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International trade, through global supply chains, is central to global sustainable production and consumption. Redistribution of environmental resources impacts through international trade has become apparent in ecological research – and may have long-term design and planning implications for production and supply chain management. However, current trade and production accounting methods are still incapable of providing accurate and reliable results for policymakers and organisational decision makers to manage global and supply chain trade issues. In this study, a blockchain-based conceptual framework for embodied environmental resources accounting in trade is proposed to address global supply chain and trade issues. Framework design, benefits, and challenges are also discussed. Future research and linkage to theory are also provided. This study provides a strong systemic foundation for managing environmental resources at the nexus of international trade, sustainable production, and global supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy (CE) seeks to maintain products and materials at their highest utility and value. The organisational and governmental policy have seised onto the CE philosophy to advance socio-economic and environmental development. CE remains an essentially contested concept – making its utilisation as a foundation for managerial and policy decisions challenging. Circularity assessment has not been systematically adopted, especially within supply chain management. Using critical scholarly and practical evidential foundation, we proposed a comprehensive set of metrics that can be utilised in supplier selection, monitoring, and development for circularity. These metrics include the macro, meso, and micro levels. A group decision-making method integrating best-worst method (BWM), regret theory (RT), and dual hesitant fuzzy sets (DHFS) for circular economy and circularity (CEC) supplier evaluation and selection is introduced – providing instrumental value for the identified metrics typology. The proposed BWM-DHFE-RT integrative analytical method can accommodate decisionmaker psychological behaviour under uncertainty while simultaneously capturing divergent or conflicting opinions of different decision-makers. An illustrative business scenario is utilised to demonstrate the application of the proposed method. Though the proposed CE performance metrics and methodology are used for CEC supplier management reasons they have broader applicability. Future research and application directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-tier sustainable supply chain relationships (MSSCR) are complex with involvement of multiple organisations, practices, objectives, and interconnectivities. These complexities make it difficult to effectively study MSSCR using traditional empirical statistical correlative research. In MSSCR the relationship between the focal firm and sub-supplier may be affected by the relationship between the focal firm and direct-supplier, and the relationship between the direct-supplier and the sub-supplier. This paper introduces a research methodology, based on K-Means clustering, rough set theory, and cluster membership to investigate complex relationships across multi-tier sustainable supply chain triads. Collaborative advantage variables including knowledge-sharing routines, relation-specific investments, complementary capabilities, effective governance mechanisms, and long-term commitment are conceptually presented to evaluate relationships among MSSCR practices and sustainability performance. Insights for practitioners and researchers are provided. Research insights can be gained by analytically providing alternative explanatory and equifinality relationships amongst variables and multi-pair organisations. The methodology can mitigate the endogeneity problem, such as omitted factors (variables), measurement error, even in small sample data situations. Directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends research on buyer firm roles in improving supplier sustainability practices by considering institutions – norms and rules – in the organisational field in which suppliers and sub-suppliers operate, exerting pressures on these actors to align their respectivepractices. We introducethe resource-based view to arrive at a framework outlining key capabilities for institutional entrepreneurs that seek institutionalisation of corporate sustainability standards (CSS) as a new institution across a multi-tier supply chain. The paper draws on the results of an exploratory research study using six comparative case studies within four industries. While institutional entrepreneurship explains how organisations drive institutional change, the resource-based view outlines criteria for organisational capabilities enabling the focal firm to achieve the targeted institutional change. Our analysis suggests five key capabilities enabling a buying firm to effectively institutionalise their requirements in multi-tier supply chains: (1) inter-firm dialogue, (2) risk management, (3) external stakeholder collaboration, (4) cross-functional integration, and (5) continuous improvement. The key organisational capabilities identified help to extend the theory of institutional entrepreneurship with concepts that facilitate institutional change in multi-tier supply chains with respect to corporate sustainability. This exploratory work opens up avenues of additional research in general and supply chain theory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs) are now entering their decade of action. We are supporting this decade by further encouraging the International Journal of Production Research (IJPR) and its scholarly community to