GREEN OPERATIONAL CAPABILITIES AND CIRCULAR BUSINESS TRANSITION IN MSMES: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF RESOURCE EFFICIENCY, LEARNING, AND ECOSYSTEM COLLABORATION

Abstract

This conceptual and integrative review develops a framework for green operational capabilities in micro, small, and medium enterprises. It addresses the problem that resource constraints make environmental transition difficult even though energy, materials, waste, and supplier choices directly affect MSME cost and competitiveness. Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, organizational learning, absorptive capacity, social capital, and resilience, the paper explains how resource-flow visibility, eco-efficient routines, circular experimentation, supplier collaboration, learning-oriented measurement can be organized as mutually reinforcing routines. The proposed pathway moves from problem diagnosis and capability mapping to bounded experimentation, evidence review, resource reconfiguration, and learning retention. No primary survey, interview, experimental, administrative, or statistical data are claimed. The framework links these mechanisms to lower waste, cost discipline, innovation, legitimacy, long-term competitiveness and identifies managerial, institutional, and research implications suitable for resource-constrained enterprises.