Key Challenges and Opportunities for Quality, Sustainability and Innovation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The following sections are included:

• Preface
• About the Editors
• Contents

We are witnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the developments of the digital transformation in the service and manufacturing sectors. The emphasis in manufacturing is on technological developments (CPS, robotics and additive manufacturing) and in the service sector there is a focus on data (AI, data analytics and big data). What is lacking is research on the importance of Quality Management within these developments.

Research relating to the relationship between Industry 4.0 and Quality Management is limited, with the two dominant lenses progressing research in different directions. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the need for a more focused approach towards Quality Management in the current technology-driven era of Industry 4.0.

The findings are presented in the form of a critical evaluation of the literature identified through a systematic literature review exploring the different perspectives which contribute to the current understanding of the relationship between technology and Quality.

The conclusions of the analysis indicate that Total Quality Management (TQM) can be the strategic focus for Industry 4.0. TQM is technology-independent, it encompasses a strategic outlook, a customer focus and consideration of quality tools and techniques. Further, it is suggested that the focus of Industry 4.0 research needs to change to a Quality 4.0-driven strategy in order to achieve its full potential.

This chapter advances our understanding of both Quality and Industry 4.0 by going beyond the established boundaries, synthesizing the fields to map out a state-of-the-art knowledge of these important areas.

To fulfil the diversifying needs of customers and to provide customised products and services, suppliers are expected to establish small-batch production systems. However, shorter product life cycles and decrement in economies of scale incur additional costs. With the rising costs, the upcoming challenge for companies is providing customers with customised products and services without additional costs.

In this era of dynamic changes in the market, both customers and suppliers are likely to achieve lower costs through the collaborative platforms that are fuelling the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Users and suppliers will be able to overcome time and space constraints through platforms using technologies, such as IoT, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In future, all the platform-based innovation activities, called “Platfornovation”, will create an optimal environment that satisfies the needs of both users and suppliers. Most products and services will be divided into minimally functioning modules, and the market will be divided and integrated across domains. In such an era, it is possible that the competitiveness of a company or an individual will depend on the brand. The platform, company, and its individuals must constantly be attractive to be selected.

Industry 4.0 (I4.0), commonly known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, was officially launched in Germany as a “strategic initiative” to introduce a new era of Internet-driven businesses and society. Since its launch, it has garnered considerable attention; however, it faces numerous challenges and problems during implementation (Kagermann et al., 2013; Rüßmann et al., 2015; Foidl & Felderer, 2015). Therefore, we intend to empirically investigate the challenges that companies face when attempting to implement I4.0. To achieve this purpose, a case study, Volkswagen AG (VW), is investigated. A two-dimensional analytic framework, “ integration engineering feature” and “implementation scope/level”, is developed to examine the 10 challenges that VW faces in its implementation process. The case study data are collected from academic and journal databases. The results reveal that the priority challenge that VW is currently facing is customer/user experience and business management. However, to address these challenges, we suggest that VW focus on the vertical and horizontal integration at the intra- and inter-organisational scope/level. The implications of the findings from this study are presented in the paper.

The main purpose of this study is to develop and improve a framework utilising network externality and monetary factors in order to provide a theoretical framework for the motivation behind customers’ acceptance of self-driving cars from companies that would service self-driving cars. The survey was conducted after a concept of level 5 of self-driving cars by NHTSA (2016) was explained to respondents. This study examined the impact of network externalities and monetary issues on perceived benefit and sacrifice, including perceived value, trust and intention to use. The results indicated that indirect network externalities have a stronger effect than direct network externalities on the perceived benefit and intention to use. This study also revealed that concerns for safety and privacy were the main barriers to intention to use. Furthermore, the trust and value are considered important factors by consumers who choose self-driving cars; thus, self-driving car makers should consider how to increase these points. This study may offer a comprehensive model for the acceptance of self-driving cars and is expected to help expand and advance the Value-based Adoption Model. This study also provides practical implications for marketing related to customers’ technology acceptance.

