Circular economy (CE) provides an alternative development model to the dominant take-make-dispose linear approach, and thus a new vision for solving sustainability challenges. Firms need to operationalise CE in their supply chain operations, starting from circular product design as the foundational step. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to integrate product design and supply chain management (SCM) decisions for a CE transition. A thematic analysis was conducted on data collected from 15 semi-structured interviews in New Zealand. Four propositions were established based on the identified themes, namely, end-of-life thinking in product design, circular SCM, business model innovation, and sustainable organisational values. The study results provide a novel insight into the integration of product design and SCM for a CE transition. The operational framework developed provides guidance to product designers, managers, and researchers to advance the CE cause at the supply chain level.

Many nations have committed to achieving carbon neutrality to combat climate change, but little is known about its drivers at the micro level and implications for firm performance and supply chain management. To address the knowledge gap, this research conducts case studies of seven early movers in the initiative by exploring the key drivers, influential stakeholders and effects of institutional pressures. We find four major drivers: ‘customer enforcement’, ‘sustainable business value’, ‘environmental legitimacy’ and ‘competitive pressures’. Customers and competitors were the most influential external stakeholders. Shareholders and top management with intrinsic environmental values, being internal stakeholders, played pivotal roles in a proactive move to carbon neutrality when there was limited regulatory pressure. The early movers believed in the long‐term economic benefits of transitioning to carbon neutrality. We also identify the implications of carbon neutrality initiatives for supply chain management. Based on the research findings, we develop a decision support framework to guide firms in transitioning towards carbon neutrality in a multi‐tier supply chain context.

Increasingly, circular economy (CE) has been adopted globally to operationalize supply chain sustainability. The development of industry 4.0 technologies provides a new opportunity to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of adoption of CE, in particular, from the waste management perspective. More recently, scholars acknowledge the need for more studies on industry 4.0 and CE-driven sustainability aspects in supply chains. This research aims to fill the literature void and make a contribution from the perspective of smart waste management in supply chains using industry 4.0-based CE operations. Eleven key drivers were identified through semi-structured interviews, administered to experienced supply chain practitioners in China. A fuzzy DEMATEL method was used to analyse the interrelationships among these key drivers. The results show that the most fundamental causal drivers of smart waste management are overcoming operational challenges, recovering value, speeding up operations, saving cost and improving profit. There is a virtuous cycle between market demand and the improving price-performance ratio of industry 4.0 technologies. Our findings are part of the development of a bottom-up approach to adopting smart waste management in supply chains. The interrelationships identified in this research provide valuable insights into driving forces. Organizations, policy makers and technology providers can apply these insights when utilizing industry 4.0 technologies to improve supply chain waste management in line with the CE principle, and to achieve supply chain sustainability.