Circular economy and the policy: A framework for improving the corporate environmental management in supply chains

The transition to the circular economy (CE) creates value through the closed-loop systems, reverse logistics, product life cycle management, and clean production in terms of corporate environmental management. During this transition process, the organization faces many barriers such as financial, organizational, technology-based, social, policy-related, market-based, and logistics-based barriers. The objectives of this study are to propose a framework highlighting policy-related barriers for a supply chain in the transition to CE and finally discuss potential implications on enhancing corporate environmental performance of a business. Further, this study evaluates the causal relationships between the policy-related barriers using fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The application was conducted in an apparel firm in Turkey. From findings, lack of legislation for efficient CE (C4), lack of mandatory requirements and responsibilities for manufacturers/suppliers for the CE (C17), and lack of government support for environmentally friendly policies (C2) are revealed as the most important barriers, respectively. It is found that lack of attitude and awareness about CE in government institutions (C19) is the most influencing factor, whereas lack of effective recycling policies to achieve quality in waste management (C8) is the most influenced factor. The recommendations were developed for enhancing the corporate environmental performance of businesses through incentives and unique rewards, improving communication among stakeholders, the government's perception of CE and current linear economy, cooperation with nongovernmental organization (NGOs) and civil actions, the vision of government towards circular principles, the circular public procurement, the local governments in circular policymaking, and awareness of bureaucracy and government officials.     

Operational excellence in a green supply chain for environmental management: A case study

Nowadays, organizations have started to become more conscious about the environment in their supply chain operations. The greening process has guided supply chain practices into new ways of thinking according to green standards. The assessment of the performance of green supply chain management (GSCM) requires a holistic view for the whole supply chain. In this context, given that becoming green in the operational side of activities is essential, the performance assessment of operational activities also requires a holistic view to be taken. In this paper, an attempt has been made to improve the performance of GSCM by examining and evaluating the green operational excellence of a hot dip galvanizing company. The framework includes several green operational excellence key criteria, namely, quality management, efficiency management, green production/manufacturing, eco‐packaging, and green design. First, the weights of the criteria and the respective measurements were found by fuzzy analytic network process. Then, the overall operational performance score was found by a weighted scoring method. Finally, both managerial and theoretical implications were suggested according to the outcomes and findings of the case study.     

Participatory planning of industrial R&D activities

This paper summarizes and comments on the methodology actually employed in participatory planning of R&D activities for the iron and steel industry in Turkey. Through an organized collaboration with more than a hundred managers, engineers, experts, and planners: (1) technical, managerial, financial, and social problems that are obstacles to the achievement of predetermined goals for the industry are identified and defined; (2) these problems are formulated as R&D candidate projects; and (3) a set of R&D candidate projects are selected for implementation in the 1980s.     

An estimation model for replicating the rankings of the world competitiveness report

The World Competitiveness Report (WCR), a report annually produced by the Institute for Management Development, which is based in Switzerland, is a study that rates and ranks the competitiveness of a certain group of nations (OECD countries plus some newly emerging economies) and is a widely quoted report in the international media, especially by government and public leaders. Although some ideas as to the methodology used in the rating and ranking of countries are given, the details are not provided in the WCRs. Therefore, the methodology used in the WCRs is in large part unknown to the public.An intelligent use of the WCR requires a rather sound understanding of the methodology by its potential users; politicians, company executives, and public policy makers. The objective of this paper is to uncover and understand the methodology of the WCR through exact replications of its rankings at all levels of aggregation. An estimation model based on mathematical programming is used to replicate the WCR rankings.     

The appreciative democratic voice of DEA: A case of faculty academic performance evaluation

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is in fact more than just being an instrument for measuring the relative efficiencies of a group of decision making units (DMU). DEA models are also means of expressing appreciative democratic voices of DMUs. This paper proposes a methodology for allocating premium points to a group of professors using three models sequentially: (1) a DEA model for appreciative academic self-evaluation, (2) a DEA model for appreciative academic cross-evaluation, and (3) a Non-DEA model for academic rating of professors for the purpose of premium allocations. The premium results, called DEA results, are then compared with the premium points “nurtured” by the Dean, called N bonus points. After comparing DEA results and N bonus points, the Dean reassessed his initial bonus points and provided new ones – called DEA-N decisions. The experience indicates that judgmental decisions (Dean's evaluations) can be enhanced by making use of formal models (DEA and Non-DEA models). Moreover, the appreciative and democratic voices of professors are virtually embedded in the DEA models.     

Determining the causal relationship among the research streams of the operations management course

Due to the rapid changes in technology, there have been dramatic changes in manufacturing systems and techniques in almost all industries. In this sense, higher education institutions have become more important as they play a key role in ensuring the labor force in the industry. In the present study, the research streams for operations management course were established, then fuzzy total interpretive structural modelling technique was employed to analyze the causal relations and influences among the factors. The purpose of the study was to determine the relationships among the research streams of operations management course.     

Quality function deployment application for improving quality of education in business schools

There is an increasing competition between universities globally to attract students. At this point, to compete, it is imperative for the universities to improve the quality of education provided for their stakeholders, including students, parents, and employers. For improving the quality of education, first of all, the universities should make efforts to understand stakeholder expectations, by analyzing their needs and wants. For this purpose, the authors incorporated the quality function deployment technique with fuzzy analytical network process. Due to the vagueness present in the evaluation of relative importance of the criteria for higher education, fuzzy set theory is integrated.     

Improved implementation of inventory control models through equivalent formulations

This paper summarizes an actual multi-item periodic-review inventory control study conducted in a developing country. The firms of developing countries are usually less fortunate than their counterparts in industrialized countries in terms of management information systems, personnel and other infrastructure to successfully implement the results of research studies. Therefore, the management scientists of these countries are more obliged to formulate managerial problems in such a way that “decision-framing” models thus developed require the least estimating and updating efforts possible, yet not sacrifice much from the optimal solution which otherwise could have been obtained. In this study, two formulations of an actualinventory control problem, one much easier and less costly to implement than the other, are shown to be equivalent with respect to the optimal solution. This result offers an instrument for implementation improvements in inventory control systems.