IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i20p8942-d1499677.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Strategies for Sustainability: Examining the Circular Economy Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Ionela Munteanu

    (Department of Accounting, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
    Faculty of Economic Studies, Ovidius University of Constanta, Aleea Universitatii no.1, 900470 Constanta, Romania)

  • Liliana Ionescu-Feleagă

    (Department of Accounting, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Bogdan Ștefan Ionescu

    (Department of Accounting, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) research has advanced significantly in recent years in areas like environmental science, engineering, and technology. Governance presents CE strategies as imperative and compelling, often linked to efforts to achieve sustainable business development. However, the financial quantification of a CE is still underexplored and heterogeneous, with multiple research streams exploring the financial dimension. The aims of this study are twofold: (i) to analyze the productivity of the scientific literature and the conceptual evolution of circularity as it relates to financial strategies; and (ii) to formulate future research directions addressing a CE in close connection with financial sustainability knowledge. Bilbiometrix R-package 2023.12.1 and VOSviewer version 1.6.20 were used to analyze a sample of 279 articles retrieved from WoS and Scopus using the PRISMA protocol. The analysis covered the period 2010–2023, with the diachronic thematic analysis revealing four key themes: (1) CE and green financial performance; (2) environmental impact of CE; (3) performance approach of CE and metrics; (4) CE and sustainable development. Building on previous knowledge, we developed an integrated and multidisciplinary framework of CE embedded in financial performance. Future research agenda shaped by the emerging themes and research gaps can support managers, shareholders, or governance in incorporating CE policies into operational activities and strengthening sustainable circularity knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Ionela Munteanu & Liliana Ionescu-Feleagă & Bogdan Ștefan Ionescu, 2024. "Financial Strategies for Sustainability: Examining the Circular Economy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-22, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:20:p:8942-:d:1499677
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/8942/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/8942/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zahid Yousaf & Mirela Panait & Umair Tanveer & Alina Cretu & Andrei Hrebenciuc & Sheikh Muhammad Zahid, 2022. "Value Creation through Frugal Innovation, Innovation Capability and Knowledge Sharing in a Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Di Maio, Francesco & Rem, Peter Carlo & Baldé, Kees & Polder, Michael, 2017. "Measuring resource efficiency and circular economy: A market value approach," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 163-171.
    3. Simona Andreea Apostu & Iza Gigauri & Mirela Panait & Pedro A. Martín-Cervantes, 2023. "Is Europe on the Way to Sustainable Development? Compatibility of Green Environment, Economic Growth, and Circular Economy Issues," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Zhang, Zhongqingyang & Zhu, Huiming & Zhou, Zhongbao & Zou, Kai, 2022. "How does innovation matter for sustainable performance? Evidence from small and medium-sized enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 251-265.
    5. Piubello Orsini, Luca & Leardini, Chiara & Danesi, Letizia & Guerrini, Andrea & Frison, Nicola, 2023. "Circular economy in the water and wastewater sector: Tariff impact and financial performance of SMARTechs," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Eftichios S. Sartzetakis, 2021. "Green bonds as an instrument to finance low carbon transition," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 755-779, August.
    7. Liang Li & Hajar Msaad & Huaping Sun & Mei Xuen Tan & Yeqing Lu & Antonio K.W. Lau, 2020. "Green Innovation and Business Sustainability: New Evidence from Energy Intensive Industry in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-18, October.
    8. Henryk Dzwigol & Nataliia Trushkina & Aleksy Kwilinski, 2021. "The Organizational and Economic Mechanism of Implementing the Concept of Green Logistics," Virtual Economics, The London Academy of Science and Business, vol. 4(2), pages 41-75, April.
    9. Sabina Scarpellini & Luz María Marín-Vinuesa & Alfonso Aranda-Usón & Pilar Portillo-Tarragona, 2020. "Dynamic capabilities and environmental accounting for the circular economy in businesses," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(7), pages 1129-1158, January.
    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. Iustin Cornel Petre & Kamer-Ainur Aivaz, 2024. "The Impact of Religious and Ethnic Diversity on Business and Public Policies Strategies," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 3, pages 156-162.
    2. Anamaria MIȘA & Kamer-Ainur AIVAZ, 2025. "Impact Of Training, Trust And Customer Satisfaction On The Reputation Of Banks In Romania," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 20(1), pages 125-141, April.
    3. Alexandra Maria Spanu, 2024. "Leadership and Organizational Culture in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Trends and Contributions," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 3, pages 163-170.