lead on contributing to global SDGs through research, knowledge development, and dissemination. There are islands of excellence that are evident from the past 60 years of IJPR research – especially in ecologically sustainable production-related SDG. There are also serious SDG gaps – for example, general environmental, gender, and inclusiveness research – that can provide additional insights that can greatly advance the IJPR disciplines. This thematic analysis ends with a number of recommendations that seek to expand our experiences and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a central policy within China's regional development and foreign trade strategy. Traditional trade has typically depended on economic valuation of resources, while the embedded environmental value is rarely considered. This situation exists in most BRI trade evaluations. To address BRI environmental sustainability issues, we consider the role of pivotal Chinese provinces and their key trade partners (ASEAN countries) as an illustration for the environmental value of resource exchanges. Emergy accounting is used as the valuation tool for a sample period of seventeen years. Key results include: (1) Emergy valuations show sustainability of sample provinces decreased over time; (2) ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam play significant resource roles for provincial economic systems; (3) Diverse trends in trade between pivotal provinces and ASEAN countries resulted in an unbalanced trade structure from trade. Policy implications are proposed to promote a more globally sustainable and fair trade using BRI as an established trade policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product management activities by operations, marketing, and finance functions have typically focused on the innovation, acquisition, growth, and management of product lines and products. The same is true when considering product management for green products. The latter stages of critical strategic decisions related to product deletion or discontinuation have received less emphasis. In this conceptual paper, the focus is on green product deletion implications for supply chain management and operations. Organisations may view green product deletion as evolving from a deep green to a paler shade of green in their product offerings. A proposed strategic framework pays particular attention to the implications of the green product deletion decision for supply chain processes and operational competencies. In this situation, lessened organisational greenness needs to be weighed against other organisational and operational competencies. The strategic and inter-organisational relationships associated with this decision help set the stage for future research on this critical, yet neglected, organisational and operational supply chain issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology is a technology that can effectively support supply chain transparency. An important initial managerial activity is for organisations in supply chains to evaluate and select the most suitable blockchain technology. However, uncertainty and emphasis on sustainable transparency has made this appraisal more complex. This paper: (1) introduces blockchain technology performance measures incorporating various sustainable supply chain transparency and technical attributes; and (2) introduces a new hybrid group decision method, integrated hesitant fuzzy set and regret theory, for blockchain technology evaluation and selection. This method emphasises decision maker psychological characteristics and variation in decision maker opinions. An illustrative application and sensitivity analysis is introduced to aid supply chain managers and researchers understand the blockchain technology selection decision. Methodological and managerial implications associated with the decision tool and application are introduced. This research sets the foundation for significant future research in blockchain technologies evaluation in a supply chain environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study proposes a systematic and comprehensive circular economy (CE) performance measure as an instrument to operationalize and quantify circularity. It seeks to evaluate the relative contribution of blockchain technology to evaluate various measures in this study. A general research agenda for investigating blockchain capabilities to performance assessment in CE is presented. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical survey data from 32 CE and blockchain experts are collected to inform this study. Inductive reasoning, heatmaps, and a middle-range theory building approach are utilized to generalize theoretical patterns for blockchain support of CE performance assessment and measurement. A series of propositions are then developed as a middle-range theory for the true, false, perceptible, and hidden affordances of blockchain technology capabilities for CE performance measurement. Findings: Overall, sixteen performance measures and metrics are identified and examined. The authors find most of these measures and metrics – based on literature and expert opinion – can be supported using blockchain technology capabilities. Four major blockchain capabilities, transparency and traceability, reliability and security, smart contracts, and incentivization and tokenization are shown to have varying potential support for CE performance assessment. There needs to be an evaluation of true, false, perceptible, and hidden affordances of blockchain technology capabilities for CE performance measurement in future studies. Originality/value: Blockchain application for CE, and specifically performance measurements, is a new area. Research and practice evaluation on this issue is important but