The current valid version of ISO 9001 from 2015 provides a few changes, including change planning, identifying all stakeholders, the term high level structure (HLS) and risk management based on Risk-based Thinking (RBT). Even if there are already many papers which describe the concept of the last version, there are still questions about following some of the “new” requirements from the standard. Especially today, when Industry 4.0 as a concept introduces a new perception about Safety and Security, it is necessary to understand the purpose of the standard requirements linked directly with the risks and their perception. Nowadays, at a time of system integration, it is not possible to elevate the system’s requirements over standard elements of the current Industrial Revolution referred to as Industry 4.0. RBT in management system integration does not have a strictly defined structure. Each organisation applies its own procedures and tools to evaluate and manage business risks, which present some limitations resulting from the overall culture and aims of the organisation. In an effort to integrate management systems, a production system applying Industry 4.0 requirements can involve many new limitations resulting from past ideas about integration and also the opportunities associated with knowledge management.

The paper is based on a survey made in different manufacturing organisations with the aim to analyse the level of Industry 4.0 implementation. Detailed research was focused on analysing current trends of RBT implementation in industrial enterprises (engineering, metallurgy, and automotive industry), comparing new requirements of ISO 9001 with the level of application in their processes. At the same time, the utilisation of Industry 4.0 in the management of these processes and its impact on Safety and Security were evaluated.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between social media and quality management. Although the development of social media and web 2.0 has had a substantial impact on many management disciplines, the connections to quality management remain largely unexplored. The research question is: How do the advances in social media affect the theory and practice of quality management in industry and organisations? This paper is conceptual and is built on a review of research on social media marketing and management as well as quality management, and a conceptual analysis. Connections between quality management and social media marketing and management are identified and a framework is constructed. The research limitation is that this paper is conceptual and does not present any new empirical data. The implication is that it suggests a new framework for handling quality management and social media marketing and management built on previous research that will be useful for further studies. The framework developed in this paper will be useful for practitioners of quality management and/or social media marketing and management in clarifying the connections and implications of previous research. Although social media profoundly influence organisations and individuals alike, the amount of research on the connection of social media to quality management has hitherto been scant.

This research explores the role of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in advancing the servitisation process in Korean firms. As a solution, manufacturing firms striving to implement servitisation can include ICT’s strategic linkage and its widespread usage in its manufacturing system. We investigated whether such methods provide differentiated service to clients and affect firms’ sales ratio and profits. Case studies consisted of three firms that have adopted ICT solutions to support the servitisation process. While the three firms have employed ICT solutions in varying degrees, they all have made substantial progress in servitisation according to financial documents. All analysis was done according to standard protocol.

Based on previous research on servitisation, we defined the standards and protocols to measure whether ICT plays an appropriate role in advancing servitisation. Data for these case studies are from the Korean Securities Market Annual Reports listed on the KRX (Korea Exchange). We checked the servitisation type and level for each case study and examined various kinds of value creation present in servitisation for firms and clients. We categorised the range of ICT solutions employed by firms into service monitoring, service evaluation, service integration, and front office.

We analysed these firms by using separate analysis frames in categories of ICT solution type by the profit model and value offering. Data analysis from 2014 to 2019 demonstrated annual increases in the proportion of service sales to product sales, and we inferred that there is a connection between the increase of service sales ratio and sales growth. Furthermore, we predict that gains, such as cost reduction and sales growth, can be expected if a product sales firm strategically approaches ICT-based servitisation to provide value creation to clients.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine how essential dimensions of digital customer experience (DCE) drive business performance. An empirical study is conducted to investigate the relationship between seven DCE dimensions and business performance. The conceptual model is operationalised by a structural equation model, and the model is estimated and tested by using the partial least squares method. A survey of 756 companies in Denmark forms the empirical basis for the study.

The findings provide evidence that the seven DCE dimensions influence business performance. All seven DCE dimensions are essential in producing total customer experience, market performance, and financial performance. The study is limited to the seven identified DCE dimensions in Danish companies.

The study has clear implications in terms of identifying and measuring the importance of the essential DCE dimensions which influence business performance. Interesting differences appear between the seven indexes for the DCE dimensions. The results can help companies to understand DCE and develop DCE strategies, and this paper provides insight into DCE and how DCE works.

Quality of service is one of the most important elements in achieving customer satisfaction and company profitability. It can be considered as a composite of various tangible and intangible assets as well as subjective attributes such as safety, comfort and satisfaction, which are difficult to measure directly.

