Evaluation of Corporate Sustainability

As a consequence of an increasing demand in sustainable development for business organizations, the evaluation of corporate sustainability has become a topic intensively focused by academic researchers and business practitioners. Several techniques in the context of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) have been suggested to facilitate the evaluation and the analysis of sustainability performance. However, due to the complexity of evaluation, such as a compilation of quantitative and qualitative measures, interrelationships among various sustainability criteria, the assessor’s hesitation in scoring, or incomplete information, simple techniques may not be able to generate reliable results which can reflect the overall sustainability performance of a company. This paper proposes a series of mathematical formulations based upon the evidential reasoning (ER) approach which can be used to aggregate results from qualitative judgments with quantitative measurements under various types of complex and uncertain situations. The evaluation of corporate sustainability through the ER model is demonstrated using actual data generated from three sugar manufacturing companies in Thailand. The proposed model facilitates managers in analysing the performance and identifying improvement plans and goals. It also simplifies decision making related to sustainable development initiatives. The model can be generalized to a wider area of performance assessment, as well as to any cases of multiple criteria analysis

Analysis of criteria weights for the assessment of corporate sustainability: a case study 3 in sugar manufacturing

The assessment of sustainability performance has become a topic widely discussed by business practitioners. The complexity of this issue is highlighted by the incorporation of a large number of criteria. Several methods under the context of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) have been employed to facilitate the aggregation of various criteria and to provide a guideline for decision making. As most MCDA methods assume that each criterion 14 plays a role equal to its weight, this paper investigates the weight of each criterion in 15 evaluation of corporate sustainability by focusing on the sugar industry in order to respond to the lack of MCDA and sustainability studies in this sector. The weighting is analysed by means of the relative importance based upon interviews and the direct rating technique. Statistical analysis is also conducted. The results from this empirical research indicate priorities of sustainability criteria and demonstrate the diversity of concerns within the industry when deciding on sustainability policies and strategies. This encourages practitioners to incorporate uncertain weights of sustainability criteria into decision making. Possible reasons for variations or changes in weights have been also discussed, and this enables practitioners to perform a sensitivity analysis in a more realistic wa

The sweet spot in sustainability: a framework for corporate assessment in sugar manufacturing

The assessment of corporate sustainability has become an increasingly important topic, both within academia and in industry. For manufacturing companies to conform to their commitments to sustainable development, a standard and reliable measurement framework is required. There is, however, a lack of sector-specific and empirical research in many areas, including the sugar industry. This paper presents an empirically developed framework for the assessment of corporate sustainability within the Thai sugar industry. Multiple case studies were conducted, and a survey using questionnaires was also employed to enhance the power of generalisation. The developed framework is an accurate and reliable measurement instrument of corporate sustainability, and guidelines to assess qualitative criteria are put forward. The proposed framework can be used for a company’s self-assessment and for guiding practitioners in performance improvement and policy decision-maki

Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability have been shown to span beyond organizational boundaries, indicating the importance of managing sustainability initiatives across the supply chain. Although scholars and practitioners focus a great deal of attention toward economic and environmental sustainability in supply chains, less attention is paid to social aspects. This is unfortunate, because social sustainability not only plays an important role in enabling other sustainability initiatives, but social injustices in one echelon of a supply chain can lead to significant losses for firms across the chain. Social issues have been especially problematic in developing nations, where abusive labor practices continue to negatively affect trading partners. This research seeks to disambiguate supply chain social sustainability in developing nations by uncovering relevant dimensions of social sustainability and resultant outcomes. Using semi-structured interview data collected from supply chain executives in Indian manufacturing companies, this research uncovers dimensions of social sustainability in terms of not only the focal firm, but also first-tier suppliers and customers. Each of these dimensions is then associated to potential performance outcomes. The findings not only provide a baseline for future research, but help practitioners understand where to focus their attention to enhance social sustainability in their supply chains

From cassava to gari: Mapping of quality characteristics and end-user preferences in Cameroon and Nigeria

User's preferences of cassava and cassava products along the value chain are supported by specific root quality characteristics that can be linked to root traits. Therefore, providing an evidence base of user preferred characteristics along the value chain, can help in the functional choice of cassava varieties. In this respect, the present paper presents the results from focus group discussions and individual interviews on user preferred quality characteristics of raw cassava roots and the derived product, gari, ‐ one of the major cassava products in Sub Saharan Africa ‐ in major production and consumption areas of Cameroon and Nigeria. Choice of cassava varieties for farming is mainly determined by the multiple end‐uses of the roots, their agricultural yield and the processing determinants of roots that support their major high‐quality characteristics: size, density, low water content, maturity, colour and safety. Processing of cassava roots into gari goes through different technological variants leading to a gari whose high‐quality characteristics are: dryness, colour, shiny/attractive appearance, uniform granules and taste. Eba, the major consumption form of gari in Cameroon and Nigeria is mainly characterized by its textural properties: smoothness, firmness, stickiness, elasticity, mouldability. Recommendations are made, suggesting that breeding will have to start evaluating cassava clones for brightness/shininess, as well as textural properties such as mouldability and elasticity of cassava food products, for the purpose of supporting decision‐making by breeders and the development of high‐throughput selection methods of cassava varieties. Women are identified as important beneficiaries of such initiatives giving their disadvantaged position and their prominent role in cassava processing and marketing of gari

Sustainable supply chain management towards disruption and organizational ambidexterity:A data driven analysis

Balancing sustainability and disruption of supply chains requires organizational ambidexterity. Sustainable supply chains prioritize efficiency and economies of scale and may not have sufficient redundancy to withstand disruptive events. There is a developing body of literature that attempts to reconcile these two aspects. This study gives a data-driven literature review of sustainable supply chain management trends toward ambidexterity and disruption. The critical review reveals temporal trends and geographic distribution of literature. A hybrid of data-driven analysis approach based on content and bibliometric analyses, fuzzy Delphi method, entropy weight method, and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is used on 273 keywords and 22 indicators obtained based on the experts’ evaluation. The most important indicators are identified as supply chain agility, supply chain coordination, supply chain finance, supply chain flexibility, supply chain resilience, and sustainability. The regions show different tendencies compared with others. Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the regions needs improvement, while Europe and North America show distinct apprehensions on supply chain network design. The main contribution of this review is the identification of the knowledge frontier, which then leads to a discussion of prospects for future studies and practical industry implementation

Green efficiency performance analysis of the logistics industry in China: based on a kind of machine learning methods

This paper aims to analyze the green efficiency performance of the logistics industry in China’s 30 provinces from 2008 to 2017. We first evaluate the green efficiency of the logistics industry through the non-directional distance function (NDDF) method. Then, we use the functional clustering method funHDDC, which is one of the popular machine learning methods, to divide 30 provinces into 4 clusters and analyze the similarities and differences in green efficiency performance patterns among different groups. Further, we explore the driving factors of dynamic changes in green efficiency through the decomposition method. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: (1) In general, the level of green efficiency is closely related to the geographical location. From the clustering results, we can find that most of the eastern regions belong to the cluster with higher green efficiency, while most of the western regions belong to the cluster with lower green efficiency. However, the green efficiency performance in several regions with high economic levels, such as Beijing and Shanghai, is not satisfactory. (2) Based on the analysis of decomposition results, the innovation effect of China’s logistics industry is the most obvious, but the efficiency change still needs to be improved, and technical leadership should be strengthened. Based on these conclusions, we further propose some policy recommendations for the green development of the logistics industry in China

Carbon Nanotubes as Strain Sensors for Glass Fibres/Epoxy Model Composites

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