Manufacturer’s service relationships as a gateway to circular supply chains: merging insights from two literature fields

Abstract

Many manufacturers now have established service businesses to support the use of their products (created through servitization) and are now facing new pressures of sustainability and circularity. This research explores how relationships with supply chain actors may change for servitized manufacturers when implementing circular economy. Based on a structured literature review of two literature streams – servitization and circular economy – this paper provides an overview of existing concepts regarding the relationship dynamics in these settings. A framework is proposed detailing the relationships necessary for recovery, processing, and commercialization of circular products, parts or components when creating circular servitized supply chains. Specific directions for future work and wider avenues for future research are provided for creating circular servitized supply chains. The contributions of this research stem from the combining and contextualization of key insights from two literature streams and proposed conceptual framework for creating circular servitized supply chains.