Evaluation of critical constructs for measurement of sustainable supply chain practices in lean‐agile firms of Indian origin: A hybrid ISM‐ANP approach

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the critical criteria that are influencing the successful implementation of sustainable supply chain practices (SSCP) in the lean‐agile manufacturing firm. From the systematic literature review and field professionals' opinion, various criteria that are influencing sustainable supply chain were identified. Data were collected from 16 experts and analysed by an integrated approach of “interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and analytic network process (ANP).” ISM methodology was utilized to get a hierarchical relationship between all criteria. Further, the input to the ANP matrices was taken from the output of ISM, and three organizations that differ in their principle of operation were ranked to find out the extent of implementation of SSCP in the Indian context. The obtained results indicate that “Information technology‐enabled system support (ITS), SC member's awareness and literacy (SAL), Societal issues (SIS), and Scarcity of natural resources (SNR)” were most significant constructs for successful implementation of SSCP for the case organizations.     

Improving companies' impacts on sustainable development: A nexus approach to the SDGS

Companies play a decisive role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, most of the world's sustainable development challenges are interconnected and systemic in their nature. How can companies ensure that their strategies effectively contribute to sustainable development? This interdisciplinary paper draws from the social-ecological systems, corporate sustainability, and sustainability sciences literatures, in order to introduce a nexus approach to corporate sustainability. A nexus approach induces companies to assess and manage their positive and negative interactions with the SDGs—which may arise directly and indirectly—in an integrated manner. Instead of treating SDGs as isolated silos, a nexus approach aims to advance multiple SDGs simultaneously (creating “co-benefits”) while reducing the risk that contributions to one SDG undermine progress on another (avoiding “trade-offs”). Through managing the interactions between the SDGs, a nexus approach to corporate sustainability enables companies to improve their societal and environmental impacts. This nexus approach is a step towards developing a theory of sustainability management that helps companies improve their impacts on sustainable development. Such systemic corporate sustainability strategies are sorely needed to drive progress towards achieving the SDGs and to safeguard companies from “SDG-washing.”     

Sustainability challenges in public health sector procurement: An application of interpretative structural modelling

Sustainable procurement is an integral part of public sector sustainability, but developing countries are far behind in this area. This study explores the internal and external challenges in Pakistan's public health sector that hamper sustainable procurement. With the help of experts, we found eleven key challenges that hamper sustainability in public health sector procurement. We designed an instrument and fielded it to eighty-five procurement officials in government hospitals, who verified the presence of the challenges in health sector. The interpretative structural modelling (ISM) we used to develop a hierarchy among the identified challenges reflects that government regulations and senior management's commitment—all strategic challenges—are the most critical challenges, whereas perceived ineffectiveness, third-party involvement, and the unavailability of green products—all operational challenges—are less critical. The study presents comprehensive recommendations to policymakers and future researchers related to achieving sustainable development goals in the health sector.     

Marketing challenges and organic farming in India—Does farm size matter?

The growing health consciousness among the consumer and increasing awareness about organic food has led numerous opportunities for organic producers. Along with opportunities, there also arise challenges; thus, the main purpose of this study is to explore the marketing challenges faced by the organic and conventional farmers in India. The study also aims to examine the differential association of the marketing challenges on various farm sizes. The sample comprised 400 Indian farmers including both conventional and organic producers. A sequential form of mixed‐method design, that is, qualitative–quantitative, was applied. In the first phase, an exploratory study was convened to find out the marketing challenges among organic and conventional farmers. In the second (quantitative) phase, binomial and multinomial logistics regression was applied to ascertain the differential impact of the marketing challenges on the type of farming and different farm sizes. The results of the qualitative analysis revealed six major marketing challenges faced by the farmers, namely, lack of warehousing facility, lack of price information, inadequate demand for crop, costly transportation, market price variations, and lack of government support. The results suggest there are significant differences in the marketing challenges faced by the conventional and organic farmers across farm sizes. This study is among the few to examine the marketing challenges of organic and conventional farmers in a developing country such as India. The findings will help different stakeholders to frame policies and build strategies to promote organic farming, which will lead to sustainable and responsible consumption in India.     

