Challenging factors to adopt circular economy in sustainable food supply chain

Abstract

Even though circular economy has captured global attention recently with its sustainable implications, the adoption takes a much slower approach, particularly in the food supply chain. This study attempts to identify challenging factors that hinder the adoption of circular economy in the food supply chain. A total of 17 challenging factors are identified via a systematic literature review. The challenging factors were grouped into 6 categories: economic, social, institutional, technological and informational, supply chain, and organizational. Literature frequency analysis method combined with an article-level research citation metric of field-weighted citation impact was employed to prioritize the challenging factors based on the literature importance. Thus, the findings reveal that cost efficiency considerations, less enforcement of legislation and regulations, and no long-term shared vision among stakeholders are the three most critical challenging factors to adopt circular economy in the food supply chain. The findings will help managers, decision-makers, practitioners, and governments to formulate policies and strategies to implement circular practices in the food supply chain effectively.