Circular Economy Marketing: Mapping Research on Product Longevity, Reuse, Repair, and Responsible Consumption

The research in the field of the circular economy (CE) has shifted focus from production efficiency and recycling and waste management to market-oriented issues related to consumer engagement, value creation and communication, and circular consumption. A comprehensive bibliometric and science-mapping analysis of circular economy marketing research is conducted in this study to explore the evolution of research, theoretical underpinnings, conceptual structure, co-occurrence network and emerging research fronts. A total of 408 articles from 227 sources were analysed from 2011 to 2026 and were exclusively analysed by using RStudio software and Bibliometrix package. The techniques used were performance analysis, citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence analysis, co-authorship analysis, thematic mapping and thematic evolution. The findings show a quick growth of the scholarly output as the growth rate of publications is 31.38% per year and over 85% of the articles have been published after 2021. The intellectual substance is based on the theory of circular economy, on circular business models, on sustainable consumption, on consumer behaviour, on supply-chain management and on remanufacturing. Recent research trends focus on circular product adoption, purchase intention, customer value, green identity, second-hand consumption, circular communication and strategic market transformation. The thematic results show a transition from circularity by production and recycling to circularity from a consumer and market perspective. The study further develops the idea of marketing for circularity, implying marketing is not just a tool to promote environmentally preferable products, but also to enable re-use, re-pair, return, share, re-sale, re-covery and ongoing involvement of stakeholders in circular value systems. The results give an integrated knowledge base and directions for future circular economy marketing research.