needs substantially additional investigation to help CE progress. This study provides a framework for evaluation and a foundation for future research at the nexus of CE, blockchain technology, and performance measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational and managerial decisions are influenced by corporate sustainability pressures. Organisations need to consider economic, environmental and social sustainability dimensions in their decisions to become sustainable. Supply chain decisions play a distinct and critical role in organisational good and service outputs sustainability. Sustainable supplier selection influences the supply chain sustainability allowing many organisations to build competitive advantage. Within this context, the social sustainability dimension has received relatively minor investigation; with emphasis typically on economic and environmental sustainability. Neglecting social sustainability can have serious repercussions for organisational supply chains. This study proposes a social sustainability attribute decision framework to evaluate and select socially sustainable suppliers. A grey-based multi-criteria decision-support tool composed of the 'best-worst method' (BWM) and TODIM (TOmada de Decisão Interativa e Multicritério – in Portuguese 'Interactive and Multicriteria Decision Making') is introduced. A grey-BWM approach is used to determine social sustainability attribute weights, and a grey-TODIM method is utilised to rank suppliers. This process is completed in a group decision setting. A case study of an Iranian manufacturing company is used to exemplify the applicability and suitability of the proposed social sustainability decision framework. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are introduced after the application of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation of supply chains makes their management and control more difficult. Blockchain technology, as a distributed digital ledger technology which ensures transparency, traceability, and security, is showing promise for easing some global supply chain management problems. In this paper, blockchain technology and smart contracts are critically examined with potential application to supply chain management. Local and global government, community, and consumer pressures to meet sustainability goals prompt us to further investigate how blockchain can address and aid supply chain sustainability. Part of this critical examination is how blockchains, a potentially disruptive technology that is early in its evolution, can overcome many potential barriers. Four blockchain technology adoption barriers categories are introduced; inter-organisational, intra-organisational, technical, and external barriers. True blockchain-led transformation of business and supply chain is still in progress and in its early stages; we propose future research propositions and directions that can provide insights into overcoming barriers and adoption of blockchain technology for supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is hinged on innovation. The importance of sustainable innovation management in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) cannot be underestimated. Studies on SSCM have emphasised the need for sustainable innovation in achieving sustainability but none provide deep insights into sustainable innovation management in SSCM implementation. This lack of research depth stimulates this study to identify and investigate criteria for sustainable supply chain management innovation advancement. This paper proposes a sustainable innovation criteria framework for investigating sustainable supply chains in manufacturing companies. To exemplify the applicability and efficiency of the proposed framework, a sample of five Indian manufacturing companies are used to evaluate and prioritise the sustainable innovation management criteria, using the 'best–worst' multi-criteria decision-making (BW-MCDM) model. The criteria weights for all companies from BWM are aggregated, averaged and used for ranking. The respondent managers viewed 'financial availability for innovation' as the most important sustainable innovation sub-criteria. The results of the study will inform industrial managers, practitioners and decision-makers on which criteria to focus on during the implementation stage, to increase sustainability in manufacturing supply chains, and further advance corporate and supply chain sustainable development. The framework may also serve as a theoretical construct for a future empirical study on sustainable supply chain innovation in the manufacturing sector. This paper sets the stage for further research in sustainable innovation practices in the manufacturing sector and its supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lean manufacturing practices (LMPs) and corporate environmental sustainability are becoming inextricably linked. Throughout the lean and green debate, many organisations have recognised that LMPs have implications for their sustainable development and competitive positioning. Not only LMPs are complex on their own, but when perceived from an environmental sustainability perspective, the decision to implement an LMP can become even more intricate. Although general tools exist, the lack of effective decision-making tools to help in the implementation of LMPs with an environmental sustainability dimension is palpable. Thus, this study tackles the aforementioned decision problem by incorporating environmental and operational performance outcome expectations as these expectations are viewed in light of the ease of implementation of various LMPs. A novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for evaluation of LMPs is developed in this respect. The model integrates a