Circular Economy and Supply Chains: Definitions, Conceptualizations, and Research Agenda of the Circular Supply Chain Framework

OBJECTIVE: Circular supply chain management (CSCM) incorporates circular thinking — based on the circular economy paradigm — into supply chain management. In the last 5 years, this emerging research field has developed at a rapid pace and, as a result, has attracted great interest from researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners. As there are few studies on the theoretical conceptualization of the circular supply chain (CSC), especially on its definition, this paper aims to fill this gap and to provide conceptual transparency for the CSC framework. The main research question is “What are the current understandings among scholars of the CSC concept and CSCM framework?”. METHOD: To answer this question, a systematic literature review was conducted based on the Web of Science and Scopus databases. This was followed by a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer and a comprehensive content analysis of the literature. RESULTS: The bibliometric analysis provided an overview of CSC evolution and identified three temporal, thematic clusters. The content analysis identified 127 articles that explicitly mention the term CSC(M). Of these, seventeen articles provide explicit definitions that were thoroughly analyzed and categorized. Following this, six archetypal elements of the CSC and four propositions on the CSC’s uniqueness were formulated. CONCLUSION: The CSC research field is evolving rapidly. Its differentiation from other sustainability-related fields is sometimes not clear, and definitions and conceptualizations vary in detail, scope, and focus. CONTRIBUTIONS: This study contributes to the CSC literature and provides transparency for the conceptualization and understanding of CSC. For both theory and practice, an agenda for future research opportunities is identified, which supports the further development of this research field.