The purpose of this research is to offer an alternative method, supported by computers, to quantitatively evaluate services in the hotel industry, by assigning a value to each question of a questionnaire. An advantage of this method is that there is no need for researchers to inadvertently assign weight to the specific question/items because it is done by a suitable mathematical model. This study assessed latent traits of quality of service in 206 Brazilian hotels, which were evaluated. For this purpose, a structured observation method was carried out, that is, mystery shopping, with anonymous evaluators.

Furthermore, through item response theory (IRT), a scale to measure quality of service was constructed, in which items and latent features of hotels in the same unit of measurement are positioned. The results indicated where each hotel is positioned on the scale and which items they need to improve in order to be more competitive or achieve excellence.

Moreover, this study provides a structured method, through a mathematical model, to enable management staff to measure latent traits of quality of service in hotels. The measurement scale for quality of service can be used to improve services and to meet customer requirements/expectations. This type of quantification can help the hotel industry to pursue excellence in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Increasingly, logistics industry offers innovative solutions that interact directly with end-consumers. Consumers are encouraged to participate in co-creating e-commerce last-mile logistics. Built on the synthesised insights from “consumer logistics” and the “value co-creation (VCC)” concept, this study proposes a conceptual framework of consumers’ involvement in last-mile logistics from a VCC perspective. This research study is based on a synthesised analysis of 52 peer-reviewed journal articles using Scopus of Elsevier and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of Thomson Reuters as search databases. It is found that consumers are empowered to influence specific changes in the service offerings, whereas logistics service providers accrue benefits by transferring part of the service obligations to consumers. Given the mutual benefits, the trend of VCC is expected to gain strong development in last-mile logistics. However, three major contingencies exist: (1) consumers’ resistance in adopting the innovation service concept of VCC; (2) the potential risk of exploitation and the associated concern about service fairness; and (3) a lack of a proper governance mechanism of the co-creation relationship. A conceptual framework along with four propositions is presented. Based on the conceptual insights, we further propose three emerging research fields that have great potential in generating interdisciplinary findings.

Most organizations experience the tension between producing and innovating. With increasing external pressures, e.g. driven by fast-paced technological innovation and connectivity in the 4th industrial revolution, the organizational tension and complexity is increasing rapidly. This poses challenges concerning how quality management (QM) will be carried out in the future. In order to handle higher complexity and organizational adaptability, QM need to master enabling leadership that creates adaptive spaces, bridging the entrepreneurial and operational systems in organizations. Guiding images such as metaphors have been suggested to support transformative change, but have only received limited research. This paper investigates the role of guiding images as facilitating tool for leading organizational adaptability and contribute to QM leadership practices in the 4th industrial revolution.

The paper studied three case organizations where management teams needed to facilitate organizational adaptability in complexity and used a generative image to support the leadership process. The researchers gained access to key meetings to study the processes through observations that were later analyzed with the use of storyboards.

The study shows how the enabling leadership processes can be facilitated by guiding images. The guiding images can be generated while managers experience tension and can help support the leadership processes of conflicting and connecting. Three types of guiding images were identified.

The paper contributes with practical knowledge about how to support the enabling leadership process with guiding images and contributes to QM by introducing complex adaptive leadership theory.

The term “sustainability” has become a commonly used and widely accepted term in both an ecological sense and a business sense. In this chapter, sustainability is seen as part of something bigger and can be seen as an ecosystem. The objective is to understand and assess how service and quality research can be used to meet transformative societal practice in city contexts to build city ecosystem frameworks. The main purpose is to develop and conceptualize in an explorative way a multilevel ecosystem for societal practice in the city context. The multilevel ecosystem for societal practice can be used for challenge-driven transformative change where sustainability, in the light of 2030 Agenda Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs), will get a more regenerative and societal meaning in interaction with transformation and innovation. The suggested multilevel ecosystem model addresses the interaction between the three levels (macro, meso, and micro) and the interdependence of the systemic, institutional, and processes. The model highlights that it is about a real transformative change process and not about SDG-washing.

To reflect on the multilevel ecosystem for societal practice in city contexts in the light of 2030 Agenda SDGs, a case study of the ongoing process of Karlstad City’s transformation is developed. The suggested model will not make any transformative change without a proactive method to make a real mind shift or a paradigm shift. The chapter contributes the idea of building a lab platform for orchestrating innovation and transformation, to further develop ideas, create interaction and dialogues, and integrate and allocate resources to achieve a more radical change process and be aware that the devil is in the implementation process.