three-parameter interval grey number with rough set theory and the TODIM method. The model is run using empirical data from six manufacturing organisations. The findings facilitate the identification of a 'locus of investments' for a better selection of LMPs. The robustness of the decision support model developed is assessed through sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I Study 5 i - entitled "Tunneling the barriers of blockchain technology in remanufacturing for achieving sustainable development goals: A circular manufacturing perspective", by Govindan ([7]) - focuses on a single firm field study in the Danish automotive parts industry. These findings support BCT adoption as integral to a broad-based strategy for multi-tier supply chain goals including supply chain mapping, sustainability, and integration. BCTs appear to enhance supply chain mapping and integration through enhancement of traceability, accountability, and sustainability within complex supply chain networks. Blockchain technology (BCT) meaningfully contributes to environmentally sustainable development goals (SDGs) by improving sustainable supply chain management, tracing of product stewardship capabilities, and promoting development of secure and reliable smart cities (Parmentola et al., [14]). [Extracted from the article]

The research on production and operations management and its linkage to environmental sustainability has seen growth in recent years. The International Journal of Production Research (IJPR) community of scholars has contributed to the advancement of this field. This paper provides an overview of how the research in IJPR has evolved alongside the social-environmental evolution. An overview of the literature of the past 55 years, especially more recent works, is provided. Future predictions of research topics and influences are introduced. Overall, this review found that the call for incorporating environmental sustainability into production research goes back for decades to the early years of IJPR publications. Recent work shows a broader perspective on production research expanding to inter-organisational, supply chain, research. This expanded focus is especially evident in environmental sustainability research. There is still a need and call for expanding the horizon of production and operations management research and environmental sustainability. Travelling the road less travelled is more difficult and complex, but the rewards at the end of this road are a healthy society and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has emerged as an important industrial strategic outlook expanding beyond organizational boundaries to include the supply chain. Simultaneously, the industry has also been faced with supply chain resilience concerns. Research on the intersection of supply chain sustainability and resilience is nascent and is a consequence of their observed mutual influences. However, confusion about concepts, implementation methods, and measurements of sustainable and resilient supply chains remains. This study completes a systematic literature review that critically examines several major observations and directions. We find the concept of sustainable supply chains is more established, and general agreement on its theoretical foundations exists. Supply chain resilience is relatively less mature. The nexus and relationships between the two topics are often incoherent: there is confusion on sustainable and resilient supply chains establishment; there is no clarity on what practices could jointly advance both areas. A major conflict exists since sustainability generally focuses on efficiency, while resilience seeks effectiveness. We recommend studies to analyze implementation relationships and impact. We also observe that performance measurement systems should be developed to assess supply chain sustainability and resilience performance taking with explicit consideration time horizons considered in these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reverse supply chains are receiving increased attention for business and sustainability opportunities. As few organizations are adept at both forward and reverse supply chains, subcontracting various activities is imperative. Vendor selection that best achieves combined expertise for reverse supply chains, while quickly forming virtual enterprises to seize market opportunities, is an emerging issue. We formulate a novel 0-1 integer nonlinear optimization model, subsequently linearized to enable efficient computational performance, to select vendors that minimize the maximum formation time for creating agile virtual reverse supply chains. We then generate a portfolio of diverse, high-quality vendor assignments by adapting a recent algorithmic technique, thereby allowing industrial managers to address intangible factors into their final decisions. Computational experiments on simulated data demonstrate the model's efficiency for generating sets of high-quality and diverse solutions in reasonable timeframes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper, a pathway, aims to provide research guidance for investigating sustainability in supply chains in a post-COVID-19 environment. Design/methodology/approach: Published literature, personal research experience, insights from virtual open forums and practitioner interviews inform this study. Findings: COVID-19 pandemic events and responses are unprecedented to modern operations and supply chains. Scholars and practitioners seek to make sense of how this event will make us revisit basic scholarly notions and ontology. Sustainability implications exist. Short-term environmental sustainability gains occur, while long-term effects are still uncertain and require research. Sustainability and resilience are