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.     

The impact of consumer decision‐making styles on consumer confusion in Mauritius: An empirical analysis

This article investigates the effects of consumer decision‐making styles on consumer confusion and harm. While consumer confusion has been well documented in the literature, this investigation attempts to bridge our understanding on its relationship with consumer decision‐making styles. Empirical data was collected from a field survey where 400 consumers selected at 20 supermarkets in Mauritius were asked to respond to a questionnaire measuring three variables under study: consumer confusion, consumer decision‐making styles, and situational factors. Findings from the MANOVA parametric test showed that there is a significant difference between consumer decision‐making styles and consumer confusion. Even when covariate situational factors were controlled through the parametric test MANCOVA, results still showed a significant difference between consumer decision‐making styles and consumer confusion. More specifically, ANCOVA tests showed that the findings were specifically significant for three types of confusion: product confusion, packaging confusion, and product complexity. The study tends to confirm that a consumer's style of decision making does impact on consumer confusion.     

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.     

Comparison of SML and GMM estimators for the random coefficient logit model using aggregate data

A simulated maximum likelihood (SML) estimator for the random coefficient logit model using aggregate data is found to be more efficient than the widely used generalized method of moments estimator (GMM) of Berry et?al. (Econometrica 63:841?C890, 1995). In particular, the SML estimator is better than the GMM estimator in recovery of heterogeneity parameters which are often of central interest in marketing research. With the GMM estimator, the analyst must determine what moment conditions to use for parameter identification, especially the heterogeneity parameters. With the SML estimator, the moment conditions are automatically determined as the gradients of the log-likelihood function, and these are the most efficient ones if the model is correctly specified. Another limitation of the GMM estimator is that the product market shares must be strictly positive while the SML estimator can handle zero market share observations. Properties of the SML and GMM estimators are demonstrated in simulated data and in data from the US photographic film market.     

Positive and Negative Corporate Social Responsibility, Financial Leverage, and Idiosyncratic Risk

Existing research on the financial implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for firms has predominantly focused on positive aspects of CSR, overlooking that firms also undertake actions and initiatives that qualify as negative CSR. Moreover, studies in this area have not investigated how both positive and negative CSR affect the financial risk of firms. As such, in this research, the authors provide a framework linking both positive and negative CSR to idiosyncratic risk of firms. While investigating these relationships, the authors also analyze the moderating role of financial leverage of firms. Overall, analysis of secondary information for firms from multiple industries over the years 2000–2009 shows that CSR has a significant effect on the idiosyncratic risk of firms, with positive CSR reducing risk and negative CSR increasing it. Results also show that the reduction in risk from positive CSR is not guaranteed, with firms having high levels of financial leverage witnessing lower idiosyncratic risk reduction.     

The relationship between information technology capability,inventory efficiency,and shareholder wealth: A firm-level empirical analysis

Inventories represent an important strategic resource for firms, with implications for shareholder wealth. As such, firms expend considerable effort in managing their inventories efficiently. Among other factors, information technology (IT) capability can play an important role in enabling inventory efficiency and financial performance. However, insight into the chain-of-effects linking IT capability, inventory efficiency, and stock market returns and risk remains limited. In this paper, we provide a conceptual model outlining the relationships between these constructs. Next, we evaluate the model using secondary information on firms from multiple industries across the 10-year time period of 2000–2009. Our analysis confirms that firms’ IT capability plays a significant role in enhancing their inventory efficiency, which, in turn, is observed to increase stock market returns. Our results also reveal that firms’ IT capability directly reduces their stock market risk and enhances their stock market returns. Taken together, these findings, along with the conceptual model that we advance, have important research and managerial implications.     

