Digital government and the circular economy transition: An analytical framework and a research agenda

The transition from a linear economy towards a circular economy (CE), based on reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products, is one of the key priorities in pursuing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where governments play a fundamental role, with the support of digital technologies.

Despite the increasing global policy focus on CE, research on the role of digital government in initiating, implementing, and consolidating a transition towards a circular economy is surprisingly scarce and fragmented, and a systematic effort in digital government research is yet to emerge.

To tackle this issue, this article sets out to answer the research question: what is the role of digital government in the transition towards a circular economy? Driven by this research question, we conduct a review on 88 empirical studies in the Information Systems (IS) and digital government fields and discuss existing research foci and gaps in relation to the types of digital technologies used, the types of stakeholders involved, the stages of the product life cycle, and the type of resources that governments draw on to advance the circular economy transition. In addition, we identify two types of transition styles, based on an analysis of the types of roles taken by the government in two cases of transition towards a circular economy.

Based on these findings, we provide two contributions to establishing a new line of research in digital government and the circular economy: an analytical framework, including a static view, a longitudinal view, and a transition style view of the role of digital government in the circular economy transition; and a research agenda that builds on our framework, to guide future research on the role of digital government in the circular economy transition.