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The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainability reporting is shaped by the global influences and particular national context where businesses operate.

The paper uses both content analysis of published sustainability information and semi-structured interviews with corporate managers to explore how sustainability reporting is used to address unique social and environmental challenges in a developing country – Sri Lanka. The use of integrative social contracts theory in investigating sustainability reporting offers novel insights into understanding the drivers for sustainability reporting practices in this particular country.

The findings reveal that managers’ perceptions about usefulness of sustainability reporting, local contextual challenges and global norms influence the extent to which companies engage in sustainability reporting and the nature of sustainability information reported. In particular, Sri Lankan company managers strive to undertake sustainability projects that are beneficial not only to their companies but also to the development of the country. However, while company managers in Sri Lanka are keen to undertake sustainability reporting, they face different tensions/expectations between global expectations and local contextual factors when undertaking sustainability projects and reporting. This is also showcased in what is ultimately reported in company annual reports, where some aspects of sustainability, e.g. social, tend to focus more on addressing local concerns whereas other disclosures are on issues that may be relevant across many contexts.

Important insights for government and other regulatory authorities can be drawn from the findings of this study. By capitalising on the strong sense of moral duty felt by company managers, policymakers can involve the business sector more to mitigate the social and environmental issues prevalent in Sri Lanka. The findings can also be used by other developing countries to enable pathways to engage with the corporate sector to contribute to national development agendas through their sustainability initiatives and projects.

While the usual understanding of developing country’s company managers is that they try to follow global trends, in Sri Lanka, this research shows how managers are trying to align their responsibilities at a national level with global principles regarding sustainability reporting. Therefore, this paper highlights how both hypernorms and microsocial rules can interact to define how company managers undertake sustainability reporting in a developing country.

The process of fashion design varies between market segments, yet these variations have not yet been properly explored. This study aims to examine the fashion design process as practised at the mass-market level, as this is the most vibrant and the largest market segment in terms of production volumes and sales.

It is observed that 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with mass-market fashion designers. Key activities of the mass-market design process were identified and a comparative analysis was conducted with the general design process.

The mass-market design process is found to prioritise profits rather than aesthetic aspects, with the buyer exercising more power than the designer. This hinders creativity, which, in turn, may impede a move towards more environmentally benign designs.

The clothing industry is responsible for high environmental impacts and many of these impacts arise through decisions made in the design stage. In particular, the mass-market for clothing because of its high volume of sales and fast throughput, accounts for a great deal of the impact. However, little is understood about the design process that is practised in the mass-fashion market. This paper fills the gap by developing a framework that describes the mass-market design process. Understanding the design process will enable progress to be made towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Since its development by Tinbergen (1962), the gravity model of international trade has widely been applied to analyse the effect of various factors on trade relationships between countries. Past studies on trade gravity vary not only in the mix of model variables but also in how they have come into the analysis. This study reviews existing literature on bilateral trade with an aim to identify influential predictors such as changes of trade policy and national development strategy and highlight important yet understudied factors such as transport and logistics infrastructure, and sustainable development. To demonstrate the needs to examine these critical factors across industry sectors, the study presents the case of textiles and clothing (T&C) production and trade between China and its trading partners as an illustration. Through the literature review, it shows how the gravity model can be applied to address current issues in international trade arena such as the potential trade war between the US and China, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and other important factors shaping global T&C trade. This study offers future research directions for analysis of global trade in the T&C industry and contributes to the wider literature of international business and trade.

This paper aims to examine and compare the export performance and competitiveness of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing industry in post-multifibre arrangement (MFA) era.

Balassa’s revealed comparative advantage Index is used to assess the competitiveness of Indian and Chinese textile and clothing exports.

The results indicate that China’s textiles and garments sector holds a greater proportion of the global market compared with India. India has a robust comparative advantage in silk, carpets and cotton post-MFA. Vegetable textile fibers, paper yarn and woven fabrics of paper yarn are also competitive. China had a strong comparative advantage in silk and fabrics; special woven fabrics, tafted textile fabrics, lace, tapestries, trimmings and embroidery in 2005. China also recorded comparative advantage in silk, man-made filaments: strip and the like of man-made textile materials, fabrics; special woven fabrics, tafted textile fabrics, lace, tapestries, trimmings and embroidery and fabrics; knitted or crocheted in 2021.

This study’s results and recommendations could assist the Indian and Chinese Governments develop policies to upgrade their garment industries.

Though vast literature reviews are available for textile and apparel export performance in India and China separately, there are few studies on comparisons. This study is a significant attempt to evaluate India and China’s competitiveness in the global market.

This paper employs the gravity model to investigate how the growth of China’s textile and clothing (T&C) exports is displacing the exports of other Asian developing countries over the 1990-2015 period. Aggregate analyses were undertaken, and the endogeneity of Chinese exports were accounted by applying instrumental variables with country fixed effects. It was found that there was a negative impact of China’s emergence on T&C exports on other Asian developing countries. We further explored whether such displacement effect varies across Asian countries and the results showed that a more pronounced effect was found in low-income countries than high-income ones. Our findings suggest that the export competitiveness of China’s neighbors, i.e. both more and less developed Asian countries, are affected by the emergence of China in T&C Trade. The implications of China’s One Belt, One Road initiative are also discussed.

The study aims to map the links between Industry 4.0 (I-4.0) technologies and circular economy (CE) for sustainable operations and their role to achieving the selected number of sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The study adopts a systematic literature review method to identify 76 primary studies that were published between January 2010 and December 2020. The authors synthesized the existing literature using Scopus database to investigate I-4.0 technologies and CE to select SDGs.