    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. Gabriella D’Amore & Maria Testa & Luigi Lepore, 2023. "How Is the Utilities Sector Contributing to Building a Sustainable Future? A Systematic Literature Review of Sustainability Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Arsani Alina & Stefan George, 2024. "Energy Transition and European Sub-Models. Restructuring EU Economy," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 86-101.
    3. Sadiq, Muhammad & Nawaz, Muhammad Atif & Sharif, Arshian & Hanif, Sobia, 2024. "Bridging green supply chain practices and environmental performance in Chinese semiconductor sector: With the role of energy efficiency and green HRM," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    4. Lin, Fan & Xie, Danyang, 2024. "The Role of R&D for Climate Change Mitigation in China: a Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis," MPRA Paper 123556, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Giusy Chesini, 2024. "Can Sovereign Green Bonds Accelerate the Transition to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 30(2), pages 177-197, May.
    6. Shunbin Zhong & Huafu Shen & Ziheng Niu & Yang Yu & Lin Pan & Yaojun Fan & Atif Jahanger, 2022. "Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-23, November.
    7. Franco Fassio & Chiara Chirilli, 2023. "The Circular Economy and the Food System: A Review of Principal Measuring Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    8. Zixin Dou & Yanming Sun & Tao Wang & Huiyin Wan & Shiqi Fan, 2021. "Exploring Regional Advanced Manufacturing and Its Driving Factors: A Case Study of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Xingwei Li & Jiachi Dai & Jinrong He & Jingru Li & Yicheng Huang & Xiang Liu & Qiong Shen, 2022. "Mechanism of Enterprise Green Innovation Behavior Considering Coevolution Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-19, August.
    10. Suzana Matoh & Sally V. Russell & Katy Roelich & Sally Randles, 2024. "Circular business model innovation and cognitive framing: Addressing the “missing micro”," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 8656-8667, December.
    11. Dahlen, Niklas & Fehrenkötter, Rieke & Schreiter, Maximilian, 2024. "The new bond on the block — Designing a carbon-linked bond for sustainable investment projects," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 316-325.
    12. Wang, Chih-Wei & Wu, Yu-Ching & Hsieh, Hsin-Yi & Huang, Po-Hsiang & Lin, Meng-Chieh, 2022. "Does green bond issuance have an impact on climate risk concerns?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    13. Qingxian Jia, 2023. "The impact of green finance on the level of decarbonization of the economies: An analysis of the United States', China's, and Russia's current agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 110-119, January.
    14. Dharm Dev Bhatta & Muddassar Sarfraz & Larisa Ivascu & Marius Pislaru, 2023. "The Nexus of Corporate Affinity for Technology and Firm Sustainable Performance in the Era of Digitalization: A Mediated Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, June.
    15. Ahmad, Farhan & Bask, Anu & Laari, Sini & Robinson, Craig V., 2023. "Business management perspectives on the circular economy: Present state and future directions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    16. Wieliczko, Barbara, 2019. "What role for the cap in making agriculture part of the EU circular economy?," Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland, vol. 53(3), March.
    17. Joanicjusz Nazarko & Ewa Chodakowska & Łukasz Nazarko, 2022. "Evaluating the Transition of the European Union Member States towards a Circular Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-24, May.
    18. Petr Jakubik & Sibel Uguz, 2021. "Impact of green bond policies on insurers: evidence from the European equity market," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 45(2), pages 381-393, April.
    19. Tao Li & Lei Ma & Zheng Liu & Chaonan Yi & Kaitong Liang, 2023. "Dual Carbon Goal-Based Quadrilateral Evolutionary Game: Study on the New Energy Vehicle Industry in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-16, February.
    20. Caroline Samberger & Sanaz Imen & Katerina Messologitis & Arthur Umble & Joseph G. Jacangelo, 2024. "Assessing circularity of wastewater treatment systems: A critical review of indicators," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(2), pages 262-276, April.

    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:16:y:2024:i:20:p:8942-:d:1499677. 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.