This work makes a case for the integration of the increasingly popular and largely separate topics of Industry 4.0 and the circular economy (CE). The paper extends the state-of-the-art literature by ...proposing a pioneering roadmap to enhance the application of CE principles in organisations by means of Industry 4.0 approaches. Advanced and digital manufacturing technologies are able to unlock the circularity of resources within supply chains; however, the connection between CE and Industry 4.0 has not so far been explored. This article therefore contributes to the literature by unveiling how different Industry 4.0 technologies could underpin CE strategies, and to organisations by addressing those technologies as a basis for sustainable operations management decision-making. The main results of this work are: (a) a discussion on the mutually beneficial relationship between Industry 4.0 and the CE; (b) an in-depth understanding of the potential contributions of smart production technologies to the ReSOLVE model of CE business models; (c) a research agenda for future studies on the integration between Industry 4.0 and CE principles based on the most relevant management theories.
•The ability to innovate increases sustainable business performance.•Green innovations are hard to imitate in the market.•Green technology companies should not focus only on creating products.•They ...should also provide business solutions to end-users.
In response to greater environmental awareness among stakeholders, companies have become increasingly interested in practices such as eco-innovation. Despite the expanding literature on eco-innovation, scholars have so far paid little attention to the study of eco-innovation and its impact on business sustainability, particularly considering the mediating effect of service innovation capability. To fill this research gap, this study extends the concepts of green business by investigating an original conceptual framework, which proposes that the capacity for service innovation has a mediating effect on the relationship between sustainable organizational performance and environmental innovation. This conceptual framework is subjected to empirical testing, implemented through a survey involving 95 Malaysian firms which use green technology. Data is collected through both postal and online questionnaires and analyzed through structural equation modeling using partial least squares. Respondents for this paper were identified using the directories of MyHijau (2013) and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, 2014. The results suggest that: (1) eco-innovations unlock better sustainable performance; (2) service innovation capability has a partially significant positive mediating effect; (3) service innovation capability ultimately benefits companies by allowing them to differentiate through an emphasis on value creation; (4) service capability can also act as a business strategy to create barriers to new entry by competitors. Thus, eco-innovation and service innovation capability tend to represent significant intangible resources and enable an organization to achieve long-term objectives, competitive advantage and business sustainability. To date, this is the first study relating eco-innovation, service innovation capability and sustainability performance in the Malaysian corporate context and using a specific sample of companies that make use of green technologies.
This study examines direct and indirect effects among stakeholder pressure, green dynamic capabilities, green innovation, and performance of emerging market small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). ...Using survey questionnaires, we collected multisource data from 248 SMEs in the manufacturing sector. We used the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach (PLS‐PM) to examine the hypotheses of the study. The study results indicate that stakeholder pressure influences green dynamic capability, green dynamic capability influences green innovation, and green innovation influences firm performance. Furthermore, results also suggest that green dynamic capability mediates the influence of stakeholder pressure on green innovation and green innovation mediates the impact of green dynamic capability on firm performance. The findings of the study suggest critical implications for both theory and practice.
Radical technological advancements and the relentless progression of climate change compel organisations to ensure their workforce consistently exercise their creativity toward innovative green ...initiatives. These endeavours are essential to achieve the United Nations' (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). To do so, organisations require competencies fundamental to smart technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms (STARA). STARA competencies are relevant for leaders to bolster green organisational innovative evidence (GOIE). GOIE can help to attract potential investors keen on advancing the UN's SDG agenda on environmental sustainability. However, eclipsed by a volatile environment, and despite the green innovation potential of several manufacturing organisations, investors are reluctant to invest and commit funds without evidence of green innovation. We therefore, investigate how leader STARA competence (LSC), green creativity components (task motivation, creativity skills and expertise) and environmental dynamism can aid organisations to boost their GOIE. Our key findings are as follows: (a) though green task motivation shows a stronger association with green creativity skills, LSC has a large influence on green creativity skills; (b) green creativity skills exert a strong influence on GOIE while also playing a competitive and complimentary mediating role in our model and (c) environmental dynamism is negatively associated with green creativity skills and GOIE. Furthermore, to validate indirect (v) effects size in mediation analysis, we propose a new and more approachable benchmark for v effect size estimations. Organisational and environmental policy implications are discussed.
Green human resource management (HRM) practices can help organizations align their business strategies with the environment. Anchored in the resource‐based view of the firm, this study examines the ...influence of green HRM practices on sustainability using cross‐sectional data obtained from 112 large manufacturing firms in Malaysia. The results show that green recruitment and green training have positive effects on sustainability. However, green analysis and job description, green selection, green performance assessment, and green reward were not found to have any significant influence on sustainability. The model presented in this paper offers useful insights into the positive role of green HRM in the sustainability of manufacturing firms, and as previous studies exploring the link between green HRM and sustainability using empirical data from Malaysian manufacturing firms are scarce, this research is of significant importance for scholars and practitioners. The scope of this study focuses on emerging economies with a limited number of variables that are contextual and specific to the Malaysian economy. Future research could explore the relationship between green HRM and other variables that may contribute to the present framework in other contexts. Future studies may also consider each dimension of green HRM, or indeed other elements of green HRM, in relation to the different aspects of sustainability.
