Digital Technologies as Circularity Enablers: Investigating Barriers and Drivers

The transition toward Circular Economy entails deeply rethinking and innovating not only internal but also external processes and activities, leading to the emergence of entrepreneurial initiatives. This transition is difficult, and scholars acknowledged digital technologies as one of its main enablers. However, empirical evidence points out a low use of digital technologies to enable circular entrepreneurial ventures, and, at the same time, the factors influencing the use of digital technologies remain uncovered as yet. This research aims to bridge that research gap and investigate the barriers and drivers affecting the use of digital technologies to enable circular entrepreneurial ventures, considering both the micro and meso levels of implementation of Circular Economy. We deploy a systematic literature review methodology to synthesize the evidence from the extensive academic debate in the nexus between circularity and digital technologies. We leverage this evidence to categorize and gather the barriers and drivers relevant to be considered. Our results show that the use of digital technologies to enable circular entrepreneurial ventures is predominantly characterized by barriers, which prevail over drivers, particularly at the meso level. In particular, we have identified economic barriers while there are no economic drivers in the use of digital technologies to enable circularity. This study contributes to the existing discourse on digital technologies and Circular Economy, offering novel insights to scholars and entrepreneurs in this field.