A journey of social sustainability in organization during MDG & SDG period: A bibliometric analysis

Organizational sustainability is a multi-facet paradigm widely used to address perennial business challenges such as climate change, industrial waste, the economies of scale and social well-being, etc. In the last three decades, extensive research has been performed on ecological or economic sustainability, ignoring the third pillar of sustainability. Given the importance of humans and society-a center-stage of inclusive development-this paper aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis to examine the growth of organizational social sustainability (OSS) from 2000 to 2021 during MDG & SDG periods. A total of 1566 publications are analyzed using Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) database. Citation networks, bibliographic coupling, and thematic mapping have explored influential work, intellectual structure, and research gaps. The study findings demonstrated that most publications are during the SDG period, with Sustainability as the most productive journal and the USA as the most contributing country. The top 10 active institutions are from Australia, France, and Spain. The top contributing authors are from France, but the USA is at the top in citations. Contributions are lacking from large portions of Africa. Keyword analysis showed that “social sustainability,” “sustainable development,” “environmental sustainability,” “sustainable supply change management,” “circular economy,” and “social life cycle assessment” are the main topics. Keyword analysis and thematic mapping show that despite increased publications in the field of organizational social sustainability, OSS research is still far from focusing on the stakeholders' benefits, satisfaction, and subjective well-being. Moreover, quantitative assessment of OSS based on sustainability standards such as Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) and Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) standards was found scant in the given field. The present research concluded with scope and opportunity for future research in the area of OSS.     

China and India in the global economy

The purpose of this overview paper is to present the economic growth in China and India over the last three decades with a specific focus on the integration of these countries into the global economy. In the first part, we briefly review the long-run process of growth and institutional change, emphasizing the reforms leading to the “opening” of the two economies. Then, we focus on key structural features and compare the recent development processes of the two countries. At the end, there are some hints about certain persisting imbalances and the sustainability of the growth processes.     

Cultivating Ecological Knowledge for Corporate Sustainability: Barilla's Innovative Approach to Sustainable Farming

In this paper, we link three theoretical perspectives – organizational knowledge, ecological knowledge and social–ecological systems – to derive new conceptions of multi‐disciplinary, multi‐tier, sustainability‐oriented knowledge. Our study examines how collaboration between pasta‐producer Barilla, the farmers/smallholders supplying the firm and scientists generated sustainability practices in the agri‐food industry by creating transformative ecological, technical and scientific knowledge. In 2010, Barilla initiated a sustainable farming project to significantly reduce the environmental impact of cultivating durum wheat, its most important raw material. Core components included replacing monoculture with crop rotation, collectively creating innovative approaches that support farmers’ decision making and generating widely accessible guidelines for sustainability‐oriented cropping knowledge and practices. These collaborative efforts initiated profound transformations within and beyond the organization's boundaries via increased production yields, reduced environmental impacts and improved sustainability of farming practices, which generated economic, social and ecological benefits for farmers, surrounding communities and the firm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Product chain collaboration for sustainability: A business case for life cycle management

Life cycle management (LCM) is frequently described as a holistic sustainability perspective along the product chain. It has mainly been a company internal practice. However, recent developments reveal a new type of LCM where companies collaborate in product‐chain‐specific initiatives. This raises questions concerning why corporations extend “corporate LCM” toward “product chain LCM”. Here, we explore rationales and challenges for corporations engaging in one such coalition: The Sustainable Transport Initiative. The study covers five companies in different product chain positions and practitioners in different corporate functions. The results show a broad range of rationales for engaging in product chain LCM, related both to self‐interest and a shared interest in the product chain. The importance of the “business case,” both for the individual companies and the product chain, is identified. The importance of sustainability managers as actors and as facilitators in discussions between managers from different corporate functions is also identified.     

Promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development through management development: What can be learned from international service learning programs?

In this article, we discuss how the human resource development (HRD) function can support corporate sustainability strategy by designing and implementing leadership development programs incorporating international service learning assignments. We describe “Project Ulysses,” an integrated service learning program that involves sending participants in teams to developing countries to work in cross‐sector partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social entrepreneurs, supporting them in their fight against pressing global problems. We present the findings of a narrative analysis of learning stories produced by Ulysses participants. Understanding how participants make sense of, and learn from, their experiences abroad provides us with insights into how service learning programs can help managers to develop the knowledge, skills, and mind‐set that will enable them to successfully support a company's global sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. We conclude by discussing the implications for leadership development, specifically how organizations can incorporate a responsibility and sustainability focus in their management development programs.     

Transdisciplinarity in Corporate Sustainability: Mapping the Field

Sustainability challenges are complex. So are the challenges that business firms encounter in their corresponding quest for corporate sustainability. Given this complexity, there is a need for new approaches to corporate sustainability management research. We discuss transdisciplinarity as such a novel approach in three steps. After showing that specialization is the primary conventional response to increasing complexity, we first briefly compare how inter‐, multi‐ and transdisciplinarity reintegrate decentralized, specialized knowledge. The second step describes how the emerging sustainability science has recently advanced the transdisciplinary methodology. Based on the two dimensions of interdisciplinarity and academia–practice collaboration, we third generate a framework for mapping existing research approaches in terms of their transdisciplinary qualities. We use this framework to identify room for novel methodologies in sustainability management research. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Offshoring and reshoring: U.S. insights and research challenges

The phenomenon of reshoring to the U.S. has received wide attention ever since it became a political platform for U.S. politicians during the last presidential election. The economic downturn, a heightened emphasis on sustainability, and increasing customer expectations for flexibility and improved cost performance drove firms to re-consider the appropriate “shoring” decision. The intent of this research note is to add a U.S.-centric perspective to the “shoring” debate.     

中国城乡融合发展的演进、反思与趋势

城市与乡村是一个有机体,城乡关系是最基本的经济社会关系,也是国家和区域内最重要的相互依赖关系,只有两者均实现可持续发展,才能相互支撑。如何防止“空壳化”及其带来的农村萧条,党的十九大报告明确提出建立健全城乡融合发展体制机制和政策体系,这是中央文件首次提出城乡融合发展的概念,也是实施乡村振兴战略、加快推进农业农村现代化的根本保障。因此,将城市和乡村置于“人口—产业—土地”整体性的网络中重新审视两者的逻辑关系,科学分析研判城乡发展的演进过程,系统甄别城乡融合机理特征,有效把握城乡融合发展的趋势规律,构建城乡融合与乡村振兴这一新型解释框架意义重大。     

When territory matters: Employer associations and changing collective goods strategies

Recent research shows employer associations strategically responding to external challenges, from collective bargaining decentralisation, by altering their offerings of “selective” goods (to directly address threats to membership levels) and of “elective” goods (to revenues). Implicit is that traditional “collective goods” are irrelevant for achieving sustainability. That literature also suggests that territorial associations are more vulnerable than sectoral ones. In this qualitative, longitudinal comparative case study, we explore why and how two territorial associations, the largest each in Italy and Australia, have pursued sustainability by also innovatively enlarging their collective goods activities. This has involved shifting from bargaining leadership to promoting economic dynamism within their territories. Using metaorganisation theory and the resource‐based view, we explain how these associations realised their strategic advantages. Our evidence suggests that innovatively developing new collective goods may be another important way associations can improve their competitive positions.     

Analyzing companies' interactions with the Sustainable Development Goals through network analysis: Four corporate sustainability imperatives

The alignment between corporate strategies and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be an indicator of long-term sustainability success. But which types of companies are most, and which are least, aligned with the SDGs? This paper scores how 67 economic activities—as a proxy for companies' operations and the goods or services they deliver—interact with 59 SDG targets. It then uses network analysis to define which activities are most and least aligned with the SDG Agenda. The results reveal four types of corporate activities, each having a strategic sustainability imperative: (i) “core activities” predominantly generate positive, while having few negative, impacts on the SDGs, challenging companies to scale their contributions to further align with the SDG Agenda; (ii) “mixed activities” have moderate/high degrees of both negative/positive impacts, posing a decoupling imperative; (iii) “opposed activities” provide few benefits yet cause significant adverse impacts, implying that companies must transform in order to better align with the SDGs; and (iv) “peripheral activities” have immaterial positive and negative impacts, creating an imperative to explore innovative avenues for creating SDG contributions. Detailed network graphs are presented that map companies' interactions with the SDGs and guide the creation of corporate sustainability strategies. Policy implications include the potential for using companies' activities as a lever for adopting a “nexus approach” to the SDGs.     

ACCESSIBILITY AND THIRD WORLD RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A Case Study of Sumatra*

Road and transport service improvements are widely recognized as important catalysts to economic development in most third world countries. When integrated with other programs which create new employment opportunities, roads and bus services enable subsistence farmers to seek off-farm salary-earning jobs. This paper examines the relationship between accessibility and economic well-being using data from rural Sumatra in Indonesia. The research relies on multiple indicators of both measures. Households in more remote rural villages are found to average appreciably lower levels of consumption expenditures. When isolated from subregional market and trade centers, consumption levels fall dramatically. The research also shows that the average value of farm produce increases with road quality, frequency of bus service, and close proximity of commerical centers. Thus, agriculture productivity is linked to both transport supply and spatial proximity factors. Additionally, the analysis shows that off-farm earnings increase when migrant households have access to both motorcycles and bicycles. Loans and subsidies for purchasing such “low tech” vehicles as bicycles, scooters, and micro-buses could prove more beneficial to many rural villagers than capital-intensive road projects. Lastly, the research suggests that the siting of transmigration settlements within reasonable proximity to regional and subregional market centers is important if the planned villages are to develop trade linkages and experience sustained economic growth.     

