Managing physical assets: a systematic review and a sustainable perspective

Contemporary organisations recognise the need for Anthropocene disruptions and transform their business models, restructure their operations, and re-engineer their supply chains to attain greater sustainable objectives and a strong ESG (environmental-social-governance) proposition. Indeed, physical asset management shifted from the negative image associated with asset failure, expensive maintenance, and decommissioning to an enabler of sustainability that allows us to create and capture value from extended lifetime, renewed functions, and increased awareness. In this direction, this study follows a systematic reviewing process enabled by text analytics methods to identify the means and approaches to build a sustainable perspective for physical asset management. Our key contributions and insights are supported by statistics and key features extracted from over 2800 journal articles. We particularly emphasise the research footprint, the evolution, and research trends of the two most asset-intensive sectors (i.e. construction and energy) represented as barriers and enablers of sustainable development. Lacking a unified perspective of the field, this study proposes a conceptual framework that adopts an asset-within-a-system perspective, recognises the links between the stakeholders and holistically integrates the extracted research trends. The knowledge provided here positions physical asset management as a key resource in achieving competitive advantage in the framework of sustainable development.