Min Zhejun, Sawang Sukanlaya, Kivits Robbert A
Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK.
QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4000, Australia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 1;18(5):2395. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052395.
Circular economy (CE) has attracted so much attention around the world as it can contribute to the balance between economic development and environmental sustainability, to address the increasing critical resources scarcity and environmental issues. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China are a major driving force in the economy with 43 million SMEs in 2020. Most of them maintain the traditional economic development method of "take-use", without considering the environment. This has caused great harm to the environment and resource availability. Therefore, Chinese SMEs must adopt CE in their business to address this issue. The current study aims to explore the key barriers (lack of time, lack of human resources and finance) and enablers (e.g., network, innovation, and reputation) for Chinese SMEs CE adoption. The current study employs a systematic review approach with thematic analysis to identify the internal and external barriers and enablers of CE adoption among SMEs. Moreover, a CE ecosystem has been proposed for identifying the key actors in the CE system, which will be beneficial for policy-makers to take into account when drafting and adjusting CE laws and regulations.
循环经济（CE）在全球范围内备受关注，因为它有助于实现经济发展与环境可持续性之间的平衡，以应对日益严峻的资源稀缺和环境问题。中国的中小企业（SMEs）是经济的主要驱动力，2020年有4300万家中小企业。其中大多数维持着“获取-使用”的传统经济发展模式，而不考虑环境因素。这对环境和资源可用性造成了极大危害。因此，中国的中小企业必须在其业务中采用循环经济来解决这一问题。当前的研究旨在探索中国中小企业采用循环经济的关键障碍（时间不足、人力资源和资金缺乏）和推动因素（例如网络、创新和声誉）。当前的研究采用系统综述方法和主题分析来确定中小企业采用循环经济的内部和外部障碍及推动因素。此外，还提出了一个循环经济生态系统，以识别循环经济系统中的关键参与者，这将有助于政策制定者在起草和调整循环经济法律法规时予以考虑。
