Publications

Corporate environmental and social responsibility has expanded focus and concern to extra-firm boundaries - deep into the supply chain and beyond national borders to where many of the most important sustainability issues are located. The supply chain includes upstream, downstream and loop-closing activities. It also includes multiple layers of organizations and markets that are typically globally dispersed. We provide an overview of different aspects to managing sustainable supply chains across international boundaries and locations. Some of the latest topics in upstream sustainable supplier selection, development and monitoring will be covered including dyadic and multi-tier considerations. We will consider operational activities such as lean and green operations, downstream considerations such as green marketing, sustainable transportation and logistics, as well as international circular practices. Major concerns from an international management perspective, including evolving cultural, regulatory and economic perspectives, will be overviewed. Potential research opportunities and questions will also be identified for future directions of this topic within international management.

An organization's long-term viability and competitiveness should not be evaluated solely in terms of financial measures. Investors, policy makers, and other stakeholders increasingly seek to evaluate performance with respect to sustainability—the environmental, social, and economic performance of an organization. But measuring and improving the sustainability performance of supply chains is challenging. We introduce a framework to help evaluate sustainability performance of supply chains. We have collected sustainability data on food supply chains within the United Kingdom. These data are then transformed into indicators. In addition, as part of this benchmarking framework and to more accurately determine performance of food supply chains, we have utilized food supply chain experts' opinions about which factors contribute the most to sustainability. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), these opinions are translated into importance ratings. The indicators are weighted by these importance ratings to generate an overall index of sustainability. Stakeholders can use the index to evaluate supply chains, and supply chain members can use this approach to guide improvement efforts. Strengths and opportunities, as well as limitations of the methodology are discussed, and sensitivity analysis is performed.

The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remind us of our arrogance of ignorance. Society has suffered. We are emerging scarred but enlightened. Can COVID-19 lessons help us avoid repeating the same mistakes with future climate shocks? We offer a supply-chain perspective and a set of pragmatic actions to increase resilience to climate shocks.

Seeking to build a deeper understanding of the determinants of employees' proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs), we tested the linkages between transformational leadership on environmental issues, employees' autonomous and external motivation to perform PEBs, and employees' PEBs. Data from 294 employees in China indicated that the environmental transformational leadership provided by employees' managers was associated with increases in employees' autonomous and external motivation. Autonomous motivation was, in turn, positively related to PEBs. The relationship between external motivation and PEBs was moderated by environmental transformational leadership. When environmental transformational leadership was high, external motivation was positively related to PEBs. When environmental transformational leadership was low, external motivation was negatively related to PEBs. Environmental transformational leadership also had a strong, direct positive relationship with PEBs. Overall, our results suggest that interplay of environmental transformational leadership, autonomous motivation, and external motivation is important in influencing employees' PEBs.

In China corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) has gained increasing attention within industry and government. Evidence exists for significant attempts to promote CSER by the Chinese government. As a critical ‘pillar’ industrial sector, urban residential apartment development has been a major contributor to China's national gross domestic product. This industry has also profoundly influenced social and environmental issues in the country. Thus, apartment developers in China have felt increased pressures to implement CSER practices. Little research has sought to investigate CSER in this industry, whether in China or globally. The objective of this paper is to empirically investigate, using a surveyed sample of 92 apartment development companies, CSER practices in this industrial sector. In the empirical analysis we find that CSER practices can be grouped into basic, environmentally-related and extended practices. We further compare these groupings of CSER practices among different sizes of apartment developers using multivariate analysis of variance and Scheffe multiple analysis tests. We also apply one-way analysis of variance and t-tests for comparisons of CSER practices among apartment developers from different cities and with different ownership structures. The results show that apartment developers generally implement environmentally-related and extended CSER practices at higher levels. Residential apartment development is occurring in more developed cities, and thus apartment developers in these cities face more pressures for CSER practices. Joint ventures are more likely to implement environmentally-related CSER practices. Research and managerial implications, and future research directions are also presented in this work.

