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This paper aims to explore global research on individuals’ awareness and behaviours related to the Circular Economy, aiming to deepen the understanding of how people engage with and contribute to CE practices.

Using a systematic literature review (SLR), this study methodically collects, codifies, analyses, synthesizes and interprets existing literature and research on Circular Economy. This approach aims for a comprehensive understanding of current global perspectives and practices.

The analysis reveals an increasing trend in empirical research focusing on Circular Economy strategies. This paper has identified 22 key strategies linked to public awareness and behaviours towards Circular Economy, noting that purchasing recycled products is the most commonly observed behaviour. The findings highlight the growing importance and complexity of individual roles in the Circular Economy.

The study underscores the importance of consumer behaviour in advancing Circular Economy practices. This paper observes that despite the growth in Circular Economy research, there is still a notable gap in awareness and behaviour, even in developed countries. This is attributed to a lack of conceptual understanding, educational disparities, resource limitations, a limited grasp of cost–benefit considerations and inadequate government support. The paper also explores regional and sector-specific variations in Circular Economy adoption, with insights from countries such as the USA, China, the UK, Germany, France and Norway.

This study underscores the importance of consumer behaviour in advancing Circular Economy practices. Despite the growth in Circular Economy research, there is still a notable gap in awareness and behaviour, even in developed countries. This is attributed to a lack of conceptual understanding, educational disparities, resource limitations, a limited grasp of cost–benefit considerations and inadequate government support. The paper also explores regional and sector-specific variations in Circular Economy adoption, with insights from countries such as the USA, China, the UK, Germany, France and Norway.

This research underscores the impact of demographic and sociocultural factors, including age, education, social norms and attitudes, on Circular Economy engagement. It identifies potential research areas, including examining cultural influences on social and personal norms related to circular behaviours. Ultimately, the study emphasizes the need for a coordinated, cross-sectoral effort to facilitate a sustainable transition to a Circular Economy, addressing barriers and fostering awareness and behaviours conducive to circular practices.

This study acknowledges challenges affecting the maturity of Circular Economy practices, including a lack of comprehension, educational disparities, resource constraints and limited government support. It also underscores the impact of social and cultural factors on Circular Economy engagement. It suggests promising avenues for future research, providing valuable insights into the state of Circular Economy practices and offering a roadmap for advancing global sustainability initiatives.

This study examines the themes present in circular economy disclosures that are published in the integrated reports of banks and analyzes their readability scores.

From 2016 to 2022, a comparative analysis of the integrated reports from six publicly listed Turkish banks that are significant global players was conducted. A total of 21 reports were analyzed, for readability scores and their environmental disclosures from a circular economy perspective were calculated using textual and sentiment analysis techniques.

The findings of this study underscore the significant involvement of banks in key areas of the circular economy, such as waste management, renewable energy, emission reduction and sustainable financing. Moreover, the study also reveals that the readability of environmental disclosures in the analyzed integrated reports was generally low, suggesting that the information presented may challenge stakeholders and decision-makers and prevent full comprehension, thereby potentially impeding the most effective engagement by stakeholders with circular economy initiatives.

This study introduces a new approach to circular economy reporting by exploring the application of data analytics models when assessing readability within environmental disclosures. It specifically focuses on the context of integrated reporting within the banking sector, an area that has not yet been extensively explored. The study further underscores the importance of clear and concise communication when engaging stakeholders in circular economy efforts. The implications of this research for the banking and environmental sectors thus make this study a valuable addition to the existing literature.

Though business analytics capability continues to attract considerable industrial and scholarly attention, its holistic performance implications, especially in the post-COVID-19 period, have not been fully understood. Thus, there have been calls for a full understanding of the implications of BAC for achieving holistic, sustainable outcomes among firms. This study therefore examines the influence of BAC on the three dimensions of sustainable performance. We also proposed the mediating role of circular economy implementation.

We tested the proposed model using survey data from 246 managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed to validate the model.

Our findings showed that BAC significantly enhances both sustainable performance and circular economy implementation. We also found a significant association between CEI and sustainable performance. We further found significant partial mediation of CEI in the BAC sustainable performance nexus.