complements and jointly require investigation. Research limitations/implications: The COVID-19 crisis is emerging and evolving. It is not clear whether short-term changes and responses will result in a new "normal." Adjustment to current theories or new theoretical developments may be necessary. This pathway article only starts the conservation – many additional sustainability issues do arise and cannot be covered in one essay. Practical implications: Organizations have faced a major shock during this crisis. Environmental sustainability practices can help organizations manage in this and future competitive contexts. Social implications: Broad economic, operational, social and ecological-environmental sustainability implications are included – although the focus is on environmental sustainability. Emergent organizational, consumer, policy and supply chain behaviors are identified. Originality/value: The authors take an operations and supply chain environmental sustainability perspective to COVID-19 pandemic implications; with sustainable representing the triple bottom-line dimensions of environmental, social and economic sustainability; with a special focus on environmental sustainability. Substantial open questions for investigation are identified. This paper sets the stage for research requiring rethinking of some previous tenets and ontologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This multidisciplinary paper examines the sustainability of supply chain partners from a foreignness perspective. The arguments draw from the research on institutional theory to explain the underlying mechanisms. We propose and discuss a comprehensive conceptual framework evaluating the relationships of foreignness to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. In addition, we consider contingent factors such as the level of development of supplier's nation, level of global integration of buyer, and type of industry, on sustainable development of focal firms. The direct and contingency frameworks introduced in this paper are presented along with research propositions that provide valuable insight into the sustainable supply chain management from the international business perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pressures have caused green supply chain management (GSCM) to emerge as an important corporate environmental strategy for manufacturing enterprises. For manufacturers to fully realise the performance potentials of GSCM, they need to integrate internal GSCM practices emphasising functional coordination with external GSCM practices such as cooperation with suppliers and customers in the implementation. Using coordination theory, this article examines three models used to evaluate the mediation relationships between the external and internal practices of GSCM with respect to environmental, economic, and operational performance. We posit that the strategic stance of manufacturing enterprises in improving their overall performance and competitive position requires a joint coordination of internal and external GSCM practices. Survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturing enterprises are used to validate our arguments by testing the mediation effects of two categories of GSCM practices. Our empirical results show support for the mediation effects, which indicates the importance for manufacturers to coordinate between the internal and external aspects of implementing GSCM practices to reap the performance benefits. Coordinating internal and external GSCM practices to seek performance improvements is an important aspect of the manufacturing operations strategy. The dynamics of implementing GSCM practices and the performance contingencies are worthwhile topics to pursue in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Long-term organisational 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 organisation. But measuring and improving the sustainability performance of supply chains is challenging. Using one of the world's most critical supply chains, the food supply chain, we introduce and apply a multi-stage procedure to help analytically evaluate supply chains’ sustainability performance. The method involves development of sustainability indicators, data collection, data transformation using rescaling and determining of importance ratings using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed methodology demonstrates how quantitative statistical data can be combined with expert opinion to construct an overall index of sustainability. Stakeholders can use the index to evaluate and guide sustainability performance of supply chains. Strengths and opportunities, as well as limitations of the methodology are discussed, and sensitivity analysis is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With economic globalisation and the emergence of extended enterprises derived from interrelationships among organisations, there has been a steady increase in offshore outsourcing activities. Subsequently, the strategic importance of offshoring decisions is important. Traditional offshoring decisions mainly emphasise outsourcee (supplier) selection problems, with their focus upon economic factors. Sustainability, which has recently been regarded as a competitive necessity in most industries, rarely enters into the modelling or discussion. Furthermore, additional and integrated facility location factors need to be included into the offshoring decision process. To help integrate these factors and concerns, this paper constructs a model for evaluation and selection of various offshoring alternatives by simultaneously considering facility location factors, supplier selection metrics, and sustainability factors. The model allows for input from a variety of managerial decision-making levels