Harnessing Digital Technologies to Transition Towards a Circular Supply Chain

A special issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954). This special issue belongs to the section "Supply Chain Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 1088

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UiS Business School, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
Interests: public goods: XaaS; industrial symbiosis; circular supply chains; impact of AI on economies of scale

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UIS Business School, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
Interests: supply chain and operations management; industry 4.0 and digital transformation; circular economy; industrial symbiosis; business analytics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We hereby invite scholars to submit papers to a Special Issue of Systems highlighting how digital technologies contribute to the transition towards circular supply chains and improve existing circular supply chains. Questions which may be covered in this Special Issue include the following:

  • What are the drivers of the transition towards a circular supply chain? How do digital technologies facilitate this transition? To what degree is the transition motivated by market opportunities and profits?
  • What is the economic and environmental impact of utilizing digital tools on resource optimization and waste reduction within circular systems?
  • How do digital tools contribute to enhance circular supply chain management?
  • How do companies dimension circular supply chains? What role do economies of scale and economies of scope play?
  • How may data-driven approaches improve transparency, traceability, and predictability in circular supply chains?

The “transition” addressed in the title of this Special Issue is to be interpreted as a particular kind of business system innovation. We welcome papers with different levels of analysis (e.g., management analysis, supply chain analysis, or market structure analysis), as well as different approaches to circularity (e.g., down-/upcycling of products, industrial symbiosis, or properties of secondary markets). Our objective is to collect a group of papers that complement each other in order to see the wider picture and identify common denominators.

Dr. Thomas Laudal
Dr. Ali Turkyilmaz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • circular value chains
  • digitalization
  • business model innovation
  • resource optimization
  • supply chain transparency and traceability

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

24 pages, 988 KB  
Article
Rethinking Resource Usage in the Age of AI: Insights from Europe’s Circular Transition
by Anca Antoaneta Vărzaru
Systems 2025, 13(12), 1127; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13121127 - 17 Dec 2025
Viewed by 768
Abstract
The rising presence of artificial intelligence (AI) across European industries is gradually reshaping how societies manage resources, reduce waste, and pursue long-term sustainability. While researchers widely acknowledge the economic and social implications of AI, they have not yet sufficiently explored its contribution to [...] Read more.
The rising presence of artificial intelligence (AI) across European industries is gradually reshaping how societies manage resources, reduce waste, and pursue long-term sustainability. While researchers widely acknowledge the economic and social implications of AI, they have not yet sufficiently explored its contribution to advancing a circular economy. This study examines how varying levels of AI adoption across EU Member States relate to material footprint, resource productivity, waste generation, and recycling performance. The analysis draws on harmonized Eurostat data from 2023, the most recent year for which complete and comparable indicators are available, enabling a coherent cross-sectional perspective that reflects the period when AI began to exert a more visible influence on economic and environmental practices. By combining measures of AI uptake with key circular economy indicators and applying factor analysis, neural network modelling, and cluster analysis, the study identifies underlying patterns and country-specific profiles. The results suggest that higher AI adoption is often associated with greater resource productivity and more efficient material use. However, its effects on waste generation and recycling remain uneven across Member States. These findings indicate that AI can support circular economy objectives when embedded in coordinated national strategies and supported by robust institutional frameworks. Strengthening the alignment between digital innovation and sustainability goals may help build more resilient, resource-efficient economies across Europe. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop