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Food waste occurs in every stage of the supply chain, but the value-added lost to waste is the highest when consumers waste food. The purpose of this paper is to understand the food waste behaviour of consumers to support policies for minimising food waste.

Using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as a theoretical lens, the authors design a questionnaire that incorporates contextual factors to explain food waste behaviour. The authors test two models: base (four constructs of TPB) and extended (four constructs of TPB plus six contextual factors). The authors build partial least squares structural equation models to test the hypotheses.

The data confirm significant relationships between food waste and contextual factors such as motives, financial attitudes, planning routines, food surplus, social relationships and Ramadan.

The data comes from an agriculturally resource-constrained country: Qatar.

Food waste originating from various causes means more food should flow through the supply chains to reach consumers’ homes. Contextual factors identified in this work increase the explanatory power of the base model by 75 per cent.

Changing eating habits during certain periods of the year and food surplus have a strong impact on food waste behaviour.

A country is considered to be food secure if it can provide its citizens with stable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. The findings and conclusions inform and impact upon the development of food waste and food security policies.

This paper examines how firms of different sizes formulate and implement strategies to achieve fit with an external environment disrupted by a geopolitical event. The context of the study is the pharmaceutical industry and how it managed the supply chain uncertainty created by the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union, or Brexit.

Data were collected longitudinally from the pro-Brexit vote on 23 June 2016, until the UK’s departure from the EU on 31 January 2020. Twenty-seven interviews were conducted in the pharmaceutical sector, including nineteen interviews with senior managers at eight case companies and eight interviews with experts working for trade associations and standards institutes. The interview findings were triangulated with Brexit policy and strategy documentation.

When formulating strategy, multi-national enterprises (MNEs) used worst case assumptions, while large firms, and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) gathered knowledge as part of a “wait-and-see” strategy, allowing them to reduce perceptions of heightened supply chain uncertainty. Firms then implemented reactive and/or proactive strategies to mitigate supply chain risks.

The study elaborates on strategic contingency theory by identifying two important conditions for achieving strategic fit: first, companies deploy intangible resources, such as management time, to gather information and reduce perceptions of heightened supply chain uncertainty. Second, companies deploy tangible resources (supply chain redundancies, new supply chain assets) to lessen the negative outcomes of supply chain risks. Managers are provided with an empirical framework for mitigating supply chain uncertainty and risk originating from geopolitical disruptions.

The purpose of this paper is to test the link between servitisation and circular economy by synthesising the effect of product-service systems (PSS) on supply chain circularity (SCC).

Following a systematic literature review methodology, the study identified 67 studies and synthesised them using content analysis.

A conceptual model is developed illustrating how PSS business models impact SCC through increased product longevity, closure of resource loops and resource efficiency. It also identifies six contextual factors affecting the implementation of SCC including: economic attractiveness of SCC; firm sustainability strategy; policy and societal environment; product category; supply chain relationships; and technology.

The conceptual model proposes that SCC increases with servitisation. It also proposes that the main circularity effect stems from increased product longevity, followed by closed resource loops and finally resource efficiency. The model is deduced from the literature by using secondary data.

The review provides practitioners with a framework to increase SCC through PSS business models. It also gives insight into the various contextual factors that may affect how a manufacturer’s servitisation strategy contributes to SCC.

This review contributes to the understanding of the relationship between servitisation and SCC by synthesising the different effects that exist. Moreover, it creates new knowledge by identifying a range of contextual factors affecting the relationship between PSS and SCC.

This paper seeks insights into how multinational enterprises restructure their global supply chains to manage the uncertainty caused by geopolitical disruptions. To answer this question, we investigate three significant geopolitical disruptions: Brexit, the US-China trade war and the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The study uses an inductive theory-elaboration approach to build on Organisational Learning Theory and Dunning’s eclectic paradigm of international production. Twenty-nine expert interviews were conducted with senior supply chain executives across 14 multinational manufacturing firms. The analysis is validated by triangulating secondary data sources, including standard operating procedures, annual reports and organisational protocols.

We find that, when faced with significant geopolitical disruptions, companies develop and deploy supply chain structural ambidexterity in different ways. Specifically, during Covid-19, the US-China trade war and Brexit, companies developed and deployed three distinct types of supply chain structural ambidexterity through (1) partitioning internal subunits, (2) reconfiguring supplier networks and (3) creating parallel supply chains.