Our study offers thoughtful insights for managers, policymakers and the academic community that firms should simultaneously implement circular models alongside building analytics competencies in the quest to achieve balanced performance outcomes.

To the best of our knowledge, our study is among the very few attempts to understand the mechanism that channels the benefits of BAC for a holistic, sustainable outcome.

This study attempts to explore the association between circular economy implementation and sustainability performance for the textile industry in Vietnam. This study also investigated the influences of corporate green commitment on implementing circular economy practices as well as the moderating effect of corporate green efficacy on the relationship between corporate green commitment and circular economy implementation.

The circular economy practices in the study were divided into three categories: internal environmental management, eco-design, and investment recovery. Sustainability performance consists of economic performance, environmental performance, and social performance. A questionnaire survey on Vietnam’s textile companies was conducted in the study to test the proposed research framework.

Research findings reveal that corporate green commitment significantly influences the implementation of circular economy practices, and circular economy practices have significantly positive influences on sustainability performance. Corporate green efficacy significantly moderates the association between corporate green commitment and circular economy implementation.

As one of the first empirical studies focusing on the circular economy issues in Vietnam’s textile industry, this study extended the understanding of the antecedents and consequences of implementing circular economy practices. The research results are theoretically and practically meaningful.

The paper focusses on various ways of global circular economies’ resource optimisation. The paper examines corporations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in bringing circularity. This paper identifies research gaps in waste management in linear economies such as India. It concludes with a proposition for waste management advocating the ADKAR model framework of change.

This paper reviews the academic repositories and reports to find answers to the circularity gaps. Databases such as Emerald, Web of Science and Springer were used to construct the theory. The author used keywords such as “circular economy”, “circular economy and SDG”, “circular economy and CSR”, and “circular economy and waste management” to locate the relevant literature to build the theory. Based on the theory, the waste management gap is identified and analysed.

The paper collates and examines the interdependency factors promoting circularity. An analysis of exemplary circular economies and corporations gives a pathway for linear economies. Finally, a framework is formulated for India’s transition from a linear to a circular economy using the best practices of different circular economies’ waste minimisation techniques. It summarises the findings of circular economies, formulating an ADKAR framework for waste management to aid circularity in India.

This research must be validated with the practical implications of an economy’s ecosystem. The economies’ binding policies and statutory regulations must be gauged through valid metrics for each circular economy, ultimately determining its efficacy in transitioning from linear to circular economy.

The circularity in production and responsible consumption by all the stakeholders leads to sustainability. Embracing new sustainable practices, CSR initiatives will lead to circularity at the nano, micro, meso and macro levels for a populous economy such as India. The ADKAR model proposed can bring a positive change in India.

The United Nations’ sustainability goal 12 (Responsible consumption and production) focusses on resource optimisation. This paper proposes ways to involve stakeholders to minimise waste at the source through a multi-level approach.

This paper attempts to assess an economy’s sustainability by analysing its circularity gaps and highlighting the best practices of circular economies. It also outlines the framework for circularity through waste reduction and minimisation using the ADKAR model.

A circular economy perspective embraces a systemic, cradle-to-cradle notion that everything is designed to be reused as long as possible and then recaptured and repurposed when reuse is no longer possible. Designing for a circular economy ecosystem requires a holistic, integrative viewpoint, spanning all aspects of design and development and considering many supply chain actors, far beyond that of traditional supply chains. This edited book adopts a biomimetic lens, highlighting the need for cross-industry flows and need for different actors (beyond producers and consumers) in circular value cycles. Enablers such as incentives and/or legislation are also discussed. While biomimicry provides the structure for organizing this book, individual chapters build on other theoretical lenses and concepts, such as stakeholder theory, etc. The intent is to move beyond a dyadic (buyer–supplier) view, embracing a holistic network or ecosystem view, to consider a cross-industry system perspective, where there is a diversity of actors (covering four actor groups: producers, consumers, scavengers, and decomposers) needed for a working ecosystem. This edited book offers a comprehensive overview of system components and actors, including how the circular economy adds value, the role of producers and consumers, the spectrum of recovery possibilities to return products back to the consumption supply chain, and the essential role of information management.

