Albert Mangapul Parulian, Togar M. Simatupang, Liane Okdinawati
Industrial symbiosis has been increasingly recognized as a key approach for accelerating circular economy transitions by promoting cross-sector stakeholder collaboration and resource efficiency across organizations with geographic proximity. Existing research has extensively explored industrial symbiosis within manufacturing environments and advanced economies, emphasizing technical efficiency, environmental performance, and industrial-scale implementation. However, comparatively limited attention has been paid to small-scale, service-based industries and emerging-economy contexts, where differences in supply chain structures, resource availability, institutional arrangements, and socio-cultural conditions may significantly influence the feasibility, design, and outcomes of symbiotic practices. To address this gap, this paper conducts a systematic literature review of industrial symbiosis studies published over the last decade to identify dominant research themes, sectoral and geographical contexts, and methodological approaches. This review is complemented by a bibliometric analysis to map keyword relationships and supported by semi-structured interviews with selected practitioners to contextualize theoretical findings with practical insights from emerging-economy settings such as Indonesia. The findings indicate that although industrial symbiosis is widely associated with economic and environmental benefits, its business-oriented operationalization, including the integration of value creation mechanisms, governance structures, and social dimensions, in emerging economies, non-manufacturing and service-based contexts, remains underexplored, despite its potential as an entry point for circular transitions. Based on these findings, the study proposes directions for developing a system-based conceptual framework that integrates industrial symbiosis with circular business models, aligning incentive mechanisms with multidimensional sustainability objectives to facilitate participation among small and medium enterprises operating in diverse socio-cultural environments. Drawing on illustrative insights from the Indonesian coffee shop industry, a service-oriented sector embedded within a major agricultural value chain, the study demonstrates how localized symbiotic networks can serve as scalable, inclusive pathways for implementing the circular economy beyond traditional industrial settings, contributing to theory development, policy design, and managerial practice.