Reverse Logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain Management (RL&CLSCM) are universally recognised as two environmentally friendly practices that could help in greening conventional supply chains. The ...popularity of these fields of research has led to the evolution of a vast number of publications in the literature. Various journals have so far contributed to the advancement of the field, with the International Journal of Production of Research (IJPR) being one of the most prominent contributed journals. To celebrate the 55th volume anniversary of IJPR, this review study aims to investigate the studies in the area of RL&CLSCM published in IJPR. The paper presents a thorough bibliometric and content analysis of 94 studies that were published in IJPR from 2000 until July 2017. The studies initially underwent a rigorous bibliometric and mapping analysis that helped to identify their characteristics. Subsequently, the contents of the sample papers were evaluated thoroughly. The content analysis led to classification of the papers into two main categories and sub-categories, and then to rigorous identification of the papers' attributes. The bibliometric and content analysis disclosed several research gaps that remain to be addressed in IJPR.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the way in which blockchain technology is likely to influence future supply chain practices and policies.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of ...both academic and practitioner literature was conducted. Multiple accounts of blockchain adoption within industry were also consulted to gain further insight.
Findings
While blockchain technologies remain in their infancy, they are gaining momentum within supply chains, trust being the predominant factor driving their adoption. The value of such technologies for supply chain management lies in four areas: extended visibility and traceability, supply chain digitalisation and disintermediation, improved data security and smart contracts. Several challenges and gaps in understanding and opportunities for further research are identified by this research. How a blockchain-enabled supply chain should be configured has also been explored from a design perspective.
Research limitations/implications
This systematic review focuses on the diffusion of blockchain technology within supply chains, and great care was taken in selecting search terms. However, the authors acknowledge that their choice of terms may have excluded certain blockchain articles from this review.
Practical implications
This paper offers valuable insight for supply chain practitioners into how blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt existing supply chain provisions as well as a number of challenges to its successful diffusion.
Social implications
The paper debates the poential social and economic impact brought by blockchain.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first studies to examine the current state of blockchain diffusion within supply chains. It lays a firm foundation for future research.
Greening the supply chain is an increasingly important concern for many business enterprises and a challenge for logistics management. Critical functions within green supply chain management are ...internal improvements and selection of green suppliers. This study proposes a novel, hybrid model that addresses dependent relationships between various criteria and the vague information coming from decision-makers. The Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique structures the relationships among criteria, thereby constructing an influential network relationship map (INRM). Meanwhile the DEMATEL-based, analytical network process (ANP) method aids in obtaining influential weights of the criteria. Decision-makers may hold diverse opinions and preferences due to incomplete information, differences in knowledge or simply conflicts that are inherent between various departments. This can make it difficult to judge the performance of alternatives. One remedy is to apply a modified COmplex PRoportional ASsessment of alternatives with Grey relations. Next, this is applied to improve each criterion for integration of the performance values obtained in closing the aspiration level from different expert opinions based on INRM. An empirical example using data from a Taiwanese electronics company is provided to demonstrate our proposed method. The results can provide firms with a knowledge-based understanding of the source of some problems, thus reducing the performance gaps and closing the aspiration levels. Finally, there is a discussion on certain managerial implications.
Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become one of the most important goals across the globe due to their significant role in the economic prosperity and human well-being. ...Recently, the business industry has become a dominant concentration for SDGs. However, the importance of small- and medium-sized industries has been rarely debated in this perspective. In particular, no attempt has yet been made to estimate the commitment of small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) towards SDGs in the emerging market in Pakistan. This study fills the gap by examining the influence of top management support on SDGs (e.g., environment and community practices) with a mediating role of green supply chain management and government support as a moderator. The model of this study is tested through structural equation modeling on the cross-sectional data collected through a structured questionnaire from 313 Pakistani SMEs. The results show that top management support significantly influences green supply chain management, environment, and community-based SDGs. Green supply chain management plays a partial mediating role between top management support and environment practices as well as between top management support and community practices. Government support significantly strengthens the relationship between top management support and green supply chain management. This research recommends SMEs to encourage participation in green supply chain practices and SDGs. Additionally, this research strongly suggests the government to facilitate SMEs in the adoption of green practices that can resultantly contribute to SDGs. Further implications have stated.
•Surveyed the adoption of blockchain in OSCM among Malaysian SMEs.•Adopted the TOE framework to investigate the adoption intention.•Explored the relationships between the technological and ...organizational dimensions.•Engaged a nonlinear non-compensatory PLS-ANN approach.•Cost is positively associated with adoption intention.
This study aims to investigate the effects of relative advantage, complexity, upper management support, cost, market dynamics, competitive pressure and regulatory support on blockchain adoption for operations and supply chain management among Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Unlike existing studies that employed linear models with Technology Acceptance Model or United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology that ignores the organisational and environmental factors, we adopted the Technology, Organisation and Environment Framework that covers the technological dimensions of relative advantage and complexity, organisational dimensions of upper management support and cost and environmental dimensions of market dynamics, competitive pressure and regulatory support. Empirical data from 194 SMEs were investigated and ranked using a nonlinear non-compensatory PLS-ANN approach. Competitive pressure, complexity, cost and relative have significant effects on behavioural intention. Market dynamics, regulatory support and upper management support were insignificant predictors. SMEs often lack resources for technological investments but faces same requirements for streamlining business processes to optimise returns and blockchain presents a viable option for SMEs’ sustainability due to its features of immutability, transparency and security that have the potential to revolutionise businesses. This study contributes new knowledge to the literature on factors that affect blockchain adoption and justifications were discussed accordingly.
