International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar

Transition toward circular economy (CE) has become a central priority for firms seeking to enhance sustainability while improving corporate financial performance (CFP). As research on this intersection expands rapidly, a comprehensive and data-driven overview is needed to clarify its intellectual structure, thematic diversity, and knowledge gaps. Our study employs BERTopic modeling to identify coherent thematic clusters and their temporal dynamics, and conducts Scientometrics analysis to map the evolution of CE research. We employed PRISMA-guided screening process to retrieve 1,870 peer-reviewed articles published between 1977 and 2024 from Scopus database. Our results show eight major research themes in which advancing sustainability through circular innovation shows the highest and most consistent growth, reflecting increasing scholarly and industrial attention toward integrating circular economy principles and technological innovation. Conversely, biological pathways for sustainable production have gained noticeable research momentum while emerging themes such as blockchain technology in circular economy and biological pathways for sustainable production arrest considerable research attention, highlighting the integration of digitalization and biotechnology into sustainability frameworks. This study concludes by identifying methodological and thematic gaps and offering actionable recommendations to future research for managers, and policymakers.

The global manufacturing sector has increasingly adopted circular economy (CE) practices to address sustainability challenges and improve operational efficiency. This study explores the impact of five CE practices-reduce, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, and recover-on key operational performance dimensions: quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost. Drawing on data from 197 manufacturing professionals selected through purposive sampling, the study employs regression and correlation analyses to generate empirical insights. The findings indicate that remanufacture significantly enhances quality and speed, whereas recovery practices show strong potential for cost savings and adaptability. In contrast, reduce practices demonstrate limited direct effects unless strategically aligned with lean approaches. Reuse and recycle practices contributed more to long-term sustainability than immediate operational gains. Managerial, theoretical, and policy implications underscore the need for strategic integration, technological advancements, and supportive policy frameworks to maximize CE benefits. Although the results offer valuable practical and theoretical implications, the nonprobability sampling approach limits statistical generalizability. Accordingly, this research should be viewed as an exploratory mapping of CE practice impacts, providing a foundation for future studies employing more representative designs.

Turkey, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Indonesia are referred as the fragile five countries in 2013. Since then, however, the macro-economic environment of those countries has improved a lot. The objective of the study is to investigate whether the stock market of those countries is still vulnerable to US monetary policy using a novel quantile coherency methodology. The vulnerability is based on the general dependency structure at the quantile of joint distribution across frequencies. Besides, the pre and post 2013 dependency is compared to examine the effectiveness of macro-economic factors in controlling the impacts of the US monetary policy. Positive and negative dependencies were observed during conventional and unconventional quantitative easing and tightening respectively. Largely, it persists in the long-to-medium term across the state of the market. Domestic macroeconomic fundamentals seem to be relatively less effective in controlling the impact of US monetary policy. Thus, additional institutional reforms are required to make these markets resilient to global monetary policy shocks.

One of the enabling operations that support the circular supply chains (CSCs) is Reverse logistics (RL), which facilitates product returns, recycling, and reuse. Although this is well recognized among supply chains (SCs) participants, consistent implementation of RL is constrained by multiple pivotal obstacles in the emerging economy. This study aims to identify these hindrances and, beyond that, to build a hierarchical causal model of the criticality of twelve barriers based on a multi-method approach that involves Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), Matrix of Impact Cross-Reference Multiplication and Applied to Classification (MICMAC), and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL). The analysis results of the ISM-MICMAC reveal the most intense barrier, ‘limited transparency in recycling and reuse processes’ (B1), which possesses the driving force 12. Moreover, it also highlights the drivers in the hierarchy of barriers with dominance power 9, such as ‘challenges in waste/returns sorting at collection centers’ (B3) and ‘low financial viability of RL operations’ (B9). The ‘complexity in selecting third-party logistics providers barriers’ (B4) and ‘lack of structured strategic planning opportunities’ (B7) became high-level effect barriers that have dependence power of 12 and 11, respectively. These findings are supported by DEMATEL analysis. The systematic approach of the modelling in this study provides new insights into the issues of RL adoption in the Indian context. Policymakers and managers can make targeted interventions by focusing on core, high-priority obstacles rather than on effects, thereby boosting a smooth transition to sustainable CSCs.

Gig work has emerged as a vibrant and fast-expanding context of work, compelling researchers to revisit foundational assumptions about work, workers and working policies. Once treated as a peripheral employment form, it now sits closer to the centre of academic debate within Human Resource Management and Organizational Psychology. Despite its growing prominence, however, the understanding of HRM in gig work remains theoretically fragmented, partial and underdeveloped, necessitating a unifying framework capable of explaining how HRM in gig work emerges, evolves, and acquires legitimacy. Drawing on an integrative conceptual synthesis of the HRM-in-gig-work corpus, this study (a) maps the field's unfolding trajectory across three discernible phases of evolution; (b) interrogates the contemporary landscape of each HR practice, foregrounding neglected perspectives and articulating the interventions now warranted; and (c) develops an HRMGW conceptual framework that theorizes legitimacy as an emergent outcome of synergistic interplay among institutional pressures and institutional complexities, HR practices, and their symbolic and substantive enactments, ultimately crystallizing in legitimacy outcomes. A set of workable propositions, together with a forward-looking research agenda, is laid out to propel the field toward its next frontier.