DOI: 10.11118/ecos2026_002

CIRCULAR ECONOMY INDICATORS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: ASSESSING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ERP ADOPTION AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY PERFORMANCE ACROSS EU COUNTRIES

Sanela Arsić¹, Aleksandra Radić¹, Anđelka Stojanović¹

¹ University of Belgrade, Technical Faculty in Bor, VJ 12, 19210 Bor, Serbia

The shift towards a circular economy requires the systematic integration of sustainability principles into economic and business processes, with digital technologies playing an increasingly important role. Among these, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems represent an important tool, as they enable the collection, integration, and analysis of data crucial for enhancing resource efficiency and implementing circular economy principles. This study aims to examine the relationship between enterprise-level digitalization, ERP system adoption, and circular economy performance at the country level by using circular economy (CE) indicators across European Union member states. The research adopts a two-phase methodological approach. In the first phase, the TOPSIS multi-criteria decision-making method was applied to rank EU member states based on a set of relevant CE indicators. In the second phase, the resulting TOPSIS scores were used to examine the relationships among circular economy performance, digitalisation, and ERP system adoption using regression analysis and a group-based comparative technique. The results confirm pronounced differences in the performance of the circular economy across the member states of the European Union, with innovative and industrially advanced countries occupying leading positions in the TOPSIS ranking. At the same time, the findings indicate that digitisation at the enterprise level, including the adoption of ERP systems and ICT technologies, is positively associated with circular economy outcomes at the macro-country level, but by itself is not sufficient to achieve high performance without adequate structural and innovation capacities. The findings should be interpreted as macro-level associations rather than direct causal effects, as the study relies on aggregated country-level indicators and proxy measures of enterprise digitalisation.

Keywords: circular economy, ERP systems, digital transformation, sustainability indicators

pages: 3-3, online: 2026