Charting circular futures among SMEs in developing Asia: what do we know, how do we know and where are we heading?

In developing Asian countries, where Small-and-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) dominate the economic landscape, understanding their circular economy (CE) adoption is vital for advancing sustainable management. Despite the rapid growth of CE research, existing insights remain fragmented and weakly contextualized, particularly in developing Asian contexts where sustainability imperatives intersect with region-specific institutional, economic, technological, and social challenges. Responding to this gap, this study conducts a PRISMA-guided review using the Antecedents–Decisions–Outcomes and Theory–Context–Methods (ADO-TCM) framework to systematically consolidate existing knowledge. Beyond examining circular innovation and technology investment decisions, it presents the importance of long-term policy stability and owner-manager motivations in shaping CE adoption. The findings further reveal that CE implementation in developing Asian countries remains heavily concentrated in operational practices, while product and service design for circularity, service-enabled circularity, and societal wellbeing outcomes are frequently overlooked. The study presents the Individual-Organizational-External (IOE) framework as a structured classification of antecedents identified, offering conceptual clarity for future research. Overall, this review goes beyond providing a snapshot of the extant literature by contributing to management and organization research on sustainability-oriented transformation in SMEs, while offering actionable insights for bridging extant knowledge gaps and advancing SMEs toward smart, innovation-led, and socially inclusive circularity.