Narrow Results

Sustainable supplier management literature is mainly on sustainable supplier selection but sustainable supplier performance monitoring & evaluation studies are scarce. Furthermore, the studies do not differentiate the sustainability evaluation criteria between the supplier selection and monitoring & evaluation stages. To bridge this gap, this study aimed to monitor & evaluate sustainability performance of the suppliers of a focal manufacturing company in automotive sector with the TBL approach. Toward that end, we questioned and tried to identify first the sustainable supplier selection and monitoring & evaluation differentiating criteria, and then, how we can rank and rate the sustainable suppliers for developmental purposes in the monitoring & evaluation phase. 21 criteria were determined for sustainable supplier performance in monitoring & evaluation by a detailed literature review and taking the opinions of the focal company. Then, decision makers assessed sustainability dimensions and determined criteria related to these dimensions. The weights of dimensions and criteria were calculated by Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy AHP method. Then, sustainability performances of selected suppliers from the focal company’s portfolio were ranked by using Fuzzy EDAS, Fuzzy CODAS and Fuzzy MOORA methods. The results show that sustainable supplier monitoring & evaluation criteria involve a mix of external criteria (rules and regulations) and internal criteria (suppliers’ values). This finding helps us understand how we can have a more relaxed criteria set involving basic external criteria while selecting suppliers to have access to a more innovative and diverse supplier space and then have more challenging internal and external criteria to monitor & evaluate those suppliers toward true sustainability.

Business start-ups by indigenous people in wildlife conservation areas are prone to failure. Funding issues have been identified as a contributing cause of the disappointing results. A great deal has been written about capital structure both in the start-up literature and the corporate literature, but the applicability of this research to small, indigenous start-ups in and around conservation areas is lacking. Although current practice dictates a reliance on equity, we apply the relevant corporate and start-up research to the conservation area context in an attempt to better understand the capital funding question. The results argue that equity funding is appropriate in the early stages for control and liquidity reasons. However, it also shows that greater attention could be paid to some degree of early debt financing to create debt discipline and later debt funding for motivational and financial discipline purposes.

This research investigates individual entrepreneurial orientation and its implications for business performance. Examining dynamic managerial capabilities (DMC) as a mediating factor, this study explores the relationship between CEO entrepreneurial orientation and the triple bottom line performance of businesses. It emphasizes the role of improved managerial capabilities resulting from individual entrepreneurial orientation. Emphasis is placed on the importance of entrepreneurial activities not only in affecting financial performance, but also social and environmental performance. The results reveal a strong and positive correlation between CEOs’ individual entrepreneurial orientation and triple bottom line performance, considering DMC. This confirmation is not only robust based on existing theories, but also provides novel evidence of additional effects of the relationship between CEOs’ individual entrepreneurial orientation and broader approaches to business performance. Moreover, this research contributes to current issues related to entrepreneurship, sustainability and the evolving role of individuals in shaping the future of organizations.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) poses several implications on manufacturers in terms of economic, ecological, and social aspects referring to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of sustainable value creation. Due to its technical core, the current research focused on its technical fundamentals, whereas the economic discussion is still in its infancy. This paper aims at painting a comprehensive and structured picture of IIoT-related economic, ecological, and social benefits and challenges. For this purpose, we employ an exploratory multiple case study approach based on semi-structured expert interviews in 46 manufacturing companies from three leading German industries. Our study contributes to the sparse body of scientific IIoT literature by analysing the IIoT’s implications according to the TBL. We show that, in order to qualify for sustainable industrial value creation, the IIoT requires an extension of the established TBL by three further dimensions, i.e., technical integration, data and information, and public context.

Concerns about sustainability challenges are growing. Companies are under pressure to rethink existing innovation paradigms. In this context, research interest in the resource-constrained innovation concept, frugal innovation, has increased. In this paper, we examine the impact of frugal innovation on the economic, social, and ecological sustainability dimensions by conducting a systematic literature review of 44 papers. We find that frugal innovation is a promising approach to promote sustainable development from an economic perspective and a social perspective. Nevertheless, positive and negative effects exist in all three dimensions. Thus, a positive relationship is not inherent but must be proactively formed. External factors can influence the impact of frugal innovation on sustainability. For future research we recommend (1) establishing a unified understanding of frugal innovation through a clear definition, (2) broadening the research focus to a global perspective, (3) assessing the impact of frugal innovation along the entire product life cycle, and (4) investigating characteristics that make frugal innovation sustainable.

Triple bottom line (TBL) reporting is a concept that is sweeping across the business sector, government and NGOs. However, many of the issues faced by consideration of the social in TBL are very similar to issues faced by social impact assessment (SIA) in its connections with biophysical environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the financial considerations associated with projects including economic and fiscal impact assessment, and cost-benefit analysis. It would appear that the advocates of TBL and the institutions that have adopted TBL are ignorant of SIA and other forms of impact assessment. The view presented here is that TBL is a fad that presents little that is new, and that TBL would learn a great deal by considering the experience of SIA.

