How and when environmental orientation drives corporate sustainable development in a cross-national buyer–supplier dyad

This study aims at relating the role of environmental orientation to corporate sustainable development within a cross-national buyer–supplier dyad. To this end, it specifically proposes and empirically tests a model delineating how the international buyer's environmental orientation would influence its green supplier development (GSD) activities, then its outsourcing supplier's green product strategies (GPS), and finally total relationship value (TRV) of the entire buyer–supplier dyad. It also examines how supplier overall information technology advancement (SOITA) would further moderate the aforementioned influences. Survey results derived from 202 buyer–supplier dyads have provided empirical support for all the hypothesized relationships of the proposed model. To summarize, the findings show that international buyers' internal and external environmental orientations both serve as a major driver for their GSD, which, in turn, significantly advances outsourcing suppliers' practice of GPS and consequently enhances TRV. Moreover, this study has demonstrated that SOITA exerts a significant and positive moderating effect on the GSD–GPS link. Overall, this study provides important insights into understanding the complex and contingent processes underlying the influence of the international buyer's environmental orientation on the joint performance of the dyad.     

如何将生态与文化融入城市发展：基于 英文期刊文献的系统综述

当代建成环境规划设计学界对于可持续城市发展的一般性目标存在相当共识，但在处理城市、生态与文化三者关系上却尚未提出系统性的方法论框架。对7个相关重要英文期刊进行查阅，以期找到可资借鉴的理论方法。采用系统性文献综述法，发现25篇相关文章，按照作者背景、物质载体、研究方法和建议策略4个方面进行归纳总结，讨论了3个未来研究亟待加强的方面，包括开展国际交流合作、拓展对象类型和相关研究方法、丰富对文化内涵的理解，指出了研究在文献搜索范围上的三方面局限性。     

基于业务流程类型的外包供应商评价研究

本文将组织中的非核心业务流程划分为关键型、支持型、通用型三种类型,制定了包含资质、能力、合作三个维度的外包供应商评价体系,并说明了不同类型的非核心业务流程在决策时可选用的指标。     

Sustainable supply chain management and partner engagement to manage climate change information

Climate change poses significant new risks and challenges for businesses and their supply chains. Additionally, in many sectors, Scope 3 indirect greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the sourcing and distribution of goods and services are larger than firms' own carbon footprints. Here we study how firms engage their key stakeholders in their supply chains in obtaining, processing, and transferring relevant climate change‐related information designed to overcome information asymmetry and drive sustainable development. Grounded in organisational information‐processing theory (OIPT), we draw on data from the Carbon Disclosure Project's Climate Change Supply Chain initiative for a qualitative content analysis of a large sample of global firms. Consistent with OIPT, we find that although firms primarily engage their supply chain partners in a variety of ways to reduce information uncertainty around indirect emissions data, effectively interpreting and managing broader sustainability information equivocality becomes a growing priority. Our findings further suggest that firms engage suppliers, customers, and other supply chain partners through basic, transactional, and collaborative types of engagement. We contribute to literatures on interorganisational information processing and sustainable supply chain management by providing a more detailed understanding of how firms engage supply chain partners in the context of climate change.     

基于DEMATEL对煤炭企业供应商关键绩效指标间的关系分析

依据企业自身特点和要素间的关系构建评价指标体系,采用DEMATEL方法对淮南矿业集团的供应商选择评价进行研究。通过分析关键绩效指标间的逻辑关系和直接影响关系,揭示系统内要素的结构关系,为供应商的选择与供应链竞争力的提升提出了相应的建议。     

Two-period supply chain coordination strategies with ambidextrous sustainable innovations

This study considers a manufacturer with ambidextrous sustainable innovation capability selling products in environmentally conscious market through an independent retailer in a two-period game setting. We design a two-period game theoretic and dyadic supply chain (SC) model considering exploitative and exploratory nature of environmental innovations. We study five different contract types, namely, wholesale price contract, vertical Nash game structure, cost sharing contract, revenue sharing contract and two-part tariff contract. We demonstrate the impact of market sensitivity towards sustainable innovation and cost parameters on optimal level of decision parameters. The equilibrium results reveal that a suitably designed two-part tariff contract can be used to achieve coordination in a fragmented SC. The equilibrium results assist managers to optimise the SC based on the two-period contract model. The results obtained in this study can help the decision-makers to take decisions on investment in the ambidextrous sustainable innovation under different types of contract structures.     

