Scientific literature analysis on big data and internet of things applications on circular economy: a bibliometric study

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) is a term that exists since the 1970s and has acquired greater importance in the past few years, partly due to the scarcity of natural resources available in the environment and changes in consumer behavior. Cutting-edge technologies such as big data and internet of things (IoT) have the potential to leverage the adoption of CE concepts by organizations and society, becoming more present in our daily lives. Therefore, it is fundamentally important for researchers interested in this subject to understand the status quo of studies being undertaken worldwide and to have the overall picture of it. We conducted a bibliometric literature review from the Scopus Database over the period of 2006–2015 focusing on the application of big data/IoT on the context of CE. This produced the combination of 30,557 CE documents with 32,550 unique big data/IoT studies resulting in 70 matching publications that went through content and social network analysis with the use of ‘R’ statistical tool. We then compared it to some current industry initiatives. Bibliometrics findings indicate China and USA are the most interested countries in the area and reveal a context with significant opportunities for research. In addition, large producers of greenhouse gas emissions, such as Brazil and Russia, still lack studies in the area. Also, a disconnection between important industry initiatives and scientific research seems to exist. The results can be useful for institutions and researchers worldwide to understand potential research gaps and to focus future investments/studies in the field.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Scopus Database query for circular economy.

Appendix 2

Scopus Database query for big data and internet of things.

Appendix 3

Complete list of institutions publishing on CE and big data/IoT (Table 5).

Table 5 Institutions with publications on CE and big data/IoT—2006–2015

Appendix 4

Content analysis filtered terms. Numbers, prepositions, adverbs, verbs, punctuation, letters, references, plurals URL’s also removed from the list

abstract	enable	may	sustainability
according	et al	mean	system
all rights reserved	etc	methodology	table
allow	example	must	term
also	exist	need	therefore
although	existing	new	thus
among	fig	non	time
analysis	figure	number	total
article	first	per	type
article	generated	possible	ufrj
based	ie	practice	unit
better	inform	presented	use
big data	information	proposed	used
can	init	provides	using
case	introduction	pt	various
cite	issu	related	vol
copyright	journal	required	way
current	key	research	well
data	large	see	will
detail	lead	set	within
discuss	level	several	work
download	link	show	year
due	main	specific
e.g.	make	study
eight	many	sustain

Appendix 5

Basic concepts of circular economy (CE), big data and internet of things (IoT)

Circular economy (CE)

The circular economy (CE) term was conceived based on an industrial economy focused on producing zero pollution and zero waste, by intention or by design. According to this concept, material flows/cycles are supposed to be natural and of two types: biological, which enters back to the biosphere with no harm to the environment (e.g. biodegradable/green wastes) and technical, which should be designed to circulate back to manufactures (original ones or others) as new resources, making the whole model work as a living system, where waste is considered a nutrient. This model contrasts with our current linear economy, based on the traditional “take, make, use, dispose/waste” model (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2016). There are several approaches/terms that have been recently being used to identify initiatives on CE, such as the 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle), cradle to cradle, biomimicry, industrial ecology etc. (Pearce and Turner 1989). The concept of CE was originally coined in the 1970s with a vision of an economy in loops and the positive impact on many areas, including resource savings and waste prevention (Stahel and Reday 1981). The CE also defends the concept of performance economy, which shows the importance of selling services than products (use x ownership). In developed countries (more saturated markets), for example, consumer behavior is already changing in this direction (Planing 2014). That explains the success of companies such as Airbnb and Uber, both valuable businesses that use technology as an enabler to provide services in marketplaces that could not even be imagined two decades ago.

Big data

The term big data is essentially about huge and continuous data gathering, processing and analyzing. One more detailed definition encapsulates the expression as the 4V’s (Paharia 2013; Marr 2015): Volume—massive amounts of data being generated continually in a volume never before observed, scaling to Brontobytes; Variety—distinct and unstructured formats, representing today about 80% of all available data (texting, imaging, videos, voice); Velocity—high data generation frequency (today it is possible to analyze data before being stored in a database; and Veracity—the quality of the data and its proven real world application.

Other definition adds the word “complexity” to the 4 V’s, and refers not only to the contents but also to the challenges to obtain, process and store the data, which has led to studies such as shared and collaborative cloud processing (Kaisler et al. 2013).

Exemplifying the relevance and importance of big data nowadays: Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, pointed that “There was 5 Exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days, and the pace is increasing.” (Upbin 2012).

Value generation with big data can be achieved by: creating transparency to organizations so accurate business analysis can be done; experimental analysis support for decision making processes; marketing segmentation based on customer and markets; automated and real-time analysis; product innovation with the use of sensors that monitor customer reactions etc. (Kaisler et al. 2013).

Internet of things (IoT)

Internet of things (IoT), also known as internet of objects, is about the connection of everyday objects, often equipped with intelligence, with each other and with people. It is expected that the omnipresence of Internet will be increased with the raising adoption of IoT, as it intends to integrate every object through embedded systems (Xia et al. 2012). Applications of IoT include: intelligent sensors on cars, better disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment, smart home appliances, smart supermarket shelves, real time stocks monitoring, environment monitoring (Bandyopadhyay and Sen 2011).