The findings contribute to Dunning’s eclectic paradigm by explaining how organisational ambidexterity is extended beyond firm boundaries and embedded in supply chains to mitigate uncertainty and gain exploration and exploitation benefits. During significant geopolitical disruptions, we find that managers make decisions in tight timeframes. Therefore, based on the transition time available, we propose three types of supply chain structural ambidexterity. We conclude with a managerial framework to assist firms in developing supply chain structural ambidexterity in response to geopolitical disruptions.

We conduct a multidisciplinary systematic literature review on climate neutrality in the supply chain. While carbon neutrality has gained prominence, our study argues that achieving carbon neutrality alone is not enough to address climate change effectively, as non-CO₂ greenhouse gases (GHG) are potent contributors to global warming.

We used multiple databases, including EBSCO, ProQuest, Science Direct, Emerald and Google Scholar, to identify articles related to climate neutrality in the context of non-CO₂ gases. A total of 71 articles in environmental science, climate change, energy systems, agriculture and logistics are reviewed to provide insights into the climate neutrality of supply chains.

We find that, in addition to CO₂, other GHG such as methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and fluorinated gases also significantly contribute to climate change. Our literature review identified several key pillars for achieving net-zero GHG emissions, including end-use efficiency and electrification, clean electricity supply, clean fuel supply, “GHG capture, storage and utilization,” enhanced land sinks, reduced non-CO₂ emissions and improved feed and manure management.

We contribute to the literature on climate neutrality of supply chains by emphasizing the significance of non-CO₂ GHG along with CO₂ and highlighting the need for a comprehensive approach to climate neutrality in addressing climate change. This study advances the understanding of climate neutrality of supply chains and contributes to the discourse on effective climate change mitigation strategies. It provides clear future research directions.

Digital transformation using Industry 4.0 technologies can address various challenges in food supply chains (FSCs). However, the integration of emerging technologies to achieve digital transformation in FSCs is unclear. This study aims to establish how the digital transformation of FSCs can be achieved by adopting key technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoTs), cloud computing (CC) and big data analytics (BDA).

A systematic literature review (SLR) resulted in 57 articles from 2008 to 2022. Following descriptive and thematic analysis, a conceptual framework based on the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and the context-intervention-mechanism-outcome (CIMO) logic is established, along with avenues for future research.

The combination of DOI theory and CIMO logic provides the theoretical foundation for linking the general innovation process to the digital transformation process. A novel conceptual framework for achieving digital transformation in FSCs is developed from the initiation to implementation phases. Objectives and principles for digitally transforming FSCs are identified for the initiation phase. A four-layer technology implementation architecture is developed for the implementation phase, facilitating multiple applications for FSC digital transformation.

The study contributes to the development of theory on digital transformation in FSCs and offers managerial guidelines for accelerating the growth of the food industry using key Industry 4.0 emerging technologies. The proposed framework brings clarity into the “neglected” intermediate stage of data management between data collection and analysis. The study highlights the need for a balanced integration of IoT, CC and BDA as key Industry 4.0 technologies to achieve digital transformation successfully.

Drawing on institutional complexity, this study aims to explore the interaction effect of formal and informal institutional forces on the adoption of green supplier collaboration (GSC) practices by Chinese manufacturing firms.

The paper hypothesises that the effect of the formal institutional forces on GSC in China is influenced by an informal institutional variable, guanxi, which is the interpersonal relationship between employees of the supplier and the manufacturer. To test the conceptual framework, hierarchical moderated regression analyses are conducted using multi-respondent data from 408 randomly sampled manufacturing companies in China.

Guanxi has a double-edged sword effect on the adoption of GSC practices. Specifically, guanxi reduces the negative impact of the perceived costs and the complexity of regulations on the adoption of GSC practices, but it also weakens the positive effect of suppliers’ advice and community pressures on the adoption of GSC practices.

Results contribute to supply chain management literature by offering novel theoretical and empirical insights on the Chinese institutional environment governed by both formal and informal institutional variables.

Considering guanxi’s double-edged sword effect on the adoption of GSC, manufacturing companies are advised to carefully leverage their guanxi to maintain an institutional and contingent view of the environmental consequences in China.

