Drivers and Barriers to Circular Economy Implementation: An Explorative Study in Pakistan’s Textile Industry

Abstract

Currently, the Circular economy has gained significant attention from practitioners, academia and researchers during the last decade due to its potential environmental and social benefits. However, in the past meager attention was given to finding out the drivers and barriers to CE adoption in emerging economies including Pakistan. Consequently, this research work aims to explore the drivers and barriers to the implementation of CE initiatives in Pakistan’s textile sector. The explorative research method was used to identify key drivers and barriers at the micro-level implementation of CE within the textile Industry of Pakistan. The research design for this study includes quantitative methods. The self-administered survey questionnaire was used to gather the data. Study results show that “available technology” (34 per cent), “awareness” (19 percent) and “compliance with regulations and stakeholder pressure” (15 percent) and intellectual capital within the organization (7 percent) are the five top drivers. Likewise, “financial investment” (30 percent), “technical and technological capacity” (24 percent) “national and organizational policies” (17 percent) and “product quality” (16 percent) are the four top obstacles in the operation of CE initiative in textile sector of Pakistan. The study focuses only on Pakistani textile industries and therefore, proper indications are purely restricted to developing Asian countries. Existing work is the first in its type which has explored the key drivers and barriers in the implementation of CE initiatives at the concern stage within the textile industry in Pakistan. Accordingly, it will help to increase an understanding of the subject matter as well as enable to devise effective business policies by the practitioners for up-scaling CE.