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There can be many negative effects from a disruption in a central node of companies' supply chains, such as a port conflict that reduces capacity. Strategies for disruption management include flexibility and redundancy. This paper aims to analyse a supply chain disruption from flexibility and capacity perspectives.

A case study was conducted of the supply chain disruption caused by the port conflict in 2016–2017 in Gothenburg, in which the port operated at a reduced capacity. Companies importing and exporting goods, freight forwarders, hauliers, train operators, ports, shipping companies and their agents were interviewed.

Various capacity problems (ports, links, container chassis, empty containers) were encountered due to the port conflict. Flexibility measures such as node, mode and fleet flexibility can be used in response to changes in capacity. Difficulties with applying flexibility are discussed.

Although based on a Swedish case, findings are relevant for disruptions or other types of disturbances in ports elsewhere and also in other important nodes in companies' supply chains.

Actors influenced by disturbances in a port can increase their understanding of potential capacity problems and flexibility measures. Readiness and timely action are important due to competition regarding capacity.

The implications on the transport network surrounding a port, including many actors, are explained, illustrating how capacity problems propagate, but there is some flexibility to manage the problems.

Rigor and practical relevance are the foundations for logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) as an applied discipline. Whereas there are well-founded criteria for establishing methodological rigor, researchers must provide their own credible logic as to why their papers can influence practice. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop guidelines for establishing practical relevance in research papers.

A literature review of LSCM, marketing, operations management and management journals forms the foundation for these guidelines.

Relevance criteria are identified; research should be problem-driven, timely and important, and findings should be implementable, nonobvious, novel and not too costly. Measures for researchers demonstrating the fulfillment of these criteria are identified as practitioner input, gray literature, funding, practitioner involvement and feedback. Researchers should also clearly articulate both problem relevance and the relevance of their findings.

A lack of practical relevance is among the reasons for the rejection of papers by LSCM journals, but researchers can overcome this obstacle using these guidelines.

At a metalevel, this paper contributes to research with greater practical relevance.

Practical relevance is emphasized in the editorials of LSCM journals but has not yet been fully conceptualized from the authors' perspective.

Severe disruptions to maritime supply chains, including port closures, congestion and shortages in shipping capacity, have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper’s purpose is to explore flexibility-based countermeasures that enable actors in maritime supply chains to mitigate the effects of disruptions with different characteristics.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with shipping lines, shippers, forwarders and ports. Data on the COVID-19 pandemic's effects and countermeasures were collected and compared with data regarding the 2016–2017 Gothenburg port conflict.

Spatial, capacity, service and temporal flexibility emerged as the primary countermeasures, whilst important characteristics of disruptions were geographical spread, duration, uncertainty, criticality, the element of surprise and intensity. Spatial flexibility was exercised in both disruptions by switching to alternative ports. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring capacity flexibility included first removing and then adding vessels. Shipping lines exercising service flexibility prioritised certain cargo, which made the spot market uncertain and reduced flexibility for forwarders, importers and exporters that changed carriers or traffic modes. Experience with disruptions meant less surprise and better preparation for spatial flexibility.

Understanding how actors in maritime supply chains exercise flexibility-based countermeasures amid disruptions with different characteristics can support preparedness for coming disruptions.

Comparing flexibility-based measures in a pandemic versus port conflict provides insights into the important characteristics of disruptions and the relevance of mitigation strategies. The resilience of maritime supply chains, although underexamined compared with manufacturing supply chains, is essential for maintaining global supply chain flows.

The aim of this research paper is to explain how principles of supply chain management (SCM) provide important conditions for the production, accessibility and use of energy, from the point of origin to the point of consumption.

The paper identifies three distinct trajectories in which the interplay between energy and SCM can release potential for research and practice.

Energy resources are vital to power industrial processes in manufacturing and logistics, while their use is also a major contributor to carbon emissions. The integrative nature of SCM provides conditions for improvement in use and accessibility of energy, and can facilitate the transition in which fossil fuels are replaced with a system of supply and conversion of renewable energy. These opportunities are highlighted by developing a set of three trajectories, which range from a true supply chain perspective on the energy sector, to an up‐stream and down‐stream perspective, respectively.

The impact of energy resources on carbon emissions makes them important units of analysis in further SCM research. Future research must acknowledge the variety in the nature of energy resources, and provide frameworks that are able to address the particular features of these.

Supply chain strategists must assess how energy use, efficiency, dependency and accessibility influence operations, both internally and externally in the supply chain. Logistics flows are powered by energy. As a considerable portion of carbon emissions created by supply chain operations is energy related, energy must be seen as a means towards achievement of environmental sustainability.

Understanding the relationship between energy and SCM will help managers to address environmental sustainability.

