Sustainable product development in a circular economy: Implications for products, actors, decision-making support and lifecycle information management

Abstract The concept of circular economy (CE) is of great interest for manufacturing companies since it provides a framework which allows them to align organisational objectives with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Corporate CE entails the adoption of several value-retention options (R-strategies) throughout companies’ operations, which aim at creating, preserving and recovering the value of assets and products. The sustainable product development (SPD) process, in which around 80% of the total environmental impact of a product is determined, is employed to translate R-strategies into new product requirements. This study is aimed at investigating the implications of R-strategy adoption for decision-making in SPD. The research follows an empirical approach, combining a literature review and in-depth semi-structured interviews with product developers and sustainability experts working in companies operating in the technical material cycles of the CE. Thus, implications for product dimensions, inter- and intraorganisational actors, decision-making support types and lifecycle information flows so that SPD processes further accommodate CE principles into products are investigated. This study reveals new directions to adjust the contextual factors of SPD to further align existing processes with widely expanding CE organisational cultures.