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

Digital transformation is central to circular economy (CE) strategies, yet the intersection between digital innovation and women’s entrepreneurship remains underexplored. We examine how IoT, AI, blockchain, data analytics and platform technologies are represented in CE-oriented management research and assess the visibility of gender-inclusive and women entrepreneurship perspectives. We merged Scopus and Web of Science records (2015–2025), removed duplicates, screened for relevance, and mapped themes and networks using bibliometrix (R) and VOSviewer. Digital-CE scholarship was found to rise after 2018, dominated by smart manufacturing, circular supply chains, digital product passports and blockchain traceability. Four clusters emerged: digital circular manufacturing, circular business model innovation, waste and resource management, and policy–social aspects. Gender-related terms appear in only 1.35% of the corpus, revealing a gap between academic research and EU policy priorities for inclusive digital and circular transitions. We integrate a gender-inclusive lens and outline an agenda positioning women entrepreneurs as critical yet overlooked actors in digital circular ecosystems. As a bibliometric review, this study maps scholarly attention rather than the prevalence of women-led circular ventures. Beyond mapping, we advance the paper’s primary contribution by proposing a governance-oriented synthesis that frames digital infrastructures as administrative mechanisms shaping who can participate in, benefit from, and influence digital circular ecosystems.