“If not now, when?” The UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) are gaining increasing attention, and there is wide acknowledgement that the challenges ahead, as well as the solutions needed, are often complex. In contrast, the historical strength of Quality Management (QM) lies in situations when the cause–effect relations can be analysed and understood, when technical expertise can provide the answer, where the application of “best practice” is helpful, and where order is a virtue. When dealing with complexity, leaders who tend to impose this kind of command-and-control style will often fail. Success, rather than this, comes from setting the stage, stepping back a bit, allowing patterns to emerge, curiously tracking what takes place, spreading what was learned, and scaling up success. Such a leadership and practice has been referred to as the fourth and called-for “Emergence Paradigm” of QM. The purpose of this paper is to contribute with knowledge about how the Emergence Paradigm of QM comes into play when persuading organisations and the world to take action on the 2030 Agenda.

This paper is conceptual but includes experiences from dialogic action research in an emergent process of 60 Swedish authorities getting into collective action on the 2030 Agenda.

As a result, the paper highlights how QM may contribute to realising the 2030 Agenda by dynamically combining the strengths of the past QM paradigrms with new practices and mind sets related to complexity and emergence. It also provides new insights that may help when applying QM to take the bold and transformative steps urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path.

The purpose of this study is to present the methodology by which public enterprises with different characteristics of mission and business can develop social value measurement models and establish the importance of each indicator. Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), a case study company, is Korea’s leading public company and the third largest international freight-handling company. IIAC operates an international airport that is used by 68 million people annually and has collaborated with more than 600 partners. Firstly, this study reviewed the strategy/mission of IIAC and analyzed 68 recent innovation tasks. In the second step, social value stakeholders were defined. As a third step, this research developed a social value measurement model by extracting input, process, output, and outcome indicators from 68 innovation tasks using the Logic Model. As a fourth step, the social value measurement model was described to social value stakeholders and components and weights were determined using the AHP methodology.

In this study, a social value measurement model consisting of five indexes and forty indicators was developed. The upper five indexes are as follows: (1) job creation, (2) equal opportunities and social integration, (3) safety and environment, (4) win–win cooperation and regional development, and (5) ethical management. The study showed that safety and the environment were important more to partner firms and airport customers than to internal employees.

This study suggests a social value measurement model that can be used to determine how much social value performance public enterprises are generating, and how the resources should be optimized to maximize social value performance in future.

Climate change is frequently discussed, especially in developed countries. Sweden is one of the leading countries for sustainable development. Even so, the public debate indicates that understanding of sustainability could be difficult. Most leading companies publish yearly sustainability reports. The Global Reporting Initiative standards are widely used as directives for reporting, but in spite of that, sustainability reports vary considerably in quality. There seems to be no agreed transparent structure on assessing company sustainability. The problem could be the lack of understanding of what sustainability and sustainable development mean at an operational level. One way of achieving improved sense-making could be by applying Quality Management principles by substituting customer needs focus with stakeholder needs focus. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on what organisational sustainability and sustainable development could and should be and how it could be assessed. Quality Management principles based on a customer needs focus are translated to stakeholder needs focus. The process management approach of the outside in combined with the Pareto principle is used to identify global stakeholders and stakeholder needs as a starting point for understanding and defining sustainability at an operational level. A maturity structure based on the stages of understanding, defining, measuring, communicating and leading change is used to organise the content. A preliminary matrix to support the work on sustainability and sustainable development is proposed. This study is an example of how Quality Management could support Sustainable Development.

Stakeholder theory is the heart of interrelated theories of Sustainable Development, Social Responsibility, Quality Management and Organisational Excellence. Their integrity and discrepancy lie in the focus on stakeholders that shifts to different angles in different theories.

The paper’s objective is the comparison of contemporary management theories in terms of stakeholder focus and engagement. The empirical part of the paper presents the results of a study of management approaches implemented in 2014–2018 at 32 major business enterprises of the Republic of Mordovia (Russian Federation) that belong to the industry and service sectors. The study is based on a self-assessment model offered by the international standard ISO 9004:2009 “Managing for the sustained success of an organization — A quality management approach”. After the survey in 2018, standard ISO 9004 was replaced by a new version but has not yet been put into force in Russian Federation (the due date is 01.10.2020).