and involves the dynamic perspectives of the competitive environment in its evaluation process. An illustrative case is applied to demonstrate the efficacy of the model. Feedback from practising managers who are responsible for outsourcing/offshoring decisions also support the validity of the model. The paper closes with a discussion of managerial implications and an outlook on aspects for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sustainability has become increasingly important for organizations and has permeated a number of managerial and organizational decisions. Sustainability, as defined by its 'triple-bottom line' factors of economic, environmental, and social dimensions, is the underlying framework we use to develop and apply a strategic justification tool for project evaluation with sustainability implications. An activity-based management methodological framework is used as a vehicle to frame decisions using corporate sustainability. An illustrative application of this technique demonstrates how an organization could select between two competing reverse logistics providers. This process requires that we introduce issues relevant to three major sustainability factors (and their sub factors) and how they are influenced by a reverse logistics provider decision. The dual contribution of this paper includes investigating the design and development of the strategic sustainability evaluation framework and introducing the relationships of reverse logistics to economic, environmental and social sustainability dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work makes the case for the integration of the circular economy (CE) and large-scale data (LD), also known as big data. The paper is one of the first to integrate conceptual and practical trends regarding: (a) the ReSOLVE based models of the circular economy; (b) key stakeholders roles in pursuing a more sustainable society; and (c) the volume, velocity, variety, and veracity (4V's) of large-scale data (LD) management. This study's contributions include: (1) introducing a new integrative framework to enhance the understanding of the CE-LD nexus; (2) a relational matrix which illustrates the complexity of large-scale data and stakeholders management; and (3) a research agenda, with clear research propositions and future research direction. The proposed CE-LD integrative framework provides socio-technical insights for academics, practitioners, managers, and policy decision-makers. • This paper integrates the disparate fields of the circular economy (CE) and large-scale data (LD). • Discusses how large-data can support the circular economy's business models. • An integrative framework for CE-LD is proposed. • A research agenda for the circular economy and large-data integration is proposed. • Implications for challenges and opportunities of sustainable production in a digital world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy (CE) is an emergent concept to rethink and redesign how our economy works. The concept recognizes effective and efficient economic functioning at multiple scales—governments and individuals, globally and locally; for businesses, large and small. CE represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience at multiple levels (macro, meso and micro); generating new business and economic opportunities while providing environmental and societal benefits. Blockchain, an emergent and critical technology, is introduced to the circular economy environment as a potential enabler for many circular economic principles. Blockchain technology supported information systems can improve circular economy performance at multiple levels. Product deletion, a neglected but critical effort in product management and product portfolio management, is utilized as an illustrative business scenario as to blockchain's application in a circular economy research context. Product deletion, unlike product proliferation, has received minimal attention from both academics and practitioners. Product deletion decisions need to be evaluated and analyzed in the circular economy context. CE helps address risk aversion issues in product deletions such as inventory, waste and information management. This paper is the first to conceptualize the relationships amongst blockchain technology, product deletion and the circular economy. Many nuances of relationships are introduced in this study. Future evaluation and critical reflections are also presented with a need for a rigorous and robust research agenda to evaluate the multiple and complex relationships and interplay amongst technology, policy, commerce and the natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We explore potential predictors of employees' proenvironmental behaviors in Russia. • Supervisors' active leadership is strongly linked to employees' behaviors. • Employees' external motivation is negatively related to their behaviors. • Employees' introjected/identified motivation may be beneficial. • Alignment between top managers and supervisors may have unexpected effects. Abstract Despite Russia's large ecological footprint, there has been limited examination of environmental sustainability initiatives in Russian corporations. Drawing on research on the importance of employee-level behaviors for the success of corporate sustainability initiatives, we focus on the proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) of Russian employees. We integrate scholarship on employees' PEBs and the Russian cultural context to offer theory regarding three potentially important antecedents of employees' PEBs: top management commitment to sustainability, the immediate manager's environmental leadership, and the employee's motivation. Using self-report data from management development program