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This pathway paper highlights how geopolitics, risk and ethics affect critical minerals (CMs) supply chains (SCs). It identifies pathways to enable operations and SC management scholars to support this under-researched industry.

Qualitative research was undertaken in partnership with the Critical Minerals International Alliance (CMIA). Interviews were conducted with senior industry leaders from across CMs supply networks.

The CMs industry is distinctly different from conventional SCs and would greatly benefit from the development and application of operations and SC management theories.

The four pathways that require scholars’ attention comprise risk and resilience, SC opacity, supply constraints and ethics.

CM s are essential for products such as smart phones and the technologies required for decarbonisation and achieving net zero. The pathways address multifaceted challenges of benefit to industry stakeholders.

Improving the understanding of CMs SCs will support the decarbonisation agenda. Reducing the opacity within SCs would help address governance issues and curb unethical behaviours.

This paper draws on the expertise and insights gained from industry leaders. It establishes pathways and proposes theories and research questions for addressing the impact of geopolitics on CM operations and SCs.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the complex challenges organisations must address in order to respond and recover from disruptive events, and highlight the important perspectives within the growing narrative of resilience, from and operations and strategic management perspective.

Using an approach that involves the critique of relevant and latest literature, this paper looks to identify the challenges in developing resilience at an organisational level.

The outcome of this paper establishes a set of propositions to guide the development of organisational-level resilience as well as future research. These propositions highlight the features of both active and passive resilience, and identify key considerations for organisations.

These propositions highlight the features of both active and passive resilience, and identify key considerations for organisations. Through recognising these propositions, organisations may be better placed to address the impacts of disruptive events.

This paper aims to investigate the current state of research on sustainability-related manufacturing trade-offs (i.e. giving preference and priority to one dimension over others) that affect suppliers in developed and less developed countries (LDCs). There is growing pressure on suppliers to adopt sustainable practices into their global supply chains. Successfully implementing all three dimensions of the triple bottom line (TBL) imperative can provide organizations with an added capability and potentially result in competitive advantage and a focus on sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the long run. However, designing supply chains for achieving the TBL requires suppliers to recognize and overcome numerous trade-offs.

A systematic literature review comprising 71 papers published between 2004 and 2020 was undertaken using a content analysis approach to identify trade-offs affecting suppliers.

This study firstly identified eight sustainability-related trade-offs affecting suppliers from a TBL perspective in both developed and LDCs, consequently, allowing for a detailed discussion on trade-off factors and conditions unique to both developed and LDCs. Together, these findings enable this study to present initiatives and investment-related decisions for supply chains from a TBL perspective.

In spite of the plethora of studies on sustainable supply chains, there is little research on trade-offs, specifically those affecting sustainability of suppliers operating in LDCs. This paper addresses this critical gap and advances the literature on sustainability-related supply chain trade-offs.

Natural disasters represent an increasing threat to businesses, putting at risk their continuity in light of sustainable performance conditions. The present chapter explores the role of organizational resilience and of human capital in manufacturing companies hit by a natural disaster, an earthquake in the current study, by considering performance in the long run. In doing so, a survey has been performed on a sample of 131 manufacturing companies hit by the Emilia earthquake (Italy) in 2012, considering both perceptual data and balance sheet data. This represents a key contribution of this chapter, as extant literature on the impact of resilience on business performance has mainly used perceptual data; conversely, our study, considering balance sheet data, enables a more comprehensive and realistic view of the phenomenon. The sample was selected from the AIDA database, as it includes revenue data that we could add to the perceptual measures obtained by administering a structured questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was then employed. The results show the importance of developing adaptive processes that leverage on the organization’s human capital and resilience to respond to adverse exogenous events. More specifically, it has been found that human capital and organizational resilience are profitable to post-disaster economic performance in the long run, supporting the economic sustainability of affected businesses. The implications are related to reinforcing new business solutions and adaptive strategies, looking at both organizational resilience and human capital investment to reach a stable economic business performance in the long-run after a detrimental event.

