Explaining Consumer‐Level Circular Economy Participation in a Transition Economy: Evidence From Bulgaria

ABSTRACT This study investigates how cognitive, social, motivational, institutional, and economic factors are associated with consumer participation in selected circular economy (CE) practices in Bulgaria, a transition‐economy context in which CE implementation remains uneven. Drawing on a cross‐sectional, multi‐channel non‐probability survey of 660 eligible adult respondents, we construct a behavioural circular economy participation index (CEPI) covering recycling, repair, second‐hand purchasing, and sharing or borrowing. OLS estimates with HC3 robust standard errors show positive associations between CEPI and self‐rated understanding of CE principles ( b = 0.075, p = 0.0008), perceived social acceptance ( b = 0.283, p < 0.0001), and intrinsic motivation ( b = 0.132, p = 0.0299). Institutional trust and price avoidance show no statistically significant direct associations. However, two robustness findings materially qualify the main results. An objectively coded knowledge score does not reproduce the self‐rated‐understanding association. Moreover, social‐acceptance coefficients decrease in domain‐exclusion models ( b = 0.140–0.222), while the recycling‐only and residualised estimates are non‐significant. These divergences demonstrate that apparent cognitive and normative correlates of CE participation depend partly on measurement design and should not be ranked or interpreted causally. By providing measurement‐sensitive evidence from a transition economy, the study extends consumer‐level CE research beyond conventional predictor identification. The findings indicate that sustainable‐development policy and evaluation should distinguish perceived knowledge from demonstrated understanding and assess social acceptance through behaviour‐specific measures rather than assume that general awareness or normative support translates uniformly across circular practices.