What do we know about business strategy and environmental research? Insights from Business Strategy and the Environment

Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE) is a premier journal dedicated to interdisciplinary research that advances business practice leading to improvements in environmental performance. Using big data analytics, this review examines the intellectual structure and the drivers of research impact of BSE in the scholarly domain. The bibliometric results suggest three major findings. First, the top three countries contributing to BSE are the United Kingdom, the United States, and China. Second, BSE's research manifests through five thematic clusters, namely, business strategy and sustainability; corporate governance and sustainability reporting; green marketing and pro-environmental behavior; innovation and environmental policy; and environmental management systems. Finally, BSE's research impact in terms of citations is significantly influenced by author affiliation (United States); article age (older), appearance (lead article and special issue), length (longer), and method (mix methods); title length (shorter title); and number of keywords (more keywords) and references (more references). Implications for BSE's readers and future contributors are discussed.     

A systematic literature review to integrate lean,agile, resilient,green and sustainable paradigms in the supply chain management

The main focus of this study is to conduct a systematic literature review to integrate lean, agile, resilient, green and sustainable (LARGS) paradigms in the supply chain (SC) domain. To achieve this aim, several research questions were designed: First, how to locate LARGS research in context of SC domain? For this, it is important to understand which types of research articles should be selected for the study? Further, where such studies were conducted (geographical location)? Second, what is the focus of research in LARGS paradigm in SCs? For this, it is important to study, which types of industries or sectors have been targeted in literature? In addition, which tools and techniques have been used mostly? Third, what are the current trends in the relationships of LARGS paradigms, among themselves, and with SC performance measures? Fourth, what are the emerging issues, unexplored areas in this field, based on these what could be future research avenues in this subject domain have been proposed? A total of 160 relevant articles published during 1999–2019 were used for analysis. Based on analysis, findings are summarised, and main research issues and possible future research directions in LARGS paradigms in SCs are highlighted.     

Managing healthcare waste for sustainable environmental development: A hybrid decision approach

Healthcare waste management (HCWM) has become the most concerned issue for hospitals to enhance their environmental performance while reducing the waste disposal costs. The present study aims to standardize the evaluation criteria for the stakeholders to ensure sustainable environmental development by safe disposal of infectious healthcare waste (HCW). The present study applied the fuzzy-Delphi method to scrutinize the criteria identified from the literature and experts' opinions and resulted in 20 subcriteria under the following six main dimensions: experience, relationship, environmental factors, technology and qualification, economic factors, and firm's capabilities. Further, this study proposed a hybrid approach based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) under fuzzy environment to analyze the importance and interrelationships of these listed criteria. The study also showed that the experts have given approximately 70% weightage to three main criteria: firms' capabilities, economic factors, and technology and qualification. The implications of the study would help the healthcare administration and Pollution Control Boards to prepare check sheets for recording HCWM practices and, hence, contribute to sustainable environmental development in an efficient way. Understanding the prioritized cause-group criteria would further protect hospitals' environment from the spread of infection caused by the HCW in the long run.     

Performance evaluation of reverse logistics in food supply chains in a circular economy using system dynamics

Supply chains are composed of multiple stakeholders who have complex interrelationships. In addition, the forward and reverse flow of materials, information, human resources, and finance occurs among different stakeholders in closing the loop of supply chains. Reverse logistics (RL) activities are gaining importance in terms of size and quantity due to both economic and environmental concerns. These flows in RL in supply chains are both dynamic and complex in nature. Further, the environmental impact of RL activities has barely been considered in holistic way in available literature. In this study, a system dynamics model has been developed to analyze and comprehend the green performance of RL activities by predicting the environmental impact of RL activities. The proposed model has been validated by a case study in the context of a food supply chain. In the company where the case study is carried out, the environmental effects of RL activities have been analyzed. These activities in a food supply chain in terms of CO₂ (carbon dioxide), NO_x (nitrogen oxide), SO₂ (sulfur dioxide), and PM (particulate matter) emissions have been predicted through a system dynamics model for the years 2020 to 2024. The proposed methodology is applied in a food supply context, a major player in retail business, especially in emerging economies. According to our findings, the RL activities in a food supply chain can significantly contribute to green performance management by minimizing food waste and loss; hence, the environmental impacts of such activities should be closely examined from a managerial perspective.