This is a timely topic of a cross‐disciplinary nature that has only been addressed to a limited extent by SCM so far. The topic is relevant to a large group of problem owners: supply chain strategists of companies where energy use, efficiency, dependency and security is an issue, and where operations processes have an impact on carbon emissions; for the energy sector, that needs to sustain a steady supply of energy, and increase accessibility to renewable energy sources that can replace fossil fuel; for policy makers, where energy dependency and security at a national level is an issue.

One way of overcoming logistics barriers (poor transportation, handling and storage properties) towards increased utilisation of biomass is to introduce a pre‐treatment process such as torrefaction early in the biomass‐to‐energy supply chain. Torrefaction offers a range of potentially beneficial logistics properties but the actual benefits depend upon how the supply chain is configured to address various elements of customer demand. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop a framework for torrefaction configuration in a supply chain perspective for different types of customers.

Sophisticated pre‐treatment processes are yet to reach the commercialisation phase. Identification of possible supply chain configurations is in this paper done through a conceptual approach by bringing together knowledge from related research fields such as unrefined forest fuel, pellets and coal logistics with prescriptions for configuration derived from the subject area of supply chain management (SCM).

A framework that explicates different elements of supply and demand of torrefaction is proposed, and exemplified by three distinct supply chains. Depending on demand, torrefaction serves different purposes, bridging gaps in place, time, quality and ownership. Furthermore, different supply chain configurations will pose different requirements on torrefaction in terms of producing different product quality, durability, energy density and hydrophobicity of the pellets.

The proposed framework entails a set of propositions, but requires further development through empirical studies using complementary research methods such as interviews or surveys and quantification through techno‐economical or optimisation from a supply chain perspective.

This paper provides a framework that can inform decisions makers in biomass‐to‐energy supply chains, in particular at torrefaction plants, on upstream and downstream implications of their decisions.

The findings have implications for biomass‐to‐energy supply chains in general, and in particular, the paper provides a supply chain perspective of pre‐treatment processes, where previous research has focused primarily on technical aspects of torrefaction.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether transformational leadership affects auditor objectivity.

The investigation is based on a field survey of 198 practicing auditors employed by audit firms operating in Sweden.

This study finds that transformational client leadership negatively affects auditor objectivity and that the effect is only partially mediated by client identification. Given these results, suggesting that auditors are susceptible to influence by their clients’ perceived exercise of transformational leadership, leadership theory appears relevant to the discussion of auditor objectivity in the accounting literature.

Previous accounting research has applied the social identity theory framework and found that client identification impairs auditor objectivity. However, the effect of transformational client leadership on auditor objectivity, which reflects an intense auditor-client relationship, has been neglected before this study.

The study aims to examine the influence of auditor personal factors, such as goal orientation, self-efficacy and professional commitment to auditor’s responsibility to detect the fraudulent, particularly in small accounting firms.

The authors surveyed 86 auditors working in small accounting firms in Bali Province, Indonesia.

The results prove the role of self-efficacy as a mediating variable in the relationship of goal orientation and auditor responsibility. This result at once confirms that self-efficacy can improve individual performance even in complex tasks. This study also proves the role of professional commitment as a mediator variable.

Given that the respondents came from small accounting firms, these findings are not intended to be generalized with auditors in large accounting firms.

These findings highlight essential efforts to reduce audit expectation gaps between auditors and the public. The small accounting firms’ leaders must to alignment workplace organizational goals and organization professional goals. A dualism of purpose causes the auditor to fail to fulfill the responsibility of fraud detection.

There is a severe audit expectation gap related to the auditor’s role in detecting fraud. This finding expected to answer public questions related to auditors’ ability and responsibility in small accounting firms in detecting fraud.

There is limited research on auditor responsibility, particularly in small audit firms in developing countries. Also, there is still debate scientific about the influence of goal orientation, self-efficacy and professional commitment to auditor performance.

Using attribution theory, this study examined the effects of situational factors [time budget pressure (TBP), organisational ethical culture (OEC) and quality control procedures (QCPs)] and dispositional factors [auditor professional commitment (APC) and internal locus of control (ILOC)] on audit quality threatening behaviour (AQTB). In addition, it observed the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between situational and dispositional factors and AQTB.

A total of 189 external auditors responded to the survey questionnaire. This study employed structural equation modelling via SmartPLS to analyse the proposed model.

The results documented that the OEC and QCPs situational factors were negatively related to the incidence of AQTB, whilst TBP was positively linked to the incidence of AQTB. Dispositional factors APC and ILOC were negatively connected to AQTB. Furthermore, the findings recorded the moderating effect of religiosity on most of the situational and dispositional factors related to AQTB.

Regulators and accounting firms' efforts to promote high audit quality (AQ) may consider the theological/religious lens and reinforce ethical culture and quality control to reduce AQTB.

The findings provide further insights into situational and dispositional factors that may cause or impede the incidence of AQTB in auditing practices, as well as the moderating role of religiosity in curbing AQTB.