attendees in Russia (N = 165), we examined the links between these factors and employees' PEBs. We also tested whether top management commitment moderated the impact of immediate managers' leadership on employees' PEBs. We found that the immediate manager's active environmental leadership (i.e., transformational, contingent reward, and active management by exception) was positively related to employees' PEBs. Managers' passive-avoidant environmental leadership (i.e., passive management by exception and laissez-faire) was negatively related to PEBs, but only when top management was committed to sustainability. Employees' motives were linked to PEBs, but the nature of the relationship varied across motives. External motivation was negatively related to PEBs, suggesting that using rewards to motivate PEBs may be detrimental. Motivation that came from a desire to fulfill one's values or avoid feeling bad about oneself was positively associated with PEBs. Our work provides a foundation for future research on PEBs in Russia, and suggests new directions for research on employees' PEBs in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) faces greater complexity because it considers additional stakeholder requirements, broader sustainable performance objectives, increased sustainable business practices and technologies, and relationships among those entities. These additional complexities make SSCM more difficult to manage and operate than traditional supply chains. Complex systems require new methods for research especially given reductionist research paradigms of modern science. Rough set theory (RST) can be a valuable tool that will help address complexity in SSCM research and practice. To exemplify RST usefulness and applicability, an illustrative application using sustainable supply chain practices (SSCP), and environmental and economic performance outcomes is introduced. The conceptual case provides nuanced insights for researchers and practitioners in mitigating and evaluating various SSCM complexities. RST limitations and extensions are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful Food-energy-water (FEW) nexus projects will be more likely to succeed if a transdisciplinary approach is used. Ecological modernization (ecological technology) policies and practices, and sustainable supply chains influence the FEW nexus from a commerce and industry perspective. Taking these perspectives and considering their intertwined linkages is important for advancing research and adoption of FEW nexus efforts. This paper provides an overview of these perspectives and interlinkages. A biosolids case study is used to exemplify the complexities and interactions of these four thematic perspectives: the FEW nexus, transdisciplinarity, ecological modernization, and sustainable supply chains. An integrative multi-level analysis scheme is used to analyze interrelationships. This analysis and the case study help to identify a series of research opportunities to further this nascent field. Research opportunities include methodological developments, attitudinal and social concerns, performance indicator systems, and meta-social evolutions in technology and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using a manually collected sample of 331 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports issued by US public companies, we examine the relationship between the CSR performance and the readability of CSR reports. We adopt three indices – Fog, Kincaid, and Flesch – to measure the readability of CSR reports and draw upon two databases – ESG and KLD – to measure CSR performance from both environmental and social perspectives. The results show a significant positive relationship between CSR performance and the readability of CSR reports, indicating that companies with stronger CSR performance are more likely to have CSR reports with higher readability. Further, the association of the readability of CSR reports with social performance is stronger than with environmental performance. This study helps investors more comprehensively evaluate the CSR information disclosed on CSR reports. Our results also point to the importance of regulating the narrative disclosure of CSR information, especially social performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing global environmental pressures from regulators, markets and communities have caused focal companies in supply chains to recognize the significance of environmentally conscious management. Greener supply chains are part of this recognition. Environmental supplier development is a valuable and viable strategy for greening supply chains. However, low carbon management is rarely explored in supplier development. Further, formal tools and models for focal companies to evaluate environmental supplier development programs (ESDPs) considering low carbon management and their effect on supplier performance improvement are limited. To help address these gaps in the literature, this paper proposes a portfolio evaluationmodel for ESDPs that consider three types of supplier performance: traditional operational factors, traditional environmental factors and low carbon management factors. This model applies the fuzzy scoring method to measure the effect of ESDPs on supplier performance, and uses fuzzy DEMATEL to examine the cause-effect interrelationships among the ESDPs. Subsequently, a real world example is used to demonstrate the application of the portfolio model and provide insights into environmental supplier development evaluation, followed by discussions of case application results. This paper concludes with directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics, politicians, professionals and the general public are aware that without stewarding our planet's natural