This chapter critically discusses the literature on the subject of circular economy. It defines the circular economy at the outset and advocates its adoption in smart cities. It briefly explains the multiple phases of industrial revolution and the slow and gradual shift from a linear economy which is based on make-use-dispose model to a circular economy which relies on reusing and recycling the products produced in the production cycle. It then critically examines the legal challenges that can be associated with such a system. It draws on the lessons learnt from cities such as Amsterdam which has successfully implemented the system of circular economy. This chapter also delves into the Columbian waste management system to understand the market functioning in the waste management sector which is handled by private enterprises in the country. Moreover, the public–private partnership model in the Chinese city Suzhou is explored, and exciting methods of using this model were found.

Higher education institutions and their lecturers are strategic agents and main drivers that contribute to circular economy transition. This requires them to understand the key circular economy competencies and how to integrate circular economy holistically into their curricula with the suitable teaching and learning approaches. This study aims to support them by providing an overview on the characteristics of education for the circular economy (ECE) and suggestions to lecturers to further develop their curricula.

The data consisted of scientific articles (n = 22) describing circular economy courses in higher education. Qualitative content analysis with quantitative features was performed on the selected articles to answer the research question.

The findings confirm that the system’s focus is the key issue in ECE. However, to integrate circular economy holistically into the curricula, ECE should be implemented more widely in the context of different industries and market contexts to find innovative teaching and learning approaches. The demand side needs to be incorporated in the courses, as systemic transformation is also about transforming consumption. All levels of implementation and circular economy objectives should be included in courses to promote systems thinking. In addition, innovative forms of real workplace interaction should be increased.

As ECE has started to emerge as a new field of study, this article provides the first integrated overview of the topic.

This chapter highlights how implementing circular economy principles can help companies working with sustainability to move from a reductionist and waste management approach to marketing competitive circular value propositions that intentionally design out waste (e.g. emissions and pollution) by rethinking, reinventing and redesigning the value chain. Schijvens, a Dutch family-owned corporate fashion textile company, acts as a case for exemplifying successful implementation of circular economy principles as a marketing strategy in a sector that struggles with finding solutions to the ethical challenges of producing and marketing textile fashion. The textile industry has, for many years, been accused of production that is based on environmentally harmful processes and conditions that are not socially fair. Circular economy principles provide a range of suggestions to address the ethical challenges occurring from covering the human needs of having clothes to wear. Yet, implementing circular economy principles is not a panacea. It is not only a question of delivering a technological quick fix but also a question of managing the new processes and human mindset guiding the actions in the value chain. This chapter, therefore, outlines reasons for a different perspective on the traditional linear value chain and related implications managers face when undertaking a journey from sustainability based on a reductionist approach to a closed-loop approach. It is argued that implementing circular economy principles by pro-actively managing the value chain processes based on eco-centric dynamic capabilities can provide even more radical changes than the incremental reductionist approach often associated with being a green sustainable company.

Introduction: The circular economy is observed as a good sustainability practice that has gained importance recently. The effects of this practice specific to the financial industry are examined in the context of green accounting, finance, and sustainability reporting standards and needs.

Purpose: This chapter aims to analyse the impact of the circular economy on the finance industry based on three research questions: (1) What benefits and challenges does the circular economy bring to the financial industry? (2) What should be the financial industry’s strategic roadmap and business model for transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy? (3) What are the differentiating aspects of ecosystem accounting and environmental accounting in its structure and use in the financial industry?

Methodology: The method of our work is based on a ‘strategic road map for circular economy’ implementation and a ‘sustainability business model framework’ relevant to the finance industry. Thus, we systematically present the ‘value generation process’ considering the industry trends and dynamics and regulatory challenges regarding ‘green business model’ management with a strategic approach.

Findings: To coordinate the transition to a circular economy based on systematic knowledge about the state of ecosystems and their interactions with society, it is necessary to design monitoring, accounting and reporting systems that adapt to the new business operating environment. This chapter provides recommendations from the perspective of the financial sector.