Sub-supplier compliance with a focal firm's corporate sustainability standards (CSS) is increasingly recognized as an important dimension of sustainable supply chain management. This paper draws on recent sub-supplier management studies and their critical success factors (CSFs) to investigate the interrelationships between and strengths of CSFs. While previous research focused on the perspective and practices only of focal firms, this exploratory field study investigated a focal firm, one of its suppliers and one of its sub-suppliers in a multi-tier supply chain setting. Our findings suggest that sub-supplier assessment and collaboration are influenced by (1) the committed long-term relationship between the direct supplier and the sub-supplier, (2) the involvement of the direct supplier, and (3) the focal firm's buyer-power over the direct supplier. In return, sub-supplier assessment and collaboration influence those and further CSFs in a feedback loop, enabling virtuous or vicious cycle effects. The perspective of the sub-supplier revealed substantial differences to the supplier and the focal firm, in particular the lower feedback loop effect of collaboration on CSFs.

Internal Marketing (IM) by definition distinguishes between an organisation and its external environment and focuses only on intraorganisational affairs. However, globalisation and a knowledge-driven environment have produced a global networked economy with blurred boundaries between global companies and local market requirements. Organisational boundaries have become obstacles to business success and companies have responded by establishing networks with permeable and flexible boundaries regarding their local customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. As a result, the concept of internal marketing must be redefined and re-evaluated based on the requirements of the global economy. This paper provides an introductory overview of the use of internal marketing in network environments. It presents an integrative perspective to emphasise the need for the integration of academic knowledge and business practice to the benefit of both.

Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) has been applied to a number of organizational decision problems. It is a technique that is helpful to managers in organizing the relationships among a series of factors that may influence their decision. The decision support technique has a long history dating back to the late 1960's and early 1970's. Yet, its application and investigation by researchers to a variety of topical areas has not occurred until very recently. This lack of application is especially true for investigation into topics related to environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM). We find that the barriers to this organizational practice can be further investigated and analyzed with ISM. This paper seeks to provide an illustrative example of this procedure. More complete evaluation and implementation of this technique is recommended for its validation.

No abstract is provided for this article.

Marketing green products requires different approaches than marketing non-green products (e.g., to counteract consumer prioritization of self-interest and focus on the short-term vs. long-term). As a result, green marketing has a substantial body of academic research. The purpose of our paper is to synthesize and provide a comprehensive overview of individual-level consumer behavior theories in green marketing. We begin by defining the term green marketing. Next, we conduct a large-scale review of more than 20 consumer-level theories grouped into six categories. For each theory, we present its definition, application in green marketing, and suggestions for future areas of research. Despite the breadth of theories that we uncovered, most studies indicate that few consumers will pay more for green products and that behavior in one environmental context does not necessarily translate into comparable behavior in another context. Another important finding is a great disconnect between consumer green purchasing intention and actual green purchasing behavior. To address this challenge, we provide two groups of additional applicable theories that have not yet been applied to green marketing. These theory groups are behavioral intentions, or non-economic green purchase influencers, and instantiaters, which moderate the motivation – green purchase behavior link. Managers can use our conceptual framework illustrating the relationship among these theories to help understand the stages in a consumer's green purchase process. Our study also can aid managers in developing tools to achieve a competitive marketplace advantage.

The concept of justification and evaluation of systems, projects, and technologies has traditionally fallen within the scope of internal enterprise decision-making. Yet, with the growth of inter-organizational projects, technologies, and programs, the evaluation process takes on a broader and more complex characteristic. Previously, strategic justification and selection focused on internal departments within an organization and meeting their requirements. Within this context the decision was usually tied to strategic goals and directions of the firm, a common element for all departments. Even though the objectives and directions may have some minor conflicts among these various groups, the decision ultimately came down to one decision maker or group that had the best interests of that specific organization in mind. With inter-organizational systems, such as information systems used in managing the supply chain, the conflicts are between organizations that may have more than one supply chain that they are a part of, with varying strategic directions. The additional complexities of multiorganizational systems evaluation are evaluated within a framework described in this paper. The paper's goal is to introduce the various factors and present a decision framework that will aid members of the supply chain and a supply chain director in deciding which electronic commerce technology media and software is most suitable for the whole supply chain. The techniques used in this approach include both qualitative and quantitative measurements for the evaluation or justification of these systems. The framework uses an integrative set of models based on the analytical hierarchy process and goal programming. An illustrative example provides some managerial insight into the framework and decision environment.

