Conditions for a Region’s Transition to a Circular Economy

The purpose of the study is to develop and substantiate a set of conditions for the transition of the regional economic system to a circular economy. Transition conditions, instruments, and outcomes are distinguished on the basis of a structured thematic synthesis of Russian and foreign publications combined with systemic and institutional analysis. Six interdependent blocks are identified: technological and infrastructural, institutional and legal, managerial, financial and economic, social and behavioural, and ecosystem and cluster ones. Transaction expenses are expounded as a cross-cutting parameter constraining the coordination among actors. The author proposes a minimum set of the region’s needful readiness conditions for each block and a non-compensatory diagnostic mode, under which a high level of one component does not act as a critical lag of another one. The scientific novelty lies in the moving from a list of factors to an operational system of initial conditions preceding the outcomes circularity assessment. The framework can be applied during the designing the regional programmes, road maps, and common outlines of the monitoring.