Transmission of CSR requirements in supply chains: investigating the multiple mediating effects of CSR activities in SMEs

In recent years, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the separate areas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and supply chain management (SCM). However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the transmission of CSR requirements from a small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) perspective. Drawing on institutional and innovation diffusion theories, this paper investigates to what extent the CSR requirements of customers influence the CSR activities of SMEs and their CSR requirements toward their own suppliers. Multiple mediation analysis was performed on data from a sample of 146,060 French SMEs. The findings indicate that the CSR requirements of customers have a direct negative effect on SMEs’ CSR requirements toward suppliers. However, the relationship becomes positive when we take into account the mediating role of the SMEs’ own CSR activities (i.e. economic, social and environmental activities). Furthermore, the study reveals that the indirect effect through economic CSR activities is the greatest, followed by social and then environmental CSR activities. Our main contribution is that implementing CSR activities within SMEs is a necessary step so that SMEs can be brokers in the transmission of CSR requirements in the supply chain.     

Sustainability reporting,materiality, and accountability assessment in the airport industry

Air travel is, nowadays, recognized as being one of the most popular modes of transport. Air transport is among the most significant contributors to the world gross domestic product and is accountable for a great environmental and social impact. Driven by the well‐established sustainability discourse and the vital role businesses can play in disseminating the sustainable development concept, this paper attempted to map airport industry's most material operational aspects and assess airport operators' accountability level on disclosing corporate information regarding airports' economic, environmental, and social performance. In this context, 33 reports and 903 material issues representing 193 international airports were reviewed and assessed, and a methodology for benchmarking the accountability level of best reporting airport operators was developed, showcasing materiality assessment as a useful management tool for strengthening airport operators' business strategy and enhancing their corporate performance. The paper indicated that (a) customer focus (i.e., health, safety and satisfaction), economic viability, and business continuity and preparedness are operational aspects of high materiality and (b) the disclosure level, especially concerning specific performance indicators, is still moderate. In conclusion, this study has shown that materiality assessment gains ground as a management tool among airports' management teams and the completeness of Sustainability reports is positively correlated with the “level” of adherence as described by the Global Reporting Initiative.     

Insider perspectives on growth: Implications for a nondichotomous understanding of ‘sustainable’ and conventional entrepreneurship

The aim of this paper is to offer an alternative to a priori theorising in research on firm-level growth and environmental sustainability. We outline an approach that combines John Shotter's phenomenology with post-hoc application of the Bourdieusian concepts of habitus, practices and social capital. This is illustrated empirically through a study conducted with a small group of Finnish entrepreneurs, which examines their lived experience of growth alongside its practical application in their ventures. The entrepreneurs' responses reveal holistic perspectives on growth that extend beyond the economic to incorporate personal commitments to norms of collectivity and well-being for themselves and others. The paper offers an exploratory but empirically grounded approach, arguing that a combination of insiders' perspectives and attention to the social embedding of economic activity challenge the dichotomous distinctions between sustainable and conventional entrepreneurship and reveal a degree of commonality that would not be evident via conventional categorisations on the basis of features such as business model type.     

The Role of Green Collaborative Strategies in Improving Environmental Sustainability in Supply Chains: Insights from a Case Study

This article aims to quantify to what extent collaborative strategies are more effective than internal or organization‐level actions to green supply chains. In this regard, the impact of decisions made at different stages of a supply chain in a product's carbon footprint is quantified. Organizational and product carbon footprints are calculated using the Compound Method Based on Financial Accounts (MC3). The results underline that concentrating reduction efforts in some stages of the supply chain is more effective than implementing individual actions by the participants. Collaboration among the participants is needed to decide what practices are implemented, at what stage they are needed and how they are to be implemented. This article adds to the literature on supply chains and sustainability. Previous research suggests that collaborative strategies have great potential for reducing the carbon footprint of products, while indicating the need for empirical research to support this statement. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment