Organizational change towards the circular economy: A systematic review of the literature

Instead of the ‘make-use-dispose’ approach of a linear economy, a circular econ- omy aims at eliminating waste and avoiding damage to the environment by closing resource loops. Given the recent surge of scholarly interest in the ways in which organizations can change towards working in a more circular way, it is important and timely to verify what scholars have learnt, what remains contested, and what should be done next.

To this end, we are reviewing literature on the emerging field of ‘Organizational Change towards a Circular Economy’ (OCCE). We identify and analyse research that sits at the interface of organizational change theory and the circular economy paradigm and provide a systematic literature review. Our review reveals consensus, ambiguities, and differences in the OCCE literature along three main dimensions of organizational change (i.e., content, process, and context).