Understanding the Problem Space for Effective Use of a Circular Economy Monitor in Policy Making

This paper identifies and validates the challenges hindering the integration of circular economy into evidence-based policy making, and proposes an outlook for enhancing the effective use of circular economy monitors. It highlights the limitations of current circular economy monitoring systems, which often fail to transform circular economy information into actionable knowledge for policy makers. Using the echelon Design Science Research approach, which divides projects into manageable ‘echelons’ to tackle complex socio-technical problems, this study focuses on the problem analysis echelon. Through 13 semi-structured interviews with intended users and an extensive literature review, the study identifies and validates five challenges to embedding circular economy in policy-making. These challenges are the delayed benefits of circular economy actions, fragmented policy coordination, the lack of a policy agenda for higher R strategies, the complexity of circular economy implementation, and the gap between theoretical frameworks and practical policy needs. This analysis is grounded in the theory of effective use as our Kernel Theory. To address the ineffective use of circular economy monitors, the study proposes an outlook of design requirements and design principles. This paper contributes to the literature on policy monitoring frameworks and circular economy policymaking by delineating a validated problem space that future researchers can use to improve the effective use of circular economy monitors in policymaking.