resources, man is on the pathway towards a global collapse. Over the next three decades mankind is expected to consume an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year – three times current consumption. Social welfare and human wellbeing are threatened with the scarcity of natural resources; consequently, nations and their societies are also at risk of collapse. The readers of this special volume will find a compilation of scholarly research papers with real-life applications that take the challenge of proposing decision-making models and tools to address sustainability challenges in integrative ways. The main focus of this special volume is integration of sustainability dimensions (economic, social, environmental, ethical and time) into decision-support models and to identify pathways to achieve more sustainable societies. The majority of the research in this special volume, 74 percent, focuses on environmental and economic dimensions. Only 26 percent integrated social dimensions with them. Methodologically, a range of mathematical models and tools are presented to support prescriptive decision-making, with some descriptive models integrated, to support decision-makers in solving practical problems across a variety of industries and scenarios. The breadth and complexity of issues facing organizations and society requires innovative applications of these methodologies. The concerns cover a spectrum ranging from energy to solid waste management. A multitude of levels from broad-based policy concerns to strategic inter-organizational sustainable supply chain management and significantly, shop floor operational issues are also covered. The variety of problems and solutions exemplifies the potential for modelling and operations research for addressing some of our world's most pressing concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greening of Industry Network (GIN) is into its third decade of involvement in integrated environmental, social, and economic debates. This paper introduces GIN to another generation of thinkers and doers, and reintroduces it to participants who have had previous experiences with GIN and/or its activities. GIN's history and the various ‘debates’ sponsored by the organization over the years will be overviewed. We also identify debates and directions that we see continuing or emerging over the next few years, as GIN continues to evolve. Although GIN has been an active player in the debates about the greening of industrial development for two decades, it has evolved as social, technological, organizational, and economic developments changed. Over its two-plus decades, GIN has seen significant shifts in a number of directions, many of these shifts occurring in sporadic and unexpected ways. Climate change, resource depletion, sustainability, technological change with an expanding global communication network, social media, multiple recessions and growth periods, base of pyramid emphasis, a growing academic stream in business and the environment, have all contributed to the various lenses of GIN participants and thereby shaped action and activities in the Network. Change continues. GIN will be there to help understand and address some of these changes as they pertain to the Greening of Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a framework which can assist focal companies in the development of sustainable supply chains. Sustainable development from an industrial perspective has extended beyond organisational boundaries to incorporate a supply chain approach. Design/methodology/approach – The literature related to sustainable supply chain management is reviewed by incorporating concepts from four organisational theories, including the resource-based, institutional, stakeholder and social network perspectives, to illustrate key drivers and enablers of sustainability initiatives in the supply chain. A conceptual multidimensional framework is then developed that can be used for the initial assessment of supply chain sustainability. Findings – Development and assessment of sustainability in supply chains are being increasingly incorporated as part of supply chain management today. This paper presents a multidimensional framework which can serve as a tool for research scholars and supply chain practitioners in identifying and assessing various economic, environmental and social performance indicators. Research limitations/implications – The framework and approach presented are conceptual, and require additional and broader validation. Additional theories, at differing levels, such as individual behaviour theory, should be utilised to further enhance and evaluate the framework. Developing and integrating analytical models for prescriptive and practical supply chain solutions can enhance the applicability of the framework. Practical implications – The framework adopts a multidimensional approach to assessing and designing sustainable supply chains, as it not only incorporates economic and environmental dimensions but also provides a practical approach to quantifying and embedding the social dimension into decision-making. The framework helps industry practitioners in initial exploration of trade-offs among economic, environmental and social performance of supply chains, which, in turn, could assist them in creating a business case for sustainability. Originality/value – The paper is one of few studies that incorporates some of the key aspects of all three dimensions of sustainability in a single overarching framework for supply chains and offers significant theoretical contribution and implications for sustainable supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: 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. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]