This paper aims to verify which intangible assets attributable to intellectual capital (IC) influence the anti-cyclical nature and the resilience of social enterprises (SEs) during systemic crises and whether these factors take on particular connotations in female-run SEs.

A qualitative methodology based on multiple case studies is used to answer the research questions. A set of SEs operating in the catering sector is analyzed. The analysis is carried out by in-depth interviews with male and female managers of SEs to understand which resilience IC factors were most activated during full emergency and recovery stages.

The results confirm the anti-cyclical nature of SEs and their resilience to systemic crises. No distinct differences emerge between female and male SEs. Concerning the IC, relational capital (RC) is the most relevant intangible asset for small and medium-sized SEs. Internal and external relations support them during the crisis and the consolidation of trusted ties, formal and informal, external and internal, favor the Recovery. The RC is a crucial resource even in bigger SEs, but some differences are detected concerning the smaller ones. In the smaller SEs, informal relations prevail, while formal relations prevail in the larger ones, particularly with institutions. Furthermore, the RC is the sole or primary resource in the smaller SEs, while the bigger SEs can count on more varied intangible resources.

This study offers an original contribution to studies on IC by focusing on the factors little analyzed by existing studies: (1) SE management, (2) the contribution of IC to the resilience of non-profit-oriented enterprises and (3) the search for elements of differentiation between SEs with male and female leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between intellectual capital (IC) and resilience in torn societies while proposing an integrative framework. Due to adversities faced by entrepreneurs in such contexts, an understanding of the role of resilience along with IC has become crucial for businesses to succeed and survive.

This study takes an in-depth look at the three components of IC – human, organizational and external capital and their association with resilience. In order to do so, a qualitative study on 17 Iraqi micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) was conducted using data collected through semi-structured interviews with the founders. The interviews were translated and coded by native speakers.

The results suggest that IC and resilience are interrelated concepts where IC components contribute to the resilience capabilities of entrepreneurs to survive and continue their businesses during turbulent times.

Implications for managers and policymakers are presented; in brief, strategies and policies are required to support entrepreneurial success in the Iraqi context.

The study contributes to the literature on IC for entrepreneurs. So far, few studies have dealt with the association between IC and resilience, and less so in torn societies. This paper contributes to research on enterprise development and survival under conflict zones; it highlights some of the factors that could form resilience of a MSME in the face of uncertainty; and it contributes to the literature on IC as it helps us understand certain capacities that build up and/or support MSME resilience in such a context.

Using Gibson and Tarrant's (2010) resilience triangle model, this study explores how small northwest Himalayan organisations respond to contextual challenges and opportunities and embed sustainability strategies in the organisations' operational values.

A qualitative exploratory design through individual and group interviews with owner-managers and employees was held in five small northwest Himalayan organisations.

The findings reveal multiple contextual challenges facing small organisations in northwest Himalayas, including ecological conditions, remoteness, underdeveloped infrastructure and human competencies. The investigated organisations respond to these challenges through reactive and innovation-based services like eco-tourism, conservation and educational initiatives. The organisations engage communities through participatory and educational activities. Owner-managers adjust the respective vision and mission statements, train employees on sustainability values and lobby the government on policy changes to embed sustainability strategies. Some organisations invest in resources and capabilities and others in process capabilities.

Small organisations can improve how the organisations predict contextual issues by developing the organisations' process capabilities, specifically by creating practical tools with parameters relevant to ecological conditions. These organisations can set the tools through participatory actions with the broader communities to ensure the (un)intended consequences of environmental issues are considered. Furthermore, improvements in process and human capabilities will provide new approaches to raising business opportunities, especially in post-pandemic business environments.

This study develops a framework that enhances the understanding of how process capabilities, leadership, people and knowledge capabilities are critical to developing and embedding sustainability strategies in small organisations.