The ethics of outsourcing: when companies fail at responsibility

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that costs reduction is no longer a complete indication of performance and should not be attained at the expense of the firm?s sustainable social responsibility and environmental aspects. The question of whether outsourcing is a ?blessing? or a ?lesson? remains unresolved in the minds of practitioners and researchers alike. The literature is replete with the up- and down-sides of outsourcing, all going in different directions, making it very cumbersome particularly for practitioners to articulate when and what to outsource (if at all) and how to contain or mitigate outsourcing downsides. Design/methodology/approach: Outsourcing as a two-edged sword can be value creating strategy or a firm?s soft spot. This paper focusses on the latter through a review of sourcing in two leading multinational companies: Benetton, in the fast fashion industry, and Nestl?, in the food industry. Findings: Benetton experienced the biggest catastrophe in the garment industry, the Rana Plaza collapse. Nestl? went through the horse meat scandal, perhaps one of the most complex food crime cases in history. Both cases illustrated the strategic vulnerability that arises from the international outsourcing of production. Research limitations/implications: Clearly, production costs are no longer a complete indication of performance as the two cases unveil. Management control systems should be especially vigilant when outsourcing transfers social and environmental responsibility from one contract to another in a global business context. Monitoring costs cannot be outsourced when it comes to sustainable social responsibility and environmental aspects. Practical implications: Firms can leverage relationships with stakeholder groups, activists and NGOs to help them to monitor their international operations. Institution-based trust to protect brands, increased integration and control are necessary mechanisms. Originality/value: Indeed, global outsourcing in any industry should transfer not only industrial operations but also credible and responsible social and environmental benchmarks

Organizational mindfulness, mindful organizing, and environmental and resource sustainability

The research theorizes that environmental vulnerability can be minimized through mindfulness-based strategies, and redesigning organizing processes, so that richer thinking is activated more quickly among greater number of people all of whom try to update their knowledge regardless of the knowledge source. It empirically evaluates the effects of organizational mindfulness and mindful organizing on resources and environmental sustainability. The model was tested in a very appropriate setting Saudi Arabia, where increasing demand for and supply of energy culminates in unsustainable resources utilization and rise in greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental vulnerabilities. Data were collected from Saudi firms operating in the oil and gas sector and analyzed using SmartPLS software. The measurement and structural models were evaluated. The measurement model exhibits adequate model fit. The tests for the structural models show that four (of five) dimensions of organizational mindfulness (viz., commitment to resilience, deference to expertise, preoccupation with failure, and reluctance to simplify interpretations) and mindful organizing are significantly related at 5% significance level. Sensitivity to operations has no significant relationship with mindful organizing. Mindful organizing is significantly related to environmental and resources sustainability. Moreover, mindful organizing fully or partially mediates in the relationship between some of the dimensions of organizational mindfulness and environmental and resources sustainability. The study is one of the first to integrate mindfulness-based approaches to sustainability and environmental research.Scopu

Mindfulness-based business strategies and the environment

[No abstract available]Scopu

Review of key concepts and theories of internationalisation

No Full Tex

Food imports for food security in a high import-dependent economy: The impact of political instability

We assess the impact of political instability in food exporting countries on food imports in a wealthy Gulf Arab state with heavy reliance on food imports for its food security. First, large amounts of Qatar's food imports originate in politically unstable countries. Second, results reveal a large negative impact of the food exporter's political instability on food imports by Qatar. This exposes the country to extremely slow recovery in the event of a shock to the food supply chain. The results are relevant to other Gulf Arab countries with similar food security circumstances.Scopu

Managing Covid-19 Pandemic and Supply Chain Disruptions through Employee Attitude: A Cross-Country Analysis Based on the Transtheoretical Model

In this paper, we examine the attitudinal changes and processes regarding Covid-19 guidelines through the lens of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) among 932 employees in organisations within the emerging markets of China and Qatar, and the implications for the management of operations and supply chain disruptions. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted to validate our measures, confirm model fit, and verify the proposed hypotheses. Our findings reveal that attitude towards the guidelines differ between Chinese and Qatari samples, significantly stronger among the Chinese sample. The TTM dimensions explain a considerable amount of variance in attitude and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy further explains attitudinal changes. Firms should actively source and provide useful and accurate information about COVID 19, including pathological characteristics, propagation, prevention measures, and treatment. Besides, firms should promote the importance of following the guidelines, leaders should set examples, and encourage and empower employees to do so. With the right employee attitude and behavior, firms can manage pandemic-related disruptions within the organization and the supply chain. \textcopyright 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Circular economy business models and operations management

This article examines and conceptualizes the implications of the adoption of circular economy (CE) business models on operations management (OM) decision-making processes, in the areas of product design, production planning and control, and logistics/supply chains. A systematic literature review was conducted in order to identify and examine the following key areas: (1) the new demands faced by OM decision-making regarding changes in capability, work procedures, intra- and inter-organizational relationships and technologies; (2) the specific changes OM decision-making must make in order to support CE business models (based on the ReSOLVE framework); and (3) guidelines which will help designers and operations and logistics/supply chain managers develop the necessary skills to meet society and the global market's emerging demands. The findings of this research will allow operations managers to foresee the unfolding needs for capacity building in CE, and scholars can build on the results of this article to develop new research themes. Furthermore, this is the first article to describe the ways in which OM knowledge can support the transition towards the circular economy based on the perspective of dynamic capabilities. © 2019 Elsevier Lt