Third-party logistic provider (3PLP) companies play a major role in supply chain management (SCM) by carrying out specialized functions—namely, integrated operation, warehousing, and transportation ...services. Taking sustainability issues into consideration makes reverse logistics even more significant. In this paper, a combination of sustainability and risk factors was considered for third-party reverse logistic provider (3PRLP) evaluation. Initially, fuzzy step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (Fuzzy SWARA) was applied for weighing the evaluation criteria; then, Fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (Fuzzy MOORA) was utilized for ranking the sustainable third-party reverse logistic providers in the plastic industry in the second step. Findings highlight that quality, recycling, health, and safety were the most important criteria in economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability, respectively. Also, operational risk was found to have the highest weight among risk factors.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept of supply chain resilience (SCRES) within a concept mapping framework to seek conceptual clarity, with an emphasis on SCRES definitions, ...essential elements and managerial practices.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was conducted of 103 peer-reviewed journal articles from the year 2000 to 2015, with the aim of answering a focus review question.
Findings
Through analysis and synthesis of the literature, the study revealed three major constructs used to define SCRES: phases of resilience, resilience strategies and the capabilities needed to be resilient. Emerging from the capabilities construct are five core SCRES capabilities: the ability to anticipate, to adapt, to respond, to recover and to learn. Also, given the need to consolidate the various constructs of SCRES, the study identified 13 essential elements and 84 managerial practices that support firms to achieve the five capabilities, which are then linked to SCRES strategies and phases to establish the connections that provide an integrated view of the concept.
Research limitations/implications
The explorative nature of this study and the role of the concept mapping framework, which does not empirically test the relationships in the model, are considered as limitations, to be addressed by the authors in future research.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in the classification of different features of SCRES through a comprehensive concept mapping framework that establishes relationships and interactions between them. This study, therefore, lays a foundation for testing these connections in future empirical studies. The paper brings together fragmented literature from multiple studies to create a solid body of knowledge that addresses the need for conceptual clarity in SCRES literature.
In the last decades, green and sustainable supply chain management practices have been developed, trying to integrate environmental concerns into organisations by reducing unintended negative ...consequences on the environment of production and consumption processes. In parallel to this, the circular economy discourse has been propagated in the industrial ecology literature and practice. Circular economy pushes the frontiers of environmental sustainability by emphasising the idea of transforming products in such a way that there are workable relationships between ecological systems and economic growth. Therefore, circular economy is not just concerned with the reduction of the use of the environment as a sink for residuals but rather with the creation of self-sustaining production systems in which materials are used over and over again.
Through two case studies from different process industries (chemical and food), this paper compares the performances of traditional and circular production systems across a range of indicators. Direct, indirect and total lifecycle emissions, waste recovered, virgin resources use, as well as carbon maps (which provide a holistic visibility of the entire supply chain) are presented. The paper asserts that an integration of circular economy principles within sustainable supply chain management can provide clear advantages from an environmental point view. Emerging supply chain management challenges and market dynamics are also highlighted and discussed.
•Circular and linear supply chains are introduced.•Through two case studies, their environmental performances are assessed and compared.•A Hybrid LCA methodology is utilized for performing the assessment.•Managerial and policy implications are discussed.
This study aims at investigating the linkage between green human resource management bundle practices and green supply chain management (i.e. external and internal practices), as well as their impact ...on the Triple Bottom Lines of sustainability performance (i.e. environmental, social, and economic performance). A quantitative method is applied in which data is collected from a customized survey with 121 firms functioning in the most pollutant manufacturing sectors (i.e. food, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors) in Palestine. The data analysis was conducted using the partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results from data analysis show that both of green human resource management and green supply chain management practices have a positive effect to sustainable performance in a joint manner. In fact, the results revealed that green human resource management practices have a direct effect on the sustainable performance, with the green supply chain management practices mediating this effect. In particular, internal green supply chain management practices positively mediate between green human resources management practices and sustainable performance, whereas external green supply chain management practices mediate only the relationship between GHRM bundle practices and environmental dimension of sustainable performance, thus suggesting absence of awareness among manufacturers regarding the effectiveness of this type of GSCM practices for an improved economic and social dimensions of sustainable performance, and calling for more attention from green training programs. This study is considered as the first empirical study exploring the impact of green human resource management and green supply chain management on components of sustainable performance in Palestine, adding great value to the current green human resource management-green supply chain management literature via responding to recent calls to test the combined impact of both practices on TBL of sustainability performance. At the end, the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations of the current study and future research directions have been discussed.
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•First empirical study exploring the impact of GHRM and GSCM on sustainable performance.•Int-GSCM positively mediates between GHRM bundle and sustainable performance.•Ext-GSCM practices mediate only the relationship between GHRM bundle and EP.•GHRM is a valid mechanism that can be utilised to enhance GSCM implementation.
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