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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Impact of Circular Leadership on Circular Economy Adoption: Analysing Mediating Role of Organisational Climate Using a Dual-Stage PLS-SEM and ANN Approach
1
School of Business Adminstration, East Delta University, Bangladesh
2
Department of Business Adminstration, Premier University, Bangladesh
3
Department of Tourism and Hospiatlity, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, India
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2025-10-08
Acceptance date: 2025-11-24
Online publication date: 2026-05-06
Publication date: 2026-05-06
Corresponding author
Economic and Regional Studies 2026;19(1):149-172
KEYWORDS
Circular LeadershipCircular Economy AdoptionOrganisational ClimateGoal Setting TheoryPLS-SEMArtificial Neural Network
JEL CLASSIFICATION CODES
NA
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Subject and purpose of work: This study examines the impact of Circular Leadership (CL) and Organisational Climate (OC) on Circular Economy Adoption (CEA) at the organisational level, drawing on Goal Setting Theory. Materials and methods: Data were collected from 431 employees of environmentally sensitive organisations using purposive sampling. Analyses were conducted with SPSS, SmartPLS for PLS-SEM, and RStudio for Artificial Neural Network (ANN) validation. Results: Findings indicate that both CL and OC significantly and positively affect CEA, with OC partially mediating the relationship between CL and CEA. The ANN results further confirm that CEA is best predicted when CL, identified as the most influential factor, interacts with OC. Conclusions: The study is the first to empirically validate Circular Leadership as a second-order construct encompassing Vision & Inspiration, Supportive Behaviour, Rewards & Recognition, and Environmental Commitment, offering new insights into leadership and sustainable organisational transformation.
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