Digital Enablers of the Circular Economy: A Bibliometric and Gender-Inclusive Review of Business and Management Research (2015–2025)

Digital transformation has become a cornerstone of circular economy (CE) strategies, yet the intersection between digital innovation and women’s entrepreneurship remains poorly understood. This study examines how digital enablers such as IoT, AI, blockchain, data analytics and platform technologies are represented in CE-related business and management research, while assessing the visibility of gender-inclusive and women-entrepreneurship perspectives. Using a bibliometric design, we retrieved and merged Scopus and Web of Science records (2015–2025), applied de-duplication and relevance screening, and conducted performance analysis and science mapping through bibliometrix (R) and VOSviewer to identify core themes, leading journals, influential authors, collaboration networks and thematic clusters. The findings show a sharp rise of digital-CE scholarship after 2018, dominated by technological perspectives on smart manufacturing, circular supply chains, digital product passports and blockchain-enabled traceability. Four stable clusters emerged: digital circular manufacturing, circular business model innovation, waste and resource management, and policy–social aspects. However, gender-related terms appear in only 1.35% of the corpus, revealing a substantial gap between academic research and EU policy priorities for inclusive digital and circular transitions. The study contributes by integrating a gender-inclusive lens into digital-CE scholarship and outlining a future research agenda that positions women entrepreneurs as critical—yet currently overlooked—actors in shaping digital circular ecosystems.