This study aims to examine the effect of the combination of corporate environmental strategy, top management commitment, and environmental uncertainty, with a focus on the role of environmental ...management accounting (EMA), on corporate environmental performance. Using an online survey, we collect the sample data of 107 responses in ISO 14001 certified companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The empirical evidence shows that there is a positive and significant influence between those organizational resources (corporate environmental strategy, top management commitment, and environmental uncertainty) on the use of EMA, which in turn can improve the environmental performance of companies. These findings indicate that EMA is a useful and important tool for providing information to achieve superior corporate environmental performance in Indonesian firms and the findings also suit for companies operating in other countries in terms of developing capabilities with regards to perceived environmental uncertainty to be able to manage EMA tools and, as a consequence, to improve organizational environmental performance.
The adoption of the circular economy (CE) at the firm level has rarely intersected with human resource management (HRM) – here called ‘the human side of organizations’ – and these two fields remain ...largely separate areas of knowledge. While the literature on the CE is expanding, discussion of its implementation in organizations is, so far, rare, along with exploration of the necessary alignment of the CE with green human resource management (GHRM). In this article, we extend the state-of-the-art literature on CE business models through the inclusion of the ‘human side’ of such issues. This goal is met by offering an original integrative GHRM framework for organizations developing CE. The theoretical lenses of stakeholders' theory and the resource based view (RBV) form the foundation of this framework, which represents a ‘middle range theory’. We underline the practices and dimensions of the links between GHRM and the ‘ReSOLVE’ CE model. Through an exploration of this integrative framework, we propose a future research agenda along with original research propositions. Furthermore, the middle-range integrated theoretical framework we propose can serve both academics and practitioners in developing understanding of the human resource management (HRM) and change management aspects of the CE.
•Circular economy requires support from green human resources.•We use stakeholders' theory and resource based view to discuss this topic.•We add a discussion on the “human side” circular economy.•A framework for green human resource management and circular economy is proposed.•The framework suggests a number of original research propositions for future investigation.
Sustainability is an essential goal for companies to pursue alongside their efforts to cope with a period of economic crisis and uncertainty. Technologically mature manufacturing sectors need to ...preserve their competitiveness, and process and product innovation may no longer be sufficient to stimulate demand. Strategic innovation is one possible option to address this challenge. However, methods to implement this new paradigm are still underexplored. This paper analyzes the Italian and Spanish ceramic tile industries as a prime example of process digitalization and environmental practices in the European manufacturing context. Through the application of multi-criteria analysis, this study aims to investigate the possibilities provided by strategic innovation to companies in this sector, in order to be able to compete with producers in emerging countries who use price strategies as the only lever of their competitiveness. To this end, dimensions relating to operations, market, economy, society and the environment are considered herein. Our results show that the multidimensionality of industrial organizations should stimulate manufacturing firms not only to look at customer needs from a price point of view, but to commit to including social and environmental attributes in their products, such as the green-circular premium and sustainability certification. These two practices represent strategic innovation. This presents a complex challenge involving widespread change that concerns entrepreneurship, management and industrial policies.
•Industrial districts enrich socially industrial organization.•Sustainability is an enabler of competitive advantage in manufacturing.•Competitive advantage requires recognition a green-circular premium.•Recognition is based on a sustainability certification by performance classes.•Differential product taxation is a policy to be implemented.
While the circular economy (CE) attracts attention from scholars and practitioners, the concept has been challenged by claims that the CE may be seen as a vague concept, or a new label for old green ...management practices. We propose a new approach to study the effects of the CE on company performance: circular product design (CPD). Consequently, this work investigates how Industry 4.0 technologies and stakeholder pressure influence CPD and, in turn, impact on company performance. Data were obtained from firms which develop products in the electric–electronic and equipment (EEE) sectors in Brazil. Our research results indicate that (i) the application of Industry 4.0 technologies favors CPD, in particular artificial intelligence and big data analytics; (ii) pressure from stakeholders can encourage the adoption of circular strategies, specially from suppliers because they are responsible for developing and delivering smart components; and (iii) although the literature may be seen as controversial, there is a positive relationship with regard to the impacts of CE adoption on market performance. Among its main implications, the article also suggests a set of design strategies oriented towards the development of products for the CE.
Orienting consumers toward organic eco-friendly beauty products is a societal challenge that resonates with growing environmental concerns following COP 21, when entrepreneurs in the cosmetic ...industry initiated ambitious plans to increase the proportion of natural components in their products. This study examines how green factors impact customers’ intention to purchase premium organic beauty products. We explore the mediating roles of trust and attitude on this purchase intention, using the SOR paradigm and the dual factor theory, an original approach.
Data was collected from 398 respondents using convenience sampling and analysed using the IBM SPSS 22 version and AMOS 22 version package applying structural equation modelling. We show that the mediating role of trust and attitude is of the utmost importance to ensure a sustainable orientation of customers toward organic products. The findings suggest (a) green ads, green brand image and perceived consumer effectiveness positively influence consumers' attitude toward luxury organic beauty products; (b) LOHAS consumption tendency does not impact consumers' attitudes; (c) trust has a significantly negative impact on the consumer's attitude; and (d) likewise, consumers' attitude mediate the intention to purchase luxury organic beauty products. The research has significant implications for understanding India's premium organic beauty goods market and for companies to develop new strategies to market their organic cosmetics. The study also encourages policymakers to provide necessary subsidies to new organic beauty entrepreneurs.
•We examine how green factors impact purchase of premium organic beauty products.•We use the SOR paradigm and the dual factor theory.•Green ads, green brand image and perceived effectiveness increase consumption.•Trust has a significantly negative impact on the consumer's attitude.•Attitude mediates the intention to purchase luxury organic beauty products.