Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy
Information technologies possess the significant potential to improve the efficiency of resources and optimize energy usage, as well as make a significant contribution to the sustainable circular economy (CE). The concept of digital sufficiency provides a framework for understanding how information...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Energies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1399 |
| _version_ | 1797624659768770560 |
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| author | Victoria Akberdina Wadim Strielkowski Natalia Linder Sergey Kashirin Lyudmila Shmeleva |
| author_facet | Victoria Akberdina Wadim Strielkowski Natalia Linder Sergey Kashirin Lyudmila Shmeleva |
| author_sort | Victoria Akberdina |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Information technologies possess the significant potential to improve the efficiency of resources and optimize energy usage, as well as make a significant contribution to the sustainable circular economy (CE). The concept of digital sufficiency provides a framework for understanding how information technology can be part of significant achievements in the circular economy, especially when embraced by business companies. Moreover, the possibility of the implementation of closed-loop resources has become possible with the development of digital manufacturing technologies. However, the research of establishing the CE in SMEs, especially in fossil-energy-abundant countries, such as the Russian Federation, is quite limited. Our paper fills in this gap by studying the adoption of CE practices as well as the investments for promoting CE in Russian SMEs through such factors as the existence of R&D, bank loans, and access to grants at the national and international level. It achieves this based on the data sample of 314 managers of Russian SMEs. Our results demonstrate that the investment or existence of R&D in SMEs and knowledge of CE as well the governmental funding and access to wider markets all together tend to have a significant and positive effect on implementing and investing into CE in SMEs, while the administrative barriers yield a small but negative effect. These results might be helpful for the relevant stakeholders in order to identify factors catalyzing attention from both the SMEs engaged in CE transitions, as well as help the decision makers wishing to foster the transformation of the SMEs to a circular economy. We can conclude that supporting SMEs (both financially and via increasing their public awareness) to make their own transitions towards CE has a societal effect that can speed up a greener transition and significantly contribute to increasing energy efficiency. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:45:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-116eac3ed91141ea8f76269f821b93fa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1996-1073 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:45:42Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Energies |
| spelling | doaj.art-116eac3ed91141ea8f76269f821b93fa2023-11-16T16:36:57ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732023-01-01163139910.3390/en16031399Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular EconomyVictoria Akberdina0Wadim Strielkowski1Natalia Linder2Sergey Kashirin3Lyudmila Shmeleva4Department of Regional Industrial Policy and Economic Security, Institute of Economics of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moskovskaya Str. 29, Yekaterinburg 620014, RussiaDepartment of Trade and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech RepublicDepartment of Management and Innovations, Faculty “Higher School of Management”, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Leningradsky Prospekt 49, Moscow 125993, RussiaDepartment of Management and Innovations, Faculty “Higher School of Management”, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Leningradsky Prospekt 49, Moscow 125993, RussiaDepartment of Management and Innovations, Faculty “Higher School of Management”, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Leningradsky Prospekt 49, Moscow 125993, RussiaInformation technologies possess the significant potential to improve the efficiency of resources and optimize energy usage, as well as make a significant contribution to the sustainable circular economy (CE). The concept of digital sufficiency provides a framework for understanding how information technology can be part of significant achievements in the circular economy, especially when embraced by business companies. Moreover, the possibility of the implementation of closed-loop resources has become possible with the development of digital manufacturing technologies. However, the research of establishing the CE in SMEs, especially in fossil-energy-abundant countries, such as the Russian Federation, is quite limited. Our paper fills in this gap by studying the adoption of CE practices as well as the investments for promoting CE in Russian SMEs through such factors as the existence of R&D, bank loans, and access to grants at the national and international level. It achieves this based on the data sample of 314 managers of Russian SMEs. Our results demonstrate that the investment or existence of R&D in SMEs and knowledge of CE as well the governmental funding and access to wider markets all together tend to have a significant and positive effect on implementing and investing into CE in SMEs, while the administrative barriers yield a small but negative effect. These results might be helpful for the relevant stakeholders in order to identify factors catalyzing attention from both the SMEs engaged in CE transitions, as well as help the decision makers wishing to foster the transformation of the SMEs to a circular economy. We can conclude that supporting SMEs (both financially and via increasing their public awareness) to make their own transitions towards CE has a societal effect that can speed up a greener transition and significantly contribute to increasing energy efficiency.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1399information technologydigitalizationcircular economyInternet of ThingsSMEsenergy efficiency |
| spellingShingle | Victoria Akberdina Wadim Strielkowski Natalia Linder Sergey Kashirin Lyudmila Shmeleva Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy Energies information technology digitalization circular economy Internet of Things SMEs energy efficiency |
| title | Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy |
| title_full | Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy |
| title_fullStr | Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy |
| title_short | Information Technology and Digital Sufficiency for Building the Sustainable Circular Economy |
| title_sort | information technology and digital sufficiency for building the sustainable circular economy |
| topic | information technology digitalization circular economy Internet of Things SMEs energy efficiency |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1399 |
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