SYNCHRONIZED BARRIERS FOR CIRCULAR SUPPLY CHAINS IN INDUSTRY 3.5/INDUSTRY 4.0 TRANSITION FOR SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

•Industry 3.5, and moving to circular economy are two significant and challenging concepts for organizations.•This study contributes the literature by presenting 13 synchronized barriers for circular supply chains and industry 3.5.•FANP is used to prioritize the synchronized barriers.•Theoretical and practical implications are proposed. Transition from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0, in other words Industry 3.5 stage, and moving to a circular economy are two significant concepts for organizations that need to make wholesale alterations to their current systems. In order to stay competitive, both these transitions need to follow sustainable resource management and digital transformation principles. However, there are barriers to these changes that organizations should consider. Both Industry 4.0 transition, in other words Industry 3.5, and circularity transition require great efforts to deal with these barriers; in the current environment, organizations need to deal with these barriers simultaneously for more sustainable resource management. This study focuses in particular on circular supply chains in the Industry 3.5 stage. There are some studies that suggest barriers to Industry 4.0 and circular supply chains separately, none of these studies consider them together. From this point of view, this study contributes to existing literature by presenting synchronized barriers that integrate circular supply chain and Industry 4.0 barriers. Firstly, pillars of circular supply chains in Industry 4.0 are explained; synchronized barriers are then presented. A decision-making method, Fuzzy Analytical Network Process, is used to prioritize the synchronized barriers, with theoretical and practical implications proposed according to the result of the implementation. [Display omitted]