Circular economy and digital technologies: a review of the current research streams

The interest in the Circular Economy (CE) has grown in recent years. Digital technologies (DTs) have demonstrated a potential synergy to achieve circular goals at the micro, meso, and macro-level. Although several studies in literature explore DTs and CE linkage, they have not been identified according to their primary research themes. This paper aims to identify the main research streams addressing CE and DTs. From a Systematic Literature Review and Content Analysis, we reviewed 40 articles and classified three primary research streams. (1) Industry 4.0 (I4.0) focuses on the relevance and role of I4.0 in the transition to a CE. (2) The Business research stream evaluated the connection between digital transformation and business. (3) The Sustainability research stream discusses sustainability issues such as waste management and smart cities. Based on the analyzed studies' purposes and gaps, we provide a research agenda for further research. Additionally, we explain the implications of DTs and CE to research on engineering design. Our paper guides researchers in their future research to focus on gaps that have not been answered and position their studies according to their research streams.