Supplier sustainability performance evaluation and selection: a framework and methodology

This study proposes a supplier sustainability performance evaluation framework for evaluating and selecting suppliers based on their sustainability performance. An integrated model which uses fuzzy-Shannon Entropy to determine the sustainability criteria weights and fuzzy-Inference system to prioritize suppliers from the individual sustainability dimensions perspective is proposed to aid in the evaluation and selection. A Pakistan manufacturing company is used to exemplify the applicability and usefulness of the proposed suppliers' sustainability performance evaluation decision framework. The results show that amongst the economic, environmental and social sustainability dimensions, three criteria, namely: ‘Quality’ (10.87%), ‘Cleaner Technology Implementation’ (11.51%) and ‘Information Disclosure’ (13.75%), respectively, are the topmost ranked criteria. Across the triple-sustainability dimensions, suppliers 3 was ranked the topmost suppliers overall. This means that, to improve the sustainability of the company's supply chain, supplier 3 is most appropriate and recommended amongst the four suppliers for partnership. Managerial implications, limitations and further research directions are discussed

Exploratory study to explore the role of ICT in the process of knowledge management in an Indian business environment

In the 21st century and the emergence of a digital economy, knowledge and the knowledge base economy are rapidly growing. To effectively be able to understand the processes involved in the creating, managing and sharing of knowledge management in the business environment is critical to the success of an organization. This study builds on the previous research of the authors on the enablers of knowledge management by identifying the relationship between the enablers of knowledge management and the role played by information communication technologies (ICT) and ICT infrastructure in a business setting. This paper provides the findings of a survey collected from the four major Indian cities (Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Villupuram) regarding their views and opinions about the enablers of knowledge management in business setting. A total of 80 organizations participated in the study with 100 participants in each city. The results show that ICT and ICT infrastructure can play a critical role in the creating, managing and sharing of knowledge in an Indian business environment

Glitter or Gold? Deriving Structured Insights from Sustainability Reports via Large Language Models

Over the last decade, several regulatory bodies have started requiring the disclosure of non-financial information from publicly listed companies, in light of the investors' increasing attention to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. Publicly released information on sustainability practices is often disclosed in diverse, unstructured, and multi-modal documentation. This poses a challenge in efficiently gathering and aligning the data into a unified framework to derive insights related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Thus, using Information Extraction (IE) methods becomes an intuitive choice for delivering insightful and actionable data to stakeholders. In this study, we employ Large Language Models (LLMs), In-Context Learning, and the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) paradigm to extract structured insights related to ESG aspects from companies' sustainability reports. We then leverage graph-based representations to conduct statistical analyses concerning the extracted insights. These analyses revealed that ESG criteria cover a wide range of topics, exceeding 500, often beyond those considered in existing categorizations, and are addressed by companies through a variety of initiatives. Moreover, disclosure similarities emerged among companies from the same region or sector, validating ongoing hypotheses in the ESG literature. Lastly, by incorporating additional company attributes into our analyses, we investigated which factors impact the most on companies' ESG ratings, showing that ESG disclosure affects the obtained ratings more than other financial or company data

Mere puffery' or credible disclosure? The real effects of adopting voluntary ESG disclosure standards

In this paper, we examine factors prompting companies to voluntarily adopt sustainability standards for sustainability reporting and the consequences of such voluntary commitment. Using data on firms’ voluntary adoption of sustainability standards developed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), we find that peer pressure, sustainability-focused institutional ownership, firm visibility and performance are among the main determinants of SASB standards adoption. In terms of consequences of standards adoption, we find improvements in various sustainability outcomes including fewer work-related injuries, lower toxic releases, fewer negative sustainability-related incidents, and higher sustainability ratings. Overall, these results inform our understanding of the conditions under which voluntary disclosure standards are likely to be adopted by firms and the potential real effects of such voluntary adoption

An integrated method for airline company supplier selection based on the entropy and vikor methods: a real case study

All certified airlines require to implement a safety and quality management system. Therefore, the quality of all services and products with critical operational domains have been challenging issues in the aviation industry. In this regard, supplier selection plays an important role to acquire competitive benefits. Flight operations is critical scope in an airline and their outputs have a direct impact on flight safety consequences. Therefore, the quality of supplier’s product and services play the main role in their flight operations process. In this research, a new decision-making framework is developed to evaluate the performance of the suppliers based on the Entropy and VIKOR approaches. At the outset, the main criteria and sub-criteria are identified based on the literature and expert\u27s viewpoint and then their weights are calculated using the Entropy method. Afterward, the potential suppliers are ranked using the VIKOR method. The airline supplier’s assessment through expert judgment and integrated criteria are the new approaches that are developed in this paper. The obtained results show that economic, quality and safety, and reputation respectively are the main criteria to select suppliers

