Bridging Academic Research and Business Practices at the Crossroad of Circular Economy and the SDGs

The global shift toward sustainability has amplified interest in the Circular Economy, which aims to optimize resource use and minimize waste. In parallel, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a universal framework for addressing social, environmental, and economic challenges. This study bridges academic research and corporate practice by mapping how Circular Economy strategies and SDG priorities are articulated across domains. By identifying who leads on what and where convergence occurs, it seeks to guide cross-fertilization, foster mutual learning, and support more aligned sustainability transitions. While prior research highlights the transformative potential of circularity frameworks, few studies examine how these ideas are unevenly adopted across institutional settings. To address this, we conduct a comparative textual analysis of 919 academic articles and the sustainability reports of the top 50 Fortune 500 firms for the period 2015–2024, using computational linguistic methods to trace links between circular strategies and SDGs targets. The findings reveal a more nuanced landscape than a simple academia–industry divide. Although their fourth priorities differ, “Repurpose” for academia and “Repair” for firms, both domains emphasize upstream circular strategies such as “Refuse”, “Rethink”, and especially “Reduce”. Convergence also emerges around SDG 7 (clean energy), SDG 12 (responsible consumption), and SDG 13 (climate action). The study reframes the academia–industry gap as a dynamic relationship and proposes a map of Circular Economy SDG alignments to guide future collaboration