Table 1 Models and tools used in the papers

Econometric Models

Rasch Model [106]; Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) [145]; Seemingly Unrelated Regression [106]; Linear Regression Analysis [43, 102, 105]; Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) [43, 106, 135]

Life cycle

LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) [98, 111]; LCC (Life Cycle Cost) [87]; A-LCA (Attributional Life cycle Assessment) [86]; LCI (Life cycle Inventory) [100, 141]; Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) [100]; Sensitivity analysis [100]

Economic and financial models

Gross Margins [90]; Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) [41]; Economic Surplus Model [97]; Economic Viability Indicators [95]; Return of investment [90]; Benefit–cost ratio [90]; Cost analysis [104]; Descriptive Statistics [128, 149]

Reviews

DiGiacomo and Leury [36]; Chia et al. [42]; Girotto and Piazza [80]; Pinotti and Ottoboni [81]; Ojha et al. [82]; Derler et al. [83]; Cammack et al. [84]; Ranjbari et al. [88]; Van Huis [89]; Girotto and Cossu [91]; Colombo et al. [92]; Gasco et al. [93]; Parolini et al. [96]; Sampathkumar et al. [101]; Maroušek et al. [103]; Kee et al. [107]; Cadinu et al. [109]; Van Huis et al. [116]; Mancini et al. [117]; Rumbos and Athanassiou [121]; Van Raamsdonk et al. [127]; Tanga et al. [142]; Gasco et al. [143]; Moruzzo et al. [144]; Pinotti et al. [145]; Moruzzo et al. [148]

Other models

Product safety [85]; Waste recovery hierarchy [85]; Process performance [85]; Decision Support Tool (DST) [110]; Geographic Information Systems (GISs) [98]; SWOT analysis [104]; Conceptual Map [78]; Delphi method [128]