Impact of Chinese Agribusiness Entrepreneurs on the Local Land Market in the Russian Far East

Chinese originally migrated to the Russian Far East (RFE) to fill a labor shortage on collective farms. In more recent decades, some Chinese migrants have chosen to lease land from Russian farmers to manage their own farms. Rising soybean prices and the trade war between China and the United States have increased demand for land capable of producing soybeans. Thus, Chinese farmers in the RFE compete for land with Russians. The Chinese also contribute positively to local food security by increasing food availability and accessibility. This study uses an econometric model to analyze the impact of Chinese on local land markets in the RFE. Financial support for Russian farmers by the government depresses their demand for land; rising soybean prices and the employment of Chinese farm workers by Russian farmers encourage farm expansion, resulting in higher land prices. Selling farm produce to Chinese merchants increases the amount of land owned, cultivated, and rented by Russian farmers.     

PRINCIPLES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A PEDESTRIAN PLAN IN MEDIUM SIZE CITIES

In order to contribute to the effective humanization of the contemporary city and in line with the sustainability of urban areas, this paper focuses on primary pedestrian areas aiming to investigate and demonstrate the benefits of organization and the essential conditions of implementing “pedestrian networks”. The realization of its qualifying character in the urban environment should specify:

• ? The challenge of reinterpreting the idea of the city, due to the transformation of associated “urban forms” and “lifestyles”;
• ? The need to structure the territory, in order to promote the understanding and ownership of the different places that compose a city;
• ? The ability to generate synergies, as a means of affirming the “local” in the context of the “global” opportunities and threats.

It is, therefore, disciplinary useful to test a methodological urban planning “process” with the aim to design and manage “pedestrian networks”, applicable in a range of cities considered of medium size, according to the European classification mainly based on population criteria.     

Driving the electric bandwagon: The dynamics of incumbents' sustainable innovation

Given that entire industries face sustainability challenges, it is important to understand the dynamics that lead “firms‐in‐an‐industry” to engage in sustainable product innovation. To provide more insight into the question of how innovation activities spread from individual firm action to an industry‐wide engagement, this paper examines the automobile industry and the development of electric vehicles (EVs). The analysis covers automobile incumbents over a crucial decade for EV development in the industry, focusing on the different strategic motives that especially the so‐called “first movers” used to justify their earlier engagement. We find that EVs became a core pillar of the incumbents' technology strategies through a combination of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures. Yet, the strategic motives to engage in EVs stayed poles apart between different companies. The insights from our study are relevant for those interested in the diffusion of sustainable product innovation and in incumbent behaviour in sustainability transitions.     

Transition towards and of sustainability—Understanding sustainability as performative

Our purpose is to explore the concept of “sustainability” when understood from a performative perspective, i.e. as a concept that is filled with meaning across time. Drawing on a 10 year-long study of the digital footprint of Stockholm Royal Seaport, claimed to be northern Europe's largest sustainable urban development district, we show that “sustainability” emerged as the project became associated with particular places, projects, histories, and technologies. This means that “sustainability” was local in that it was situated in the particular spatial context of the project; temporal in that it was situated in a particular time; and political in that it expressed particular values and perspectives. The study contributes to explaining why “sustainability” remains—and always will remain—a contested concept, which is why sustainability transitions are complex. Consequently, we suggest that the transition towards sustainability always involves the transition of sustainability, something that needs to be acknowledged in order for a transition to actually become sustainable.     

Comparison of municipalities considering environmental sustainability via neutrosophic DEMATEL based TOPSIS

Considering the increasing risk of various events to the environment, environmental sustainability has taken much more attention both by the academics and practitioners than the other topics. Every organization has its own responsibilities. However, public institutions have a more important role, since they have direct effect on all the community considering environmental sustainability. At this point, the performance evaluation of the municipalities becomes important and enables an effective management by not only indicating the existing status of the municipalities but also revealing the gaps for improvement. Hence, regarding the importance of environmental sustainability and performance evaluation, this study firstly provides the environmental sustainability dimensions with related indicators and presents an integrated methodology based on Neutrosophic Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (N-DEMATEL) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for the performance comparison of municipalities. Different from the classical DEMATEL, N-DEMATEL addresses the inherent ambiguity and indeterminacy of decision making process while revealing the importance of factors considering the interaction between them. Afterwards, TOPSIS is used to determine the rank of the municipalities. So as to show the applicability of the proposed methodology, an application is performed in the district municipalities of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.