TY - JOUR
T1 - Overcoming barriers to circular product design
AU - Wang, Jason X.
AU - Burke, Haydn
AU - Zhang, Abraham
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr Abraham Zhang acknowledges partial funding support from the 2020 Endeavour Fund , Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment of New Zealand (Project title: Āmiomio Aotearoa - A Circular Economy for the Wellbeing of New Zealand). The authors would like to thank the handling guest editor Professor Andrea Genovese and four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which have greatly helped improve the manuscript. They also appreciate all the interview participants who shared their knowledge and insights on the topic.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - The circular economy concept provides sustainability research with a new vision in place of the present linear economic model. This study focuses on product design, the starting point of applying circular thinking in supply chain functions. We investigate barriers to circular product design from a stakeholder perspective. Using thematic analysis and data collected from 15 semi-structured interviews in New Zealand, we identify four prominent barriers: financial constraints, inadequate infrastructure, government inaction, and global market barriers. The most influential stakeholder classes for overcoming the barriers are consumers, industry leaders, and governments. Circumventing measures lie in sustainable end-of-life product and waste management, resource circularity, modularity and standardization in design, and supply chain collaboration. Based on these new insights, we develop a roadmap for circular product design, providing practical guidance for businesses and policymakers. We also add to research on stakeholder theory by exploring its descriptive aspect in the context of a transition to circular economy at the supply chain level.
AB - The circular economy concept provides sustainability research with a new vision in place of the present linear economic model. This study focuses on product design, the starting point of applying circular thinking in supply chain functions. We investigate barriers to circular product design from a stakeholder perspective. Using thematic analysis and data collected from 15 semi-structured interviews in New Zealand, we identify four prominent barriers: financial constraints, inadequate infrastructure, government inaction, and global market barriers. The most influential stakeholder classes for overcoming the barriers are consumers, industry leaders, and governments. Circumventing measures lie in sustainable end-of-life product and waste management, resource circularity, modularity and standardization in design, and supply chain collaboration. Based on these new insights, we develop a roadmap for circular product design, providing practical guidance for businesses and policymakers. We also add to research on stakeholder theory by exploring its descriptive aspect in the context of a transition to circular economy at the supply chain level.
KW - Circular economy
KW - Circular product design
KW - Barrier
KW - Circular supply chain management
KW - Closed-loop supply chain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118278019&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108346
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108346
M3 - Article
VL - 243
JO - International Journal of Production Economics
JF - International Journal of Production Economics
SN - 0925-5273
M1 - 108346
ER -