This study empirically examines the effect of formal and informal institutional environments on the adoption of GSC practices in emerging economies.

Perishable inventory management for the grocery sector has become more challenging with extended omnichannel activities and emerging consumer expectations. This paper aims to identify and formalize key performance measures of omnichannel perishable inventory management (OCPI) and explore the influence of operational and market-related factors on these measures.

The inductive approach of this research synthesizes three performance measures (product waste, lost sales and freshness) and four influencing factors (channel effect, demand variability, product perishability and shelf life visibility) for OCPI, through industry investigation, expert interviews and a systematic literature review. Treating OCPI as a complex adaptive system and considering its transaction costs, this paper formalizes the OCPI performance measures and their influencing factors in two statements and four propositions, which are then tested through numerical analysis with simulation.

Product waste, lost sales and freshness are identified as distinctive OCPI performance measures, which are influenced by product perishability, shelf life visibility, demand variability and channel effects. The OCPI sensitivity to those influencing factors is diverse, whereas those factors are found to moderate each other's effects.

To manage perishables more effectively, with less waste and lost sales for the business and fresher products for the consumer, omnichannel firms need to consider store and online channel requirements and strive to reduce demand variability, extend product shelf life and facilitate item-level shelf life visibility. While flexible logistics capacity and dynamic pricing can mitigate demand variability, the product shelf life extension needs modifications in product design, production, or storage conditions. OCPI executives can also increase the product shelf life visibility through advanced stock monitoring/tracking technologies (e.g. smart tags or more comprehensive barcodes), particularly for the online channel which demands fresher products.

This paper provides a novel theoretical view on perishables in omnichannel systems. It specifies the OCPI performance, beyond typical inventory policies for cost minimization, while discussing its sensitivity to operations and market factors.

Why do managers redesign global supply chains in a particular manner when faced with compounding geopolitical disruptions? In answering this research question, this study identifies a constrained system of reasoning (decision-making logic) employed by managers when they redesign their supply chains in situations of heightened uncertainty.

The authors conducted 40 elite interviews with senior supply chain executives in 28 companies across nine industries from November 2019 to June 2020, when the UK was preparing to leave the European Union, the US–China trade war was escalating, and Covid-19 was spreading rapidly around the globe.

When redesigning global supply chains, the authors find that managerial decision-making logic is constrained by three distinct environmental ecosystem conditions: (1) the perceived intensity of institutional pressures; (2) the relative mobility of suppliers and supply chain assets; and (3) the perceived severity of the potential disruption risk. Intense government pressure and persistent geopolitical risk tend to impact firms in the same industry, resulting in similar approaches to decision-making regarding supply chain design. However, where suppliers are relatively immobile and supply chain assets are relatively fixed, a dominant logic is consistently present.

Building on an institutional logics perspective, this study finds that managerial decision-making under heightened uncertainty is not solely guided by institutional pressures but also by perceptions of the severity of risk related to potential supply chain disruption and the immobility of supply chain assets. These findings support the theoretical development of a novel construct that the authors term ‘supply chain logics’. Finally, this study provides a decision-making framework for Senior Executives competing in an increasingly complex and unstable business environment.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors that enable or inhibit the contribution of product service systems (PSS) to circularity. It is informed by the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and the multi-level perspective as theoretical lenses.

A theory elaboration approach is used through three in-depth case studies of UK and German manufacturers. Case studies provide use- and result-oriented PSS for personal computers, power tools and wind turbines. Multiple sources of evidence, including 20 semi-structured interviews, company documents and quantitative data, are triangulated to improve the validity of the results.

Empirical evidence for relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors show significant barriers to the extending and cycling of resource loops, primarily through maintenance, repairs and refurbishment. A firm’s environmental awareness has a determining role in the contribution of PSS to circularity. The evidence from two use-oriented PSS reveals different circularity maturity levels.

This research makes three key contributions. Firstly, it elaborates on NRBV by showing that a firm’s environmental awareness determines product stewardship. The type of product stewardship practices depends on the enabling and inhibiting effects of macro- and meso-level factors. Secondly, it shows that use-oriented PSS have different circularity profiles and proposes three circularity maturity levels. Finally, it provides an empirically validated framework of macro-, meso- and micro-level enablers and barriers and how they interact to enable or inhibit circularity in PSS.