Making sustainability operational within organisational practice requires dealing with three interrelated questions: A "what-question", an "attribute-question" and a "who-question". The complexity of these questions needs a tailor-made interpretation of sustainability. This paper provides a framework that can be used for obtaining such a tailor-made interpretation of sustainability. This framework is based on the notion that staff members somehow need to make sense of sustainability. By taking a cognitive mapping approach, a multidimensional space of sustainability can be deduced. The interpretation of the dimensions of this space can then provide a definition of sustainability. We illustrate the framework by obtaining an image of sustainability for a firm of consulting engineers.

Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin extends over one million square kilometers and supports almost three-quarters of the country’s irrigated agricultural land. Like the Colorado River in America and the Yellow River in China, the Murray–Darling Basin runs across a number of jurisdictional boundaries, and has been a focus for national water reforms for many years. The Murray–Darling Basin Plan is the culmination of more than two decades of water reform experience in Australia. It was adopted by the Commonwealth Water Minister in 2012 to rebalance use of water resources and create a more sustainable footing for a healthy working Basin. The Basin Plan was based on the best science at the time, which was endorsed by peer review. The key features of the Basin Plan that are integrated into its design are optimizing social, economic and environmental (triple bottom line) outcomes; improving transparency of decision-making and flexible and adaptive management. As a result of widespread consultation, the Basin Plan also included suggestions from jurisdictions and communities that served to better balance the competing interests for water resources, and provided a clearly defined timetable for implementation to create certainty for communities and investment. The Basin Plan commenced on 29 November 2012, and early implementation activities are well progressed, meaning that water resources are already better positioned to cope with major drought. Looking forward, continued support for Basin Plan reforms from governments and communities will be an ongoing challenge for implementation. Similarly, separating out the effects of the Basin Plan from other external effects on the social and economic well-being of Basin communities will be a challenge when evaluating whether the Basin Plan has achieved its triple bottom line outcomes and objectives.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) poses several implications on manufacturers in terms of economic, ecological, and social aspects referring to the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of sustainable value creation. Due to its technical core, the current research focused on its technical fundamentals, whereas the economic discussion is still in its infancy. This paper aims at painting a comprehensive and structured picture of IIoT-related economic, ecological, and social benefits and challenges. For this purpose, we employ an exploratory multiple case study approach based on semi-structured expert interviews in 46 manufacturing companies from three leading German industries. Our study contributes to the sparse body of scientific IIoT literature by analysing the IIoT’s implications according to the TBL. We show that, in order to qualify for sustainable industrial value creation, the IIoT requires an extension of the established TBL by three further dimensions, i.e., technical integration, data and information, and public context.

Green entrepreneurship aims at addressing environmental or social problems through the implementation of innovative entrepreneurial ideas. One such approach to green entrepreneurship is to explore and implement innovative practices for sustainable waste management. This chapter aims to carry out an in-depth study on the green entrepreneurship of converting wastes into renewable energy for sustainable development. The chapter follows a case study approach to explore rural management practices for the reuse of wastes through the adoption of improved technologies.

This chapter describes alternative innovative practices and approaches of sustainable waste management drawn from a case study conducted at Thikekarwadi Gram Panchayat at Pune District in Maharashtra and explores the inherent economic benefits on the adoption of such approaches by the rural populace. The study is beneficial for the green transformation of waste and sustaining the environment.

Triple bottom line (TBL) reporting is a concept that is sweeping across the business sector, government and NGOs. However, many of the issues faced by consideration of the social in TBL are very similar to issues faced by social impact assessment (SIA) in its connections with biophysical environmental impact assessment (EIA) and the financial considerations associated with projects including economic and fiscal impact assessment, and cost-benefit analysis. It would appear that the advocates of TBL and the institutions that have adopted TBL are ignorant of SIA and other forms of impact assessment. The view presented here is that TBL is a fad that presents little that is new, and that TBL would learn a great deal by considering the experience of SIA.

Making sustainability operational within organisational practice requires dealing with three interrelated questions: A “what-question”, an “attribute-question” and a “who-question”. The complexity of these questions needs a tailor-made interpretation of sustainability. This paper provides a framework that can be used for obtaining such a tailor-made interpretation of sustainability. This framework is based on the notion that staff members somehow need to make sense of sustainability. By taking a cognitive mapping approach, a multidimensional space of sustainability can be deduced. The interpretation of the dimensions of this space can then provide a definition of sustainability. We illustrate the framework by obtaining an image of sustainability for a firm of consulting engineers.