‐Erben, 2020. "Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2770-2788, September.
    7. Lahcen, Bart & Eyckmans, Johan & Rousseau, Sandra & Dams, Yoko & Brusselaers, Jan, 2022. "Modelling the circular economy: Introducing a supply chain equilibrium approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    8. Beatriz de Souza Mello Gonçalves & Flávio Leonel de Carvalho & Paula de Camargo Fiorini, 2022. "Circular Economy and Financial Aspects: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-41, March.
    9. Patricia Guarnieri & Lucio Camara e Silva & Fazli Haleem & Augusto Bianchini & Jessica Rossi & Brian Vejrum Wæhrens & Sami Farooq & Edgar Reyes & André Luiz Nascimento Reis & Barbara de Oliveira Vieir, 2022. "How Can We Measure the Prioritization of Strategies for Transitioning to a Circular Economy at Macro Level? A New Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-31, December.
    10. José Miguel Rodríguez-Antón & Luis Rubio-Andrada & María Soledad Celemín-Pedroche & Soraya María Ruíz-Peñalver, 2022. "From the circular economy to the sustainable development goals in the European Union: an empirical comparison," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 67-95, March.
    11. Kerem Toker & Ali Görener, 2023. "Evaluation of circular economy business models for SMEs using spherical fuzzy TOPSIS: an application from a developing countries’ perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1700-1741, February.
    12. Jessica Rossi & Augusto Bianchini & Patricia Guarnieri, 2020. "Circular Economy Model Enhanced by Intelligent Assets from Industry 4.0: The Proposition of an Innovative Tool to Analyze Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, September.
    13. Magdalena Rusch & Josef‐Peter Schöggl & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2023. "Application of digital technologies for sustainable product management in a circular economy: A review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1159-1174, March.
    14. Anna Barford & Saffy Rose Ahmad, 2021. "A Call for a Socially Restorative Circular Economy: Waste Pickers in the Recycled Plastics Supply Chain," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    15. Cristina Sousa Rocha & Paula Antunes & Paulo Partidário, 2023. "Design for Circular Economy in a Strong Sustainability Paradigm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-30, December.
    16. Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Inés Suárez-Perales & Dante I. Leyva-de la Hiz, 2019. "Is It Possible to Change from a Linear to a Circular Economy? An Overview of Opportunities and Barriers for European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Companies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-15, March.
    17. Castro-Lopez, Adrian & Iglesias, Victor & Santos-Vijande, María Leticia, 2023. "Organizational capabilities and institutional pressures in the adoption of circular economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Massimiliano Borrello & Stefano Pascucci & Luigi Cembalo, 2020. "Three Propositions to Unify Circular Economy Research: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-22, May.
    19. Iniobong Beauty John & Samuel A. Adekunle & Clinton O. Aigbavboa, 2023. "Adoption of Circular Economy by Construction Industry SMEs: Organisational Growth Transition Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, March.
    20. Gabi Försterling & Ronald Orth & Benjamin Gellert, 2023. "Transition to a Circular Economy in Europe through New Business Models: Barriers, Drivers, and Policy Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-40, May.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7970-:d:852231. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.