Circular Economy in Manufacturing Industries: A Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Background: Circular economy is the trend that has emerged as an urgent necessity for manufacturing companies trying to break the linear "take, make, dispose" production cycle. While there is a significant amount of research happening in the circularity domain, the body of knowledge is split and does not necessarily connect with other theories, concepts and with application in different industrial sectors. The aim of this study was to develop an integrated conceptual framework to overcome the existing ambiguities in the field of CE and to facilitate further research while synthesizing the various streams of research on the topic.

Methods: The articles were systematically identified from Web of Science and Scopus databases, and then snowballing was performed, in compliance with the PRISMA guidelines, between 2010 and 2025, and resulted in the identification of 100 articles. A tripartite analytical technique based on the use of quantitative bibliometric analysis, qualitative bibliographic content analysis and conceptual mapping was used.

Results: The major thematic clusters that emerged were: circular supply chains, design for circularity, industrial symbiosis, Industry 4.0 enablers, policy and governance, performance measurement. The key practices of CE were identified and categorized according to the 4R and 10R frameworks, reverse logistics, industrial symbiosis and digital support for resource recovery at the micro, meso and macro level. The analysis shows that there are organizational, financial, technological and regulatory challenges that remain unaddressed, and that there is a significant lack of empirical evidence on a larger scale.

Conclusions: There is a coherent conceptual framework linking CE principles with supply chain operations and Industry 4.0 technologies in this review and it proposes a prioritized future research direction that covers eight critical knowledge gaps. Government, industry and academia receive practical guidance on how to speed circular transitions in manufacturing.

Cite as:

Ogagavwodia Ejovi Okuma. (2026). Circular Economy in Manufacturing Industries: A Literature Review and Future Research Agenda. Journal of Advanced Research in Industrial Engineering, 8(3), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22746771