No abstract is provided for this article.

Purpose Blockchain technology, characterized by its decentralized and secure ledger system, is increasingly recognized for its transformative potential in government applications. However, inadequate summarization and synthesis of existing literature have led to an underappreciation of the challenges and future opportunities in this domain, particularly among government practitioners. This study aims to address these shortcomings by providing a comprehensive and detailed review of how blockchain is used in government, thereby filling the existing gap in current research. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a comprehensive review of blockchain applications within the governmental sector, analyzing 175 scholarly articles to assess its transformative potential on public services. Utilizing force field analysis, the study delineates the driving forces behind blockchain adoption and the obstacles it faces. Findings The review highlights blockchain’s capacity to fundamentally improve public administration by enhancing transparency, efficiency and security across a variety of sectors, such as healthcare, electronic voting and registration systems. Moreover, the paper showcases several international case studies, providing insights into the tangible advantages and challenges encountered during the deployment of blockchain in government settings. Research limitations/implications This study identifies existing theoretical voids and advocates for interdisciplinary research efforts to maximize blockchain’s benefits in enhancing governmental operations. Practical implications The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and researchers, advocating for regulations and collaborative efforts to leverage blockchain effectively in government services. Originality/value This review examines literature across multiple disciplines, including technology, governance, public services, policy and organizational studies. This interdisciplinary approach is crucial for understanding the multifaceted impact of blockchain on the government and public sectors. A government review shifts the focus from profitability to more of a public service perspective as well as cost reduction, efficiency and similar to the humanitarian situation to relieve difficulties in people’s lives.

The strategic application of reverse supply chain logistics to improve the reclamation of products at the end of their useful life is gaining increased attention. The environmental implications of reclamation, reuse, and recycling to save landfill space, fuel, and costs are becoming more important for organizations. The social and ethical dimensions of sustainability, particularly as they apply to reverse logistics, are emerging topics. The focus of existing reverse logistics research has been on the economic and environmental aspects of sustainability – social sustainability has yet to be comprehensively examined. This paper focuses on addressing this gap in the literature by linking various sustainable indicators with various reverse logistics practices to develop a profile of reverse logistics for social sustainability. By compiling practical, international examples from practice and research, we have used the structure of social sustainability to highlight reverse logistics for social sustainability. The paper concludes with some topics for future research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine if blockchain-supported carbon offset information provision and shipping options with different cost and environmental footprint implications impact consumer perceptions toward retailers and logistics service providers. Blockchain and carbon neutrality, each can be expensive to adopt and complex to manage, thus getting the “truth” on decarbonization may require additional costs for consumers. Design/methodology/approach Experimental modeling is used to address these critical and emergent issues that influence practices across a set of supply chain actors. Three hypotheses relating to the relationship between blockchain-supported carbon offset information and consumer perceptions and intentions associated with the product and supply chain actors are investigated. Findings The results show that consumer confidence increases when supply chain carbon offset information has greater reliability, transparency and traceability as supported by blockchain technology. The authors also find that consumers who are provided visibility into various shipping options and the product's journey carbon emissions and offset – from a blockchain-supported system – they are more willing to pay a premium for both the product and shipping options. Blockchain-supported decarbonization information disclosure in the supply chain can lead to organizational legitimacy and financial gains in return. Originality/value Understanding consumer action and sustainable consumption is critical for organizations seeking carbon neutrality. Currently, the literature on this understanding from a consumer information provision is not well understood, especially with respect to blockchain-supported information transparency, visibility and reliability. Much of the blockchain literature focuses on the upstream. This study focuses more on consumer-level and downstream supply chain blockchain implications for organizations. The study provides a practical roadmap for considering levels of blockchain information activity and consumer interaction.

The focus of green supplier development and collaboration is on buying companies’ improving suppliers’ environmental capabilities and performance. Not all

This perspective paper focuses on the importance of safety within a circular economy setting. There is also a call for research investigation into the broad variety of safety issues that can appear anywhere across multiple circular economy activities.