Population growth, urbanisation and the increased use of online shopping are some of the key challenges affecting the traditional logistics model. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the distribution of grocery products ordered online and the subsequent home delivery and click and collect services offered by online retailers to fulfil these orders. These services are unsustainable due to increased operational costs, carbon emissions, traffic and noise. The main objective of the research is to propose sustainable logistics models to reduce economic, environmental and social costs whilst maintaining service levels.

The authors have a mixed methodology based on simulation and mathematical modelling to evaluate the proposed shared logistics model using: primary data from a major UK retailer, secondary data from online retailers and primary data from a consumer survey on preferences for receiving groceries purchased online. Integration of these three data sets serves as input to vehicle routing models that reveal the benefits from collaboration by solving individual distribution problems of two retailers first, followed by the joint distribution problem under single decision maker assumption.

The benefits from collaboration could be more than 10 per cent in the distance travelled and 16 per cent in the time required to deliver the orders when two online grocery retailers collaborate in distribution activities.

The collaborative model developed for the online grocery market incentivises retailers to switch from current unsustainable logistics models to the proposed collaborative models.

Motivated by a lack of studies in graduate level supply chain education, this research aims to explore trends in supply chain‐related graduate programmes in Europe and to propose a framework for designing such programmes.

The authors determine “knowledge” and “skills” areas applicable to supply chain management (SCM) education and analyse supply chain‐related graduate programmes published by the European Logistics Association in 2004. They revisit the same programmes in 2011 to determine the recent situation and the trends. The authors use cluster analysis to reveal the similarities and differences among these programmes.

The authors find two distinct clusters: focused and diversified. Focused programmes offer modules in knowledge and skills areas apart from SCM at a negligible level and place more emphasis on SCM in 2011 when compared to 2004. Diversified programmes show a similar increase in the emphasis on SCM with more variety in the knowledge and skills areas.

The authors' findings are based on SCM programmes delivered in Europe and over two discrete time periods. Future research should seek to extend this analysis to other continents with larger samples and incorporate the industry perspective to determine the potential gap between what programmes offer and what industry requires.

SCM‐related graduate programmes continue to redefine themselves. Clustering predominantly serves the universities in re‐assessing and re‐engineering their programmes, helps prospective graduates in their selection process and assists managers in their recruitment practices.

This paper establishes a baseline for assessing SCM‐related graduate programmes with respect to the knowledge and skills they offer and introduces a framework that may serve as a starting point for the design and positioning of such programmes.

Globalization speeds up competition among nations in various sectors. In terms of multinational and transnational phenomena, countries are seen as inescapable from competition, thus the linking of the term global with “competitiveness.” The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a country and its implications for human development. For this purpose, using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and cluster analysis, 44 selected countries were evaluated. An output-oriented super-efficiency model where global competitiveness indicators are taken as input variables with human development indicators as output variables is utilized. Then cluster analysis depending on the competitiveness and human development indicators is conducted by using self-organizing maps to specify the development levels of the countries. Both analyses are repeated for years between 2005 and 2007. Finally, the relationship between the super efficiency scores and the development levels is analyzed.

The main purpose of this research is to investigate acceptability of different delivery methods in e-grocery (home delivery, pick-up from store, pick-up from locker) and the respective willingness of customers to pay for them using a stated preference ranking experiment.

Data collected involved two countries (Greece and UK) with different level of e-grocery development and two different distribution conditions (weekly and urgent order). Rank-ordered logit model is used to analyse the ranking experiment and calculate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) measures. Delivery mode, cost and time window are used as independent variables.

Results indicated that home delivery and picking-up from locker appear to be clearly preferable than picking-up from store. However, home delivery seems to hold a stronger competitive position over the other delivery methods, especially in the weekly order and in the UK market. The pick-up from locker option appears to be a competitive delivery mode for consumers who are cost sensitive and shop under urgent conditions. Willingness to use and pay for picking-up from locker increases significantly in the context of same-day delivery.

The information provided in this study will help retailers to design and implement distribution schemes that can meet consumers' preferences for e-grocery. WTP differences among the consumer groups and the distribution conditions examined can have a considerable impact on the evaluation of marketing and pricing strategies applied by e-retailers.

Consumer preference and the respective WTP for different delivery methods in e-grocery, especially for the pick-up from locker option, have not been systematically investigated.

