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An important function in purchasing is the disposal of excess material. Often the material is in the form of waste products such as paper, metals and plastics which are difficult to value. However, by utilizing a commodity‐market based approach, many items can now be disposed of in a timely, profitable and environmentally friendly manner. This paper discusses some of the issues involved in disposing of surplus material using commodity indices. The discussion also shows how surplus asset disposal is linked to developments in environmental logistics, reverse logistics and recycling. The general methods, issues and challenges in commodity disposal have been explained through a case study. The case study includes a total cost model showing the costs and the benefits of commodity based or commodity indexed disposal.

Any chain (or network) connected through electronic links can be considered virtual. However, a virtual supply chain often encompasses much more than electronic links. It represents an organization structure that facilitates efficient and effective flows of both physical goods and information in a seamless fashion. What distinguishes the virtual chain from the traditional supply chain is its inherent flexibility to quickly adopt and adapt to changes in the business environment. As a result, new members can be continually added and old members deleted or have roles reassigned to them within the chain. Consequently, the ability to reconfigure organizational structures (sometimes on a real‐time basis) provides the chain the capability to customize solutions for different segments of customers or keep up with changes in customer requirements. This adaptability of the chain is likely to lead to competition between chains rather than between organizations. In this paper, we describe what “virtual” means in the context of a supply chain. We sketch out the evolution of the supply chain over the last few decades and elaborate on why organizations are being forced to confront the reality of “virtual organizations”. Then we present both technical and managerial issues associated with virtual chains and conclude with a projection of how the chain could look in the future.

Despite existing life cycle costing (LCC) method descriptions and practicable suggestions for conducting LCC analyses, no systematic analyses on actual implementations of LCC methods exist. This paper aims to review reports on LCC applications to provide an overview of LCC uses and implementation feasibility.

A review of LCC cases reported in academic and practitioner literature. Case reports were compared against one another and against the defining articles in the field.

Most of the reported LCC applications were far from ideal. Compared to the methods suggested in the literature many of the case study applications: covered fewer parts of the whole life cycle, estimated the costs on a lower level of detail, used cost estimation methods based on expert opinion rather than statistical methods, and were content with deterministic estimates of life cycle costs instead of using sensitivity analyses.

This review is limited to reported LCC applications only. Further research is encouraged in the form of a field‐based multiple‐case study to reveal context‐specific dimensions of LCC analysis and implementation challenges in more detail.

This review highlights the difficulty of conducting a reliable LCC analysis, and points out typical problems that should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the LCC analysis.

First systematic analysis of LCC applications that gives directions for further research on the LCC concept.

This paper aims to explore the challenges faced by start-ups during COVID-19 and highlight solutions for catering to the new-normal consumer behaviour. The study accounts for 15 deep-tech start-ups sailing through the pandemic and their responsiveness. This study brings forth insights and experiences from the Indian start-up founders and CEOs during COVID-19.

This study uses a qualitative approach and is exploratory and phenomenological. A purposive sample of 15 young start-ups founded between the years 2013–2020 by founders aged between 24 and 41 was selected for the study. The recorded telephonic interview was collected from the founders from April 2021 to September 2021. The thematic analysis of the study evolves from Braun and Clarke (2006) using the MAXQDA 2020.

The study emphasizes upon challenges faced by start-ups, crisis management of start-ups and the relevance of technology-based start-ups during challenging times. This research provides a qualitative framework to establish the role of the technology acceptance model (TAM) towards the adaptability, responsiveness and resilience demonstrated by the start-ups. The findings also highlight the solutions to address challenges faced by start-ups and road to recovery.

The study has great relevance and lessons for budding entrepreneurs during crisis management. The study has implications for corporations and governments in terms of setting up incubators and accelerators to support budding entrepreneurs.

The study is unique in highlighting the relevance and importance of TAM for start-ups during crisis management like COVID-19. The study thrusts upon the need of technology acceptance for better crisis management.