The results of a self-assessment reflects the level of maturity of key elements of management at the enterprises of the Republic of Mordovia, the factors and the dynamics of its development. A generalised evaluation showed that the management systems are at the third level of maturity. Half of the enterprises adopt a balanced approach to the needs of stakeholders; continual improvement is in the focus of these organisations. At the same time, the management of a number of enterprises is oriented only to the employees’ needs. The results show that the business community is stakeholder oriented but not stakeholder driven, and corporate sustainability is at the initial stage of development. For a region’s sustainable development, the authorities have to find additional incentives for the companies to improve stakeholder engagement and for the development of stakeholder networking practices.

Over the last decades, the idea of sustainability revolution has gradually taken over. In management perspective, the affirmation of this paradigm has determined the need for organizations to adopt new appropriate digital strategies for the sustainability communication. This study aims to assess the compliance of requirements of CSR communication on corporate websites of Welsh companies. A pilot study was conducted on a sample of 50 organizations classified in the Wales Top 300 of the year 2017. Corporate websites have been analyzed through an operational model able to identify the core dimensions of online sustainability communication (Orientation, Structure, Ergonomics, Content; OSEC), sub-dimensions, such as stakeholder engagement and governance tools, and measurable items. Moreover, the OSEC model detects any sign of greenwashing on websites. Welsh companies achieve higher values of OSEC on the “orientation” and “ergonomics” dimensions, rather than the “structure” and “content”. Results show several weaknesses in digital CSR communication on websites, above all, in the adoption of governance functions, in the implementation of CSR reporting and in the development of stakeholder engagement tools. The pilot study offers some useful guidelines for Welsh communication managers and consultants, in order to improve the online sustainability communication through corrective actions in critical areas, and avoid greenwashing. Furthermore, the study allows to identify best practices in terms of effective actions of sustainability communication. This study provides first empirical evidences focused on CSR disclosure in Wales that constitutes a business context not yet widely investigated.

Cruise tourism is strongly growing and destinations have had during the last decade a manifold increase in tourists that go ashore. New quays are developed in several ports of call. To some destinations, the visitor industry is part of their livelihood. WCED stated 1987 that sustainable development includes economic growth but with protection of the environment’s quality.

This paper is a part of a multidisciplinary research programme about how to investigate and contribute to the conditions for economic growth but with protection of the delicate environment in order to balance different spheres of interest, i.e., conduct a sustainable development. In sustainable development and quality management, the stakeholder is an important concept.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a theoretical study of the concept stakeholder. How can a tentative stakeholder model be described in quality-driven sustainability? Is there a paradigm shift in quality management?

This conceptual and discursive paper is based on a literature study departing from quality management (QM) and sustainable management (SM). The paper contains some philosophical discussions and comparative studies of others’ work and thinking.

The field of quality management is changing and literature shows that the meaning of stakeholder is influenced by the field of sustainable development. One conclusion of this paper is that there is a new paradigm of Quality Management.

The paper highlights the importance of interdisciplinary solutions when approaching societal issues, which can generate anomalies and new paradigms.

Climate change has become a cause of significant concern to people around the world. The extreme weather/climate has caused countless human difficulties and has resulted in enormous economic losses. Although several studies have been conducted to understand this issue, whether climate change occurs because of human activities or natural causes is still a subject of debate among scientists. The purpose of this study is to determine the main contributor to climate change by using a two-stage interrelationship diagram as an analysis tool. This approach includes a preliminary and an advanced cause–effect analysis, and the main contributor to climate change can be demonstrated systematically using this approach. Data collected from the existing literature were used to develop arguments. The arguments were then categorised to investigate the main contributor to the process of climate change. The analysis results reveal that “human activities” and “natural causes” are the two most influential factors causing climate change. In terms of the number of causes being attributed to both influential factors, it is found that three-quarters of the root causes arise from human activities, whereas one-quarter are from natural causes. This result concurs to a certain degree with the IPCC Report (2014), which stated that it is 95% certain that humans are the leading cause of global warming.

