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Making the circular economy digital or the digital economy circular? Empirical evidence from the European region

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  • Hong Nham, Nguyen Thi
  • Ha, Le Thanh

Abstract

This paper answers the question of whether digitalization enables the circular economy or circularity promotes the digital transformation process. We use six diverse measures to reflect the circularity of European countries: municipal waste, the number of circularity patents, circular material usage, recycle waste rate, recycling biowaste rate, and recycling e-waste rate. In order to assess digital businesses, we use four measures of e-Commerce – online selling, e-Commerce sales, e-Commerce web sales, and e-Commerce turnover – and two measures of e-Business: customer relation management usage and cloud usage. We use user-centricity and key enablers to assess digital public services. Our estimation results reveal that the initial development of digitalization can enable European countries to transit to the circular economy. However, the overdevelopment of digitalization hinders this process. By contrast, we present a nonlinear relationship between digitalization and circularity, suggesting that digitalization can positively impact the circularity level after reaching a certain level.

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  • Hong Nham, Nguyen Thi & Ha, Le Thanh, 2022. "Making the circular economy digital or the digital economy circular? Empirical evidence from the European region," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:70:y:2022:i:c:s0160791x22001646
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.102023
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lyulyov, Oleksii & Pimonenko, Tetyana & Saura, Jose Ramon & Barbosa, Belem, 2024. "How do e-governance and e-business drive sustainable development goals?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    3. Ziyuan Chi & Zhen Liu & Fenghong Wang & Mohamed Osmani, 2023. "Driving Circular Economy through Digital Technologies: Current Research Status and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Shuangjie Li & Wei Wang & Liming Wang & Ge Wang, 2023. "Digital Economy and 3E Efficiency Performance: Evidence from EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Stefan Apostol & Eduardo Hernández-Rodríguez, 2023. "Digitalisation in European regions: Unravelling the impact of relatedness and complexity on digital technology adoption and productivity growth," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2317, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2023.
    6. Fazal Ur Rehman & Basheer M. Al-Ghazali & Adel Ghaleb Haddad & Ehab Abdullatif Qahwash & M. Sadiq Sohail, 2023. "Exploring the Reverse Relationship between Circular Economy Innovation and Digital Sustainability—The Dual Mediation of Government Incentives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Shang, Yuping & Raza, Syed Ali & Huo, Zhe & Shahzad, Umer & Zhao, Xin, 2023. "Does enterprise digital transformation contribute to the carbon emission reduction? Micro-level evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Yongxin Chen & Min Zhang & Lane Matthews & Hangfei Guo, 2024. "Digital transformation and environmental information disclosure in China: The moderating role of top management team's ability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 8456-8470, December.
    9. Shaolun Zeng & Huili Yang, 2023. "A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Knowledge Mapping in Digital Economy Research, 1992–2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    The circular economy; Digital public services; Digital business; European countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

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