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The purpose of this paper is to revisit lean manufacturing and process management to review how these have targeted environmental sustainability and determine whether these have the potential to achieve environmental sustainability in small- and medium-sized companies within the freight transport sector.

The methodology for this paper was divided into three steps. The first step involved a narrative literature review, including previously designed search strings. The second step involved a snowball approach, where the identification of new sources departed from previously selected articles. The third step included a completing narrative review to search for the most recent articles published related to the purpose. The analysis was based on the identification of benefits, challenges and the potential of lean and process management to deal with environmental demands among transport companies.

The findings suggest a potential of lean and process management for achieving environmental sustainability, if adapted appropriately. The potential is on the operative and strategic levels, respectively.

This study included two of the concepts from the quality movement from a literature perspective. Hence, there is a need for research to evaluate these results empirically. Additionally, other aspects should be studied within the quality movement for achieving environmental sustainability.

This paper aims to be a basis and a path for further theoretical and empirical research for the quality movement to support environmental sustainability. This paper particularly aims to fill part of the gap in the literature on how the freight transport sector can enhance environmental sustainability in its operations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how process management (PM) can support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in pursuing sustained competitive advantage. For this purpose, a dynamic capabilities (DC) lens was used.

A narrative literature review and a multiple case study with an action research approach at two road freight transport companies were used.

PM provides structure and system thinking to support the development of competitive advantage. Concerning PM, management of knowledge, management style and process orientation are key factors for the generation of competitive advantage for SMEs.

This study contributes to PM literature by studying its support for and implementation at SMEs. Furthermore, the study contributes to the literature on DC by providing concrete examples of activities linked to such capabilities.

This study contributes to practitioners by providing examples of implementing PM and identifying competitive advantage, connected with PM elements.

This study has social and environmental implications for the quality of life of the Swedish people.

This paper contributes to clarifying the connection between the research fields of quality management and DC to explore how PM can support SMEs in pursuing sustained competitive advantage.

Organisations seek to manage and control the dress, appearance and behaviour of their employees for strategic corporate advantage but what are the far‐reaching implications of this for employers and employees? This paper aims to identify the explicit and implicit codes for appearance and behaviour imposed by management and co‐workers.

Adopting a case study approach using ethnographic methods, this research, conducted in a recruitment agency specialising in placing construction industry personnel, draws on data obtained from four in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with senior managers, a focus group with female employees and participant observation methods, and provides an intriguing insight into the grooming and packaging of female employees. Findings – Findings show this aesthetic and behavioural “packaging” of the female employees comes with consequences for client, employer and employee. The females cannot escape the aesthetic and sexualised image imposed upon them as management strategy and often have no choice but to “perform” for clients to manipulate situations for their own advantage.

Because of the research approach adopted and the relatively small sample size, generalizability is limited. It would be helpful to replicate the study in other settings.

The paper highlights the existence of official and unofficial controls over dress, appearance and behaviour and the pressure exerted on women in the workplace.