How Can Digitalisation Support the Circular Economy? An Empirical Analysis from the Manufacturing Industry.

Digitalisation is widely recognised as an enabler of circular economy. Nevertheless, this relationship has mainly been assessed taking a theoretical lens so far. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating how digital technologies can support companies in implementing the circular economy from an empirical point of view. In detail, the current work sheds light on the digital technologies that most help the circular economy and which of its practices are mainly affected by them. A multiple case study from the Italian manufacturing context is the methodology adopted to perform the study. The obtained results confirm that digitalisation can foster the implementation of circular economy practices. Specifically, Internet of Things, Big data analytics and Simulation mainly support Refuse, Reduce and Rethink, while other Rs are less impacted.