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Scientific Article details

Title Mobilising information systems scholarship for a circular economy: Review, synthesis, and directions for future research
ID_Doc 3388
Authors Zeiss, R; Ixmeier, A; Recker, J; Kranz, J
Title Mobilising information systems scholarship for a circular economy: Review, synthesis, and directions for future research
Year 2021
Published Information Systems Journal, 31, 1
DOI 10.1111/isj.12305
Abstract One of today's grand societal challenges is to replace the current 'take-make-waste' economic model with a circular economic model that allows a gradual decoupling of economic activities from the consumption of finite virgin resources. While circular economy (CE) scholars have long lauded digital technologies such as sensors, distributed ledgers, or platforms as key enablers, our own community has not fully explored the potentials of information systems (IS) for a CE. Considering recent technological advances in software and hardware and our history of helping address wicked challenges, we believe the time is ripe to mobilise IS scholarship for a CE. Our findings from an interdisciplinary literature review show that research has primarily examined IS potentials for increasing efficiency of isolated intra-organisational processes while neglecting the larger sustainability potential of IS to establish circular material flows-that is, slow down and close material loops across entire product lifecycles. In response, we propose directions for IS research that develop our knowledge of how IS can help understand and enact circular material flows to intensify and extend use of products and components and recycle waste materials. Our directions offer pathways to building and evaluating the problem-solution pairing that could characterise a prolific CE-IS relationship.
Author Keywords circular economy; digital technology; literature review; research agenda; sustainability
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000563947200001
WoS Category Information Science & Library Science
Research Area Information Science & Library Science
PDF https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/isj.12305
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