This study aids to examine the impact of extending the internship period on the transition from school to work of vocational school of higher education graduates and subsequent employment outcomes.

Within the scope of the study, the results regarding the labour market of the vocational school students (experimental group) whose internship period were extended were compared with the results of the vocational school students (control group) whose internship period remained the same. Thus, it is provided to examine the effects of prolonging the internship period. The surveys were conducted five years after graduation.

The study found that increasing the duration of the internship period and making it a compulsory part of the curriculum facilitates the transition from school to work for graduates. Graduates who participate in the programme with a long internship period find a job in a shorter time and with higher wages than the control group. It is found that those in the experimental group with an extended internship period have higher employment rates and wage levels compared to those in the control group, five years after graduation.

Although there are publications, in the international literature, on the impact of internship, there are only few publications in which experimental and control groups are formed, as in this article. The second contribution of the study is to measure the impact of internship on employment outcomes five years after graduation. The third important contribution of the study is that it was conducted in Turkey, which has a young population and is an emerging market. This study contributes significantly to the restructuring of vocational higher education, especially in countries that are struggling with youth unemployment.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the working conditions of the students of food and beverage management in the sector throughout their education.

The survey method was a direct (face-to-face) interview. The study included 145 undergraduate students studying in food and beverage management department. Data were collected through questionnaires. The questionnaire form was composed with students’ demographical information (age, gender, class), vocational education situations (high school education) and also sector experience.

The number of students working in pubs increases with grade and the students who had education in the cuisine department of vocational high schools had the highest number of students working in the cuisine in the sector. The working period of men were determined to be higher and the students who did not receive vocational education in high school were determined to have shorter working periods. The study concluded that the students had working experiences in different departments of sector throughout their education and businesses are inclined to employ individuals with educational backgrounds in this field.

The research data is limited by the answers of the students which they gave to the questionnaire. The answers which the students gave are considered to be true. The research was only limited for the students studying in the food and beverage management education in a university located in Turkey. New research can be made regarding the food and beverage management education’s impact on the employment in the sector and the opinions of the sector managers.

As professional experience is an important indicator for success, application of education within a given sector is crucial. Informed manager and employee will enable the growth of the businesses, which in return will enable domestic and eventually national growth in the economy.

In order for food safety within the food and beverage sector and the application of healthy nutrition methods the students studying in this field has important responsibilities. As the number of graduates raise and the employment of educated personnel, positive development in the health of the society and increasing the quality of services can be accomplished. This growth can be furthered with the legal incentives of the government that favours educated and well-informed employees. Especially with a legal obligation for the management of these food and beverage businesses to have had graduated with a bachelor’s degree, the service quality will experience a considerable increase in a short time. Such managers can help further aid personnel through job-shadowing. In accordance with the tourism investments, the education of young population in this area may contribute resolving unemployment problem.

The research will give an idea of the enterprises willingness of employing such students and the students’ trend on working in their professional sectors.

This study aims to present an innovative predictive methodology that transitions from traditional efficiency assessment techniques to a forward-looking strategy for evaluating working capital management(WCM) and its determinants by integrating data envelopment analysis (DEA) with artificial neural networks (ANN).

A slack-based measure (SBM) within DEA was used to evaluate the WCME of 1,388 firms in the Indian manufacturing sector across nine industries over the period from April 2009 to March 2024. Subsequently, a fixed-effects model was used to determine the relationships between selected determinants and WCME. Moreover, the multi-layer perceptron method was applied to calculate the artificial neural network (ANN). Finally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the relative significance of key predictors on WCME.

Manufacturing firms consistently operate at around 50% WCME throughout the study period. Furthermore, among the selected variables, ability to create internal resources, leverage, growth, total fixed assets and productivity are relatively significant vital predictors influencing WCME.

The integration of SBM-DEA and ANN represents the primary contribution of this research, introducing a novel approach to efficiency assessment. Unlike traditional models, the SBM-DEA model offers unit invariance and monotonicity for slacks, allowing it to handle zero and negative data, which overcomes the limitations of previous DEA models. This innovation leads to more accurate efficiency scores, enabling robust analysis. Furthermore, applying neural networks provides predictive insights by identifying critical predictors for WCME, equipping firms to address WCM challenges proactively.