Can Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Drive the CircularEconomy? An Empirical Approach

Lately, small and medium-sized enterprises have strived to find innovative manufacturing methods that boost productivity, cut waste, and support their competitiveness based on the environment. As a result, firms have been implementing lean management and the circular production system, two well-known modern operations management principles. The aim of the paper is to determine the effects of selected factors on social reputation in production-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Serbia. Causal relationships between selected factors were assessed using path analysis. According to the research results, higher levels of lean management cause higher levels of the circular production system. In addition, the results showed that higher levels of both lean management and circular production systems led to higher levels of zero-waste performance, value-based green competitiveness and social reputation. The research confirms the importance of implementing selected factors in order to improve the social reputation of small and medium-sized enterprises.