Investigating the challenges of applying the principles of the circular economy in the fashion industry: a systematic review

This is a systematic literature review paper that aims to synthetically report on the challenges of implementing circular economy (CE) in the fashion industry, to help key stakeholders in the industry shape their strategies and turn these challenges into opportunities. The method adopted to achieve the purpose of the paper is the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Following the PRISMA 2020 flow diagram, 55 studies and 7 other sources were included and used to analyze the findings. Using a deductive research approach, the paper categorises the aspects related to the circular economy and their challenges identified through the systematic review of hard aspects and soft aspects of business management. The hard aspects identified include business model innovation, regulatory pressures, stakeholders' pressures, and financial pressures. Whilst the soft aspects identified include green intellectual capital and consumer-related issues. A conceptual framework is proposed to represent the hard and soft aspects identified in the literature, which could provide a guideline to management to facilitate the implementation of circular economy. The main implication of the paper is that management needs to focus on managing and overcoming the challenges of soft aspects first, by emphasizing the different practices identified in the paper, to be able to manage the challenges of hard aspects effectively and achieve better outcomes. However, it is recommended that the implications of this paper are empirically tested to uncover their values.