Do firm characteristics affect environmental sustainability? A literature review‐based assessment

Combating environmental pollution and climate change mandates strong commitment and participation of all firms across sectors. However, the environmental conduct of firms is seen to vary as per their characteristics, especially their size, ownership, and age. Current understanding of these characteristics' influence on environmental sustainability is limited, fragmented, and scattered across the literature, which this study seeks to improve and contribute to. Based on a rigorous screening of the last 25 years' literature (1996–2020), the study develops a comprehensive understanding of firm characteristics' implications for environmental sustainability, namely, environmental practices implementation, environmental drivers, environmental barriers, and associated (environmental, cost/economic, operational, and organizational) performance implications. Several meaningful and generalizable trends, conflicts, and consensus, or lack thereof, are revealed. For instance, the extent of environmental practices' implementation can be seen to be greater at large firms' (vis‐à‐vis small ones) and at foreign firms' (vis‐à‐vis local ones), though not much difference is seen between old and new firms. Also, several metafactors such as resources availability, innovation propensity, and bureaucracy and organizational inertia are identified that explain the differential influence of firm characteristics on environmental sustainability and dispel erroneous stereotypes. Finally, gaps in the literature offering avenues for future research are highlighted along with implications for research, theory, and practice. Results are expected to help policymakers and practitioners develop policies/interventions that ensure all firms, irrespective of their characteristics contribute to environmental sustainability. A comprehensive review of this kind has not been previously undertaken and constitutes the novelty of this work

When Stakeholder Pressure drives the Circular Economy: Measuring the Mediating Role of Innovation Capabilities

Sustainability is hinged on innovation. The importance of sustainable innovation management in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) cannot be underestimated. Studies on SSCM have emphasised the need for sustainable innovation in achieving sustainability but none provide deep insights into sustainable innovation management in SSCM implementation. This lack of research depth stimulates this study to identify and investigate criteria for sustainable supply chain management innovation advancement. This paper proposes a sustainable innovation criteria framework for investigating sustainable supply chains in manufacturing companies. To exemplify the applicability and efficiency of the proposed framework, a sample of five Indian manufacturing companies are used to evaluate and prioritise the sustainable innovation management criteria, using the ‘best–worst’ multi-criteria decision-making (BW-MCDM) model. The criteria weights for all companies from BWM are aggregated, averaged and used for ranking. The respondent managers viewed ‘financial availability for innovation’ as the most important sustainable innovation sub-criteria. The results of the study will inform industrial managers, practitioners and decision-makers on which criteria to focus on during the implementation stage, to increase sustainability in manufacturing supply chains, and further advance corporate and supply chain sustainable development. The framework may also serve as a theoretical construct for a future empirical study on sustainable supply chain innovation in the manufacturing sector. This paper sets the stage for further research in sustainable innovation practices in the manufacturing sector and its supply chains

Role of Competition in Restoring Resource Poor Arid Systems Dominated by Invasive Grasses

An understanding of competition intensity and importance may be a useful step in helping managers understands how to prioritize restoration efforts in resource poor environments within the semi-arid steppe. The aims of this study were to quantify the intensity of competition among invasive annual grasses and native perennial bunchgrasses, and determine the importance of competition in explaining variation in target plant biomass and survivorship in a Wyoming big sagebrush steppe community type in southeastern Oregon, USA. Addition series experiments were conducted in 2008 and 2009 among four species. Treatments consisted of monoculture densities of each species to assess intraspecific competition, and mixtures of two, three and four species (interspecific competition), producing varying total densities and species proportions. We found no evidence that intensity of intra- or inter-specific competition were significant for the first two years species were establishing, regardless of the density used as the independent variable. Our results indicate that neither the intensity of competition nor the importance of competition explained variation in target plant biomass and survivorship for the first two years plants were establishing. Instead abiotic factors may have an overriding influence on plant biomass and survivorship.We propose four scenarios which may apply to semi-arid environments during the initial phase of restoration

Analysing the Adoption Barriers of Low-Carbon Operations: A Step Forward for Achieving Net-Zero Emissions

In November 2021, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) was held in Glasgow, UK, the global leaders from nearly 200 countries stressed taking immediate action on the climate issue and how to ensure global net-zero emissions by 2030. It is possible to accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy systems, the present study seeks to identify and analyse key barriers to Low Carbon Operations (LCO) in emerging economies. A critical literature review was undertaken to recognise the barriers linked to the adoption of LCO. To validate these barriers, an empirical study with a dataset of 127 respondents from the Indian automobile industry was conducted. The validated barriers were analysed using Best Worst Method (BWM) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques. BWM is used to determine the priority ranking of barriers, while the DEMATEL method is employed to elucidate the cause-effect inter-relationships among the listed barriers. The results suggest that ‘Economic’ is the most influential category of barriers followed by ‘Infrastructure’ and ‘Operational’. The results also show that the barriers ‘Economic’, ‘Environmental’, ‘Infrastructure’ and ‘Organizational Governance’ belong to the cause group. Some significant managerial implications are recommended to overcome these barriers and to assist firms in the successful adoption of LCO and achieving net-zero emissions. The work was carried out in the automotive industry in India but provides findings that may have wider applicability in other developing countries and beyond

Barriers to coastal shipping development: an Indian perspective

Coastal shipping has been widely recognised as a sustainable and efficient alternative to road transport. However, the barriers encountered in the industry have not been systematically studied in any region. From an Indian perspective, this study aims to prioritise barriers to coastal shipping development for effective policy interventions. It identifies important barriers through a Delphi study and then quantifies their cause-and-effect relationships by the decision making-trial and evaluation laboratory analysis (DEMATEL) technique. It is interesting that the main barriers, those have most impact on coastal shipping development, are not necessarily the ones most widely recognised. The study also uncovers the hidden cause-and-effect relationships between several barriers. Four main barriers are identified: (1) Indian maritime legislation (especially cabotage rules); (2) issues in the infrastructure and procedures at port and port-centric areas; (3) underdevelopment of small ports; (4) lack of a collaborative culture among the various service providers involved in the logistics supply chain. This study finally recommends relaxing cabotage rules to stimulate the inflow of foreign capital to grow coastal shipping, improving the current port system through joint efforts of the ports, Indian customs and government, and fostering supply chain collaboration