The impact of adopting customization policy and sustainability for improving consumer service in a dual-channel retailing

In recent decades sustainability and dual-route retailing have been adopted by many big industries. Companies are now bound to maintain such strategies that fulfill the sustainable goals developed by the United Nations. Industries face a huge penalty if carbon emissions exceed a certain boundary. Moreover, factories should maintain sufficient flow in retail chains and product quality. This paper demonstrates 3-pillar sustainability in dual channel retailing, empowering firms to integrate the financial-economic pillar with the non-financial (environmental, social, and ethical) pillar. The core product is made available through the traditional channel and customized products are through online channels. The model is enabling the customers with customization provisions where they can influence the products. Thus, as a novel approach, the article incorporates a presumed threshold limit on the product's (standard and customized) selling price difference. Due to customization, a new product is developed which needs extensive quality checks. The study introduces an investment in checking the quality of the customized product which reduces the probability of customization defects exponentially. Additionally, current research adapts the carbon emission cost, penalties charged to a firm for overshooting the limit, and social costs in a smart supply chain. It also exemplifies that production is directly proportional to financial investments in meeting sustainability objectives. The numerical analysis reflects that as production increases, penalty costs decrease at a significant rate but after reaching optimal production penalty cost again starts to increase. It is observed that the downfall of penalty is 20% more for the single-channel than dual. Adaptation of the customization policy makes the retailing strategy more cost-effective. The model exemplifies that it is more economical to adopt dual-channel retailing compared to single-channel as there is approximately a 14.0625% reduction in total cost in dual-channel retailing. Moreover, an 80% improved quality is observed with a financial investment, which improves consumer satisfaction.     

Addressing the sustainable development through sustainable procurement: What factors resist the implementation of sustainable procurement in Pakistan?

Sustainable Public Procurement is an integral part of sustainable development because of ever increasing government expenditures. Most of the developing countries lack the required infrastructure which may support public sector sustainability. The aim of this study is to assess the critical factors which resist the implementation of sustainable procurement in public sector of Pakistan. We used Interpretive Structural Model to investigate and rank the interrelationships among different factors of sustainable procurement. With the help of literature and Likert scale instrument, we found twelve key barriers that resist sustainable procurement implementation. We also examined tender documents of 75 different public sector universities of Pakistan but found absence of sustainability element in the documents. External factors namely government legislation and stakeholders' pressure are found most critical barriers as compared to inter organizational factors. The study is also important to highlight the hurdles in the way of sustainable development. First, the government must introduce rules and regulations to implement the sustainable procurement. Stakeholders and donors must put pressure on organizations for adopting sustainable procurement. Sustainability education should be made mandatory part of curriculum and employees should be given regular training on sustainability. Further, public procurement policies at government and institutional levels are required to be revisited towards a circular economy.     

Advancing environmental productivity: Organizational mindfulness and strategies

This study investigates the importance of mindfulness‐based organization systems and policies on the organization's continuous efforts to become a greener company. The study is devised as a pooled cross‐sectional time series analysis of productivity in energy consumption, water utilization, and waste generation and recycling of U.S. companies. The data set taken from U.S. Newsweek 500 recorded 600 companies dispersed into 63 industries during the period of 2012–2014 and provided 1,498 company–industry–year observations. The study found that systems and policies (e.g., deployment of third‐party auditors for its environmental metrics report; linkage of the remuneration of company's senior executive team with the achievement of environmental performance targets; and establishment of a committee at the Board of Directors' level whose mandate includes sustainability of the company in environment‐ and resource‐related matters) connect the company's mindfulness to its effort in improving the environmental quality through the company's productivity in energy consumption, water utilization, and waste generation and recycling. The relationships are positive and significant. Also, systems and policies serve as a motivator for the firm to continue to improve upon the current achievements. The study emphasizes the importance of translating organizational and individual mindfulness into organization policies and systems in order to motivate the organization to continuously improve its productivity in energy consumption, water utilization, and waste generation and recycling leading to improvements in environmental quality.     

铬渣的无害化处理和综合利用

铬渣产量大、毒性剧烈,是严重污染生态环境和危害人类健康的危险废物.本文介绍了铬渣各种无害化处理方法的解毒机理、工艺过程和应用实践,阐述了对铬渣进行综合利用的途径,并就铬渣的防治措施提出了建议.     

鸡蛋壳制备乙酸钙冰雪融化剂的研究

以鸡蛋壳为原料,对高温煅烧分解蛋壳、中和法制备乙酸钙(CA)的最佳反应条件进行了研究,试验结果表明:在所选参数下,其产量最大.即反应温度为50℃,配料摩尔比为CaO:HAc=1:2.8,乙酸浓度为15 mol/L,石灰乳浓度(以氧化钙计)为1.3 mol/L.产品融冰试验表明:CA在环境温度为-10℃以上使用时,其融冰效果较好.     

济钢钢渣综合利用现状和建议

介绍了济钢钢渣综合利用的现状和国内比较先进的钢渣处理技术，对钢渣利用存在的问题提出了建议。     

信息服务模式及网络利用

当今的用户获取信息的渠道越来越广,这使得信息服务面临着多方面的竞争。对于从事信息服务的工作者而言,如何让信息真正有效地服务于各行各业和广大用户,以及依据什么因素来选择恰当的服务模式与推动模式的更新都是非常重要的。文章初步探讨了信息服务模式的变化,以及网络在信息服务中的利用。     

浅论知识经济时代的人才观

知识经济是二十一世纪的主导经济。创新是知识经济的灵魂。知识经济时代的人才必须具备创新意识、创新精神和创新能力。本着重从知识经济的含义、特征及对人才素质的要求，阐述知识经济时代的人才观。     

影子价格两种定义的统一性及其经济学含义

通过应用库恩-塔克定理,本文论证了线性规划对偶解和一般数学规划的拉格朗日乘子这两种影子价格定义的统一性。由于非线性规划比线性规划更具有普遍性,本文的结论为深入讨论影子价格的经济学意义提供了极大方便。完全竞争是影子价格等于机会成本和市场价格的充分条件。但在不完全竞争条件下,影子价格一般不等于机会成本和市场价格,也不代表资源的最优配置价格,它反映的只是企业的资源利用效率。     

话语民主理论下可持续发展中的公民参与

可持续发展目标的追求需要公民的集体判断，公民参与作为可持续发展的基本原则之一，有利于实现可持续发展的目标，也是为避免“公地悲剧”尴尬局面的必然选择。从话语民主理论的角度来看，我国可持续发展进程中存在着公民参与可持续发展的不完善性和公民淡漠的问题，以及官僚式的独白现象。因此，要构建公共能量场确保可持续发展政策执行过程公民话语的正当性和合法性，实行一些人的对话参与可持续发展，通过“重复性实践”使可持续发展中的公民参与制度化。