Elements of Blockchain-based Circular Business Models in Manufacturing: A Synthesis of the Literature

The manufacturing industry faces barriers to transitioning to a circular economy. Blockchain technology can help manufacturing supply chains overcome barriers and achieve core principles of circular economy, for example, through increased traceability of materials among network partners. However, the current literature lacks an overview of the contribution of blockchain to circular business models (CBMs) that can be used as a reference to facilitate the implementation of blockchain-based circularity solutions in manufacturing. In this study, we performed a systematic literature review to identify the studies that provide blockchain applications and use cases for CBMs in the manufacturing industry. We classified the selected articles according to the elements of networked business models, as such solutions involve multiple businesses that collaborate tightly. Our results show traceability and transparency as the central value propositions of CBM networks. We provide a classification of network actors and roles, their coproduction activities, and common benefits they gain and costs they incur to achieve the value propositions. Our results provide a better understanding of the body of knowledge on the use of blockchain for CBMs and highlight understudied points. Manufacturing companies can leverage our comprehensive classification and enumeration of CBM elements to inform and optimize the design of their own CBMs. In future work, we aim to provide more assistance to companies by developing reference blockchain CBM blueprints and applying them to CBM design to evaluate their effectiveness and utility.