The findings of the study bridge the gap in the literature at the intersection between I-4.0 and sustainable operations in line with the regenerate, share, optimize, loop, virtualize and exchange (ReSOLVE) framework leading to CE practices. Further, the study also depicts the CE practices leading to the select SDGs (“SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation,” “SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy,” “SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure,” “SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production” and “SDG 13: Climate Action”). The study proposes a conceptual framework based on the linkages above, which can help organizations to realign their management practices, thereby achieving specific SDGs.

The originality of the study is substantiated by a unique I-4.0-sustainable operations-CE-SDGs (ISOCES) framework that integrates I-4.0 and CE for sustainable development. The framework is unique, as it is based on an in-depth and systematic review of the literature that maps the links between I-4.0, CE and sustainability.

Debates over the definition, processes and outcomes of minimum and “living” wages are heated and often politically contentious in garment-producing countries. Internationally, there have been various initiatives to promote and support the implementation of a living wage for workers in labour-intensive manufacturing, ranging from corporate-driven social responsibility and multi-stakeholder initiatives to the long-standing living wage campaign of the global unions. One prominent regional initiative is the Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA). The purpose of this paper is to assess its reach and effect in Southeast Asia.

A living wage campaign is assessed with reference to Indonesia and Cambodia, two important garment manufacturing countries in Southeast Asia. The paper draws on data collected in interviews with garment manufacturers, brand representatives, trade unionists and labour NGO activists, including members of the AFWA Steering Committee in Indonesia and Cambodia, complemented by a systematic review of documents and reports produced by the AFWA.

As the paper shows, despite a series of initiatives, the Asia Floor Wage has failed to gain traction in Cambodia or Indonesia. This is so, the paper argues, because national economic, political and institutional contexts are the primary drivers of the strategies and priorities of constituent organisations, governments and industry stakeholders. In the absence of robust local and regional coalitions of trade unions, efforts towards a common and coordinated regional approach to living wages are thus unlikely to gain traction.

To a large extent, the literature on the concepts and practices associated with the living wage has focussed on developed rather than developing countries. This paper extends the literature by providing a systematic examination of a transnational wage campaign in developing Asian countries.

Vietnam has been actively integrated into a multilateral trading system based on its accession to the WTO and the implementation of a series of ASEAN+1 FTAs. Now Vietnam is negotiating to be a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which is a region-wide FTA in the Asia-Pacific region, and a total of 21 working groups have been negotiating 29 chapters of the TPP. This paper tries to assess major issues of Vietnam’s joining the TPP, and to draw policy implications such as initiatives for Vietnam’s acceleration of its renovation and economic restructuring programs; and domestic measures for facilitating FTA implementation by firms and enhancing the country's implementation capacity.

The disruptive human resource management (HRM) technologies are now considered a significant facilitator to change and benefit the entire HRM landscape. This view needs to be further verified by reviewing the knowledge on the subject in the empirical research landscape. Thus, the study's objectives were to find (1) the current knowledge and (2) the areas where empirical research is lacking in disruptive HRM technologies.

The article is a literature review that was followed by the systematic literature review and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA). The review considered 45 articles published during the 2008–2021 period extracted from the Scopus database, and bibliometric analysis was performed to achieve the research objectives.

The results found that scholarly attention has been given to electronic HRM (E-HRM) rather than the disruptive HRM technologies. The areas investigated include the determinants of intention, adoptions and use of E-HRM and the outcomes of E-HRM adoptions and use. These outcomes can be further divided into general outcomes and HRM outcomes.

The findings reveal gaps in E-HRM research and disruptive HRM technologies remain untapped in the empirical research landscape. Hence, the study findings provide some implications for future research and applications.

The study found empirically proven determinants of E-HRM intention, adoptions and use and E-HRM adoptions and use outcomes. These were found in the studies conducted during the 2008–2021 period.

顛覆性人力資源管理技術被認為是一個可改變、並幫助整個人力資源管理格局的重要誘導者; 這個看法、需透過檢核在實證研究範疇裡就有關議題的資料、才能作進一步的核實。因此，本研究擬了解 (1): 我們目前對有關議題的認知，以及 (2): 就顛覆性人力資源管理所進行的實證研究有哪些不足之處。

本文是一個文獻探討。研究人員採用系統文獻綜述研究法，以及系統綜述和 meta分析的首選報告項目。研究涵蓋45篇於2008年至2021年期間發表的學術文章; 這些文章均取自 Scopus資料庫。研究人員進行文獻計量分析，以達到研究的目標。

研究結果顯示、被研究探索的是電子化人力資源管理 (E-HRM) ，而不是顛覆性人力資源管理技術。被研究的範疇包括使用電子化人力資源管理的決定因素，以及使用後的結果。使用後的結果再細分為一般性的結果、和與人力資源管理有關的結果。

研究結果顯示、在實證研究的範疇裡，電子化人力資源管理和顛覆性人力資源管理技術的研究均存在未被探索的研究缺口。因此，研究結果為今後的研究和有關的應用提供了啟示。

本研究發現並確認經實證證明的使用電子化人力資源管理的決定因素，以及使用後的結果。研究結果乃基於檢核於2008年至2021年期間進行的學術研究而得來的。

顛覆性人力資源管理技術、系統文獻綜述、系統綜述和meta分析的首選報告項目 (PRISMA)