The UN defines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quality Management (QM) should logically be an asset for sustainability in supporting systematic changes to achieve these goals. Synergies between quality and sustainability have been discussed but it seems that considerable synergies are yet to be realised. Finding practical examples for synergies will be essential. Buildings play an important role in sustainability. Most new buildings are constructed in developing countries. Buildings provide the basic need for shelter but are also a major source of carbon emissions. Africa, with the youngest population, will need large-scale building activities to comply with the UN SDGs. Buildings, globally and in developing countries, could be an interesting research area for identifying potential synergies between quality and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to exemplify quality theory’s contributions to sustainability. Possible synergies are highlighted based on the processes of global cement manufacturing and building block production in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A brief review of suggested synergies between quality and sustainability was conducted. Chosen models used for describing synergies were reviewed. These models have then been applied to the global process of cement manufacturing and a regional process of block production. The resulting presentations are analysed and areas of synergies are identified. Our findings indicate that quality theory could provide strong support, generally for sustainability and specifically for better buildings. The work indicates several interesting areas of possible synergies between quality and sustainability. New insights are presented for how QM could support sustainable development.

Cruise tourism is strongly growing and destinations have had a fivefold increase in tourists that go ashore. Investments in development of quays are done in several ports of call. The Brundtland Commission, 1987 meant that sustainable development includes economic growth but with protection of the environment’s quality. This paper was written within a larger interdisciplinary research programme, about how to create conditions for economic growth but with protection of the quality of the delicate environment in order to balance different spheres of interest.

This paper aims to study perceptions of local residents about the development of a new quay for cruising ships. The residents are stakeholders, which is an important concept in quality-driven sustainability. What does a new quay for cruising ships mean to the residents? What consequences can be identified? Does the cruising season affect the residents’ quality of life?

Within a qualitative research approach a survey based on a questionnaire was done. One delimitations in the data collection was made, i.e., residents in Visby, Gotland were asked to participate.

The main results indicate that the respondents have several opinions about tourists in general but don’t see difference between e.g. tourists and cruising visitors. There were both positive and negative consequences emphasized by the respondents. One particular opinion mentioned by a majority of the respondents was that they think the new quay will bring income to Visby and Gotland.

The major implication of the study is to show that visits at destinations also include the residents as stakeholders.

This study aims to develop a new methodology that meets the requirements of customers and the environment in a reliable process to recognize the important product’s requirements and accurately transform them into innovative product design concepts. The methodology proposes a novel way to integrate the Kano model, and QFDE and TRIZ methods to precisely capture stakeholder requirements, and transform them into product specifications for innovative products. The methodology consists of four steps. Step 1 starts with classifying the product’s requirements according to the Kano profiles and stakeholders’ requirements. In step 2, results from phase 1 serve as an important factor to determine improvement targets. Step 3 analyses the improvement challenges and selects the most relevant inventive principles to solve contradiction problems. Step 4 uses the selected inventive principles, with the help of relevant literature, to generate specific solutions that can satisfy the requirements. A case study in desk lamp improvement is used as an example to illustrate the proposed methodology. The specific solutions innovated from the methodology have benefits that fulfil the stakeholder requirements and are in line with proven references such as patents and journal papers. The results show that this methodology can accurately incorporate the important product requirements into the product design and help product designers to create innovative design concepts.

The goal of this paper was to suggest the best structure of a management system standard that is capable of creating the conditions for the growth of a circular economy (CE) (on the basis of popular ISO management systems) and that can be used by SME food industry organisations. That standard can also constitute the framework for independent evaluation and certification. In this work, desk research was carried out based on scientific databases. This scholarly approach was complemented by another, using Internet search engines to find additional documents of a professional nature. The state-of-the-art in this field is presented, characterised by the differences in approach to CE in the literature. This work suggests the assumptions of a management system standard (MSS) structure that is capable of creating the conditions for the growth of a circular economy and that can be used by SME food industry organisations. The described system applies only to food producers, which is a significant limitation of the study. Important elements supporting a developed system are actions addressed to other organisations in the loop, such as primary food producers, packaging producers, recovery organisations or retail chains. Moreover, onsite analyses among all the interested parties are necessary so as to refine the standard. The paper presents a set of relevant theoretical considerations that support CE in SME. It can be used by managers of the food industry who have the will to embrace in practice circular economy principles. Moreover, it can be used to develop a CE MSS.

The following section is included:

• Index