Measuring Sustainability

Planning for sustainability is high on many agendas, and tools to measure sustainability have been developed. Sustainable processes are those whose rates are maintained over time without exceeding the innate ability of its surroundings to support the process. We present the necessary conditions along with a new algorithm for measuring the sustainability of processes that integrates the laws of thermodynamics with laws for rate processes. The algorithm permits the assessment of the degree of sustainability of any process, whether ecological, economic, or social, as well as chemical or biological. It is a dynamic approach that applies at any scale and takes into consideration the spatial and temporal factors of processes, thus permitting empirical applications that correspond to real world (dynamic, complex, evolving) conditions across space and time. These characteristics make it especially suitable for applications in the field of spatial planning

Çevresel performans: Düzey-2 bölgelerinden kanıtlar

The study's objectives are to assess the environmental performance of the NUTS-2 Region from 2009 to 2020 and to provide policy suggestions based on the results. Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques were used in the assessment of environmental performance. The environmental performance criteria used in the assessment are the total electricity consumption per capita, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, the number of water supply enterprises, the urban population, and the amount of wastewater treated by the municipalities. First of all, the weights of the indicators to be used in the evaluation of environmental performance were calculated with the Entropy method, which is one of the MCDM methods. Then, with the help of the ARAS method, the environmental performance ranking of the NUTS-2 Region was obtained. Within the scope of the findings, the environmental performance criterion with the highest weight by the Entropy method is electricity consumption per capita; the lowest is the amount of wastewater treated by the municipalities. With the ARAS method, it was observed that the region with the highest environmental performance was TR10 (Istanbul), while the lowest was TR63 (Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Osmaniye).Çalışmanın amacı, 2009-2020 dönemi için Düzey-2 Bölgesi’nde çevresel performansı ölçmek ve elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda politika önerileri sunmaktır. Çevresel performansın değerlendirilmesinde, Çok Kriterli Karar Verme yöntemleri (ÇKKV) uygulanmıştır. Değerlendirmede kullanılan çevresel performans kriterleri ise kişi başına toplam elektrik tüketimi, tarım, ormancılık ve balıkçılık, su temini girişim sayıları, kentsel nüfus ve belediyeler tarafından arıtılan atıksu miktarı olmaktadır. Öncelikle ÇKKV yöntemlerinden olan Entropi yöntemi ile çevresel performansın değerlendirilmesinde kullanılacak göstergelerin ağırlıkları hesaplanmıştır. Ardından ARAS yöntemi yardımıyla da Düzey-2 Bölgesi’nin çevresel performans sıralaması elde edilmiştir. Bulgular kapsamında, Entropi yöntemiyle ağırlığı en yüksek çıkan çevresel performans kriteri, kişi başına elektrik tüketimi; en düşük ise belediyeler tarafından arıtılan atıksu miktarı olmaktadır. ARAS yöntemi ile de çevresel performansı en yüksek çıkan bölge TR10 (İstanbul) iken en düşük TR63 (Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Osmaniye) olduğu gözlenmiştir

New Connections Between Integrated Reporting and Intellectual Capital: Future Research Implications in the Context of Sustainability-Related Information

Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify new links between Integrated Reporting (IR) and Intellectual Capital (IC) fields, useful for sustainability and climate change disclosures with ISSB standards.   Theoretical Framework: The literature that has integrated IC and IR fields has been developed, mainly from the IC research perspective, addressing a wide range of thematic specializations that emerge when analyzing the research areas.   Design/Methodology/Approach: We developed a Structured Literature Review (SLR) of articles indexed in Scopus, which allowed us to build a specific analytical framework from emerging categories; we rely on AtlasTi and VOSviewer software.   Findings: We found that the literature converges towards the following research areas: Reviews and reflections on the IR framework as a means for IC disclosure; Proposals to improve the IR framework and IR disclosures through IR; The IR framework and definition, measurement, and management of IC within organizations; disclosures of CI in contexts of practical adoption of RI; Disclosure of IC through IR, its determinants, and effects.   Research, Practical & Social Implications: We identified the need to advance research under a performative approach, research on stakeholder satisfaction by revealing IC through IR and the relationship of IC with information related to sustainability in the new ISSB context. The paper identifies previously unexamined connections between IC and IR and proposes future avenues of research.   Originality/Value: This study raises the need for increased policy research to define a common language for presenting comparable IC information in ISSB sustainability reports. In addition, studies are needed to help identify IC information, other IR capital and metrics, which could represent material information for investors to assess sustainability-related risks and opportunities