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1 – 10 of over 1000Amit Vishwakarma, G.S. Dangayach, M.L. Meena, Sumit Gupta, Deepika Joshi and Sandeep Jagtap
Idea of circular economy defies the classical “make-use-dispose” approach of linear economic model. In the context of health-care industry, it relies heavily on the supply chain…
Abstract
Purpose
Idea of circular economy defies the classical “make-use-dispose” approach of linear economic model. In the context of health-care industry, it relies heavily on the supply chain practices implemented by industry stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to explore such relationships, study their structure and put it across for attaining sustainability at large.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is an empirical research conducted on 145 health-care firms. The collected data is analysed to develop structural and measurement model. The five constructed hypotheses are examined and tested through structural equation modelling.
Findings
The study illustrates the latent relationships that exist among the stakeholders involvement, sustainable supply chain practices, sustainable performance and circular economy for health-care industry. It is found that the adoption of sustainable supply chain practices improves health-care performance, which, in turn, have positive influence on circular economy.
Research limitations/implications
The structural and measurement model is developed in the context of circular health-care economy. It can be validated or improvised by conducting similar research in other industry using different methods. This research work fulfils the long existing gap in research by offering a linkage between various constructs to achieve health-care circular economy. Based on the research results, future researchers can build theories of circular economy and sustainability for health-care industry.
Originality/value
The study attempts to study the supply chain ways to achieve circular economy for Indian health-care sector. It considered latent relationships among the set of constructs, which are needed for theory building at later stage.
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Anne-Karen Hueske, Caroline Aggestam Pontoppidan and Lavinia-Cristina Iosif-Lazar
This study aims to explore the extent and types of E-Learning used, as method and tool, to support education for sustainable development (ESD); and to understand the coverage of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the extent and types of E-Learning used, as method and tool, to support education for sustainable development (ESD); and to understand the coverage of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in massive open online courses (MOOCs).
Design/methodology/approach
The study extends the morphological box of ESD in higher education by nonformal and informal education, exploring the types of blended and online learning and adding the SDGs as a new criterion. The study subjects are Nordic UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) members. Through content analysis and thematic coding of reports by higher education institutions (HEIs), different E-Learning methods are identified; furthermore, 30 MOOCs are analyzed.
Findings
HEIs apply a variety of blended and online learning to advance ESD for formal and nonformal education. The MOOCs offered by Nordic HEIs predominantly cover four SDGs (9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; 13: Climate Action; 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; and 16: Peace, Justice and strong Institutions), but there is nothing on SDG 2: No Hunger. That is in line with the Nordic countries’ status as developed economies, where these topics are often framed as political and societal priorities.
Practical implications
The study’s results suggest that to avoid overlaps and fill gaps in ESD, the offer of open online courses should be orchestrated. Furthermore, HEIs can use our method to analyze their E-Learning courses related to SDGs.
Originality/value
This study shows how business schools, especially Nordic UN PRME members, contribute to the SDGs by their MOOC coverage.
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Riikka Kyrö, Tuuli Jylhä and Antti Peltokorpi
Global megatrends such as urbanization and ageing of the population result in fast-paced demographic changes, which pose different types of challenges for different regions. While…
Abstract
Purpose
Global megatrends such as urbanization and ageing of the population result in fast-paced demographic changes, which pose different types of challenges for different regions. While many rural municipalities bear the burden of under-used buildings, cities are in a hurry to develop new ones to meet new space demands. The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential of relocatable modular buildings to address these challenges, following the principles of circular economy, while at the same time offering usability.
Design/methodology/approach
This multiple case study explores existing relocatable modular health-care buildings in Finland. The case buildings host hospital support functions, imaging services, a health-care centre and a care home. The primary data comprise 21 semi-structured interviews and observation during factory and site visits.
Findings
Based on the findings, relocatable modular buildings have many benefits and provide a viable option for cities and municipalities struggling to meet their fluctuating space demands. Some challenges were also identified, mainly derived from the dimensional restrictions of the modules.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the emerging body of knowledge on circular economy in the built environment. More specifically, the research provides a very concrete example of circularity and details a framework for usable and relocatable modular buildings. In conclusion, relocatable modular buildings could solve the challenges posed by quickly changing demographics in different types of regions and deliver both usability and circularity.
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Manu Sharma and Sudhanshu Joshi
This paper aims to identify barriers toward the adoption of blockchain (BC) technology in Indian health-care industry and also examines the significant issues of BC applications…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify barriers toward the adoption of blockchain (BC) technology in Indian health-care industry and also examines the significant issues of BC applications in health-care industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The barriers of the study are identified by two phases including the review of literature and semistructured interviews with hospital staff and administration operating in India. The experts (N = 15) are being taken from top-level management, IT experts and patients from the hospitals. The study implemented integrated total interpretative structural modeling-FUZZY-Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (TISM-FUZZY-MICMAC) methods for identifying the interrelationship among the barriers.
Findings
A total of 15 barriers have been determined in the Indian health-care industry through discussion with the selected experts. TISM is applied to develop multilevel structure for BC barriers. Further, FUZZY-MICMAC has been used to compute driving and dependent barriers. The findings suggest that low awareness related to legal issues and low support from high level of management have maximum driving power.
Research limitations/implications
The present study applies multicriterion approach to identify the limited barriers in BC adoption in health care. Future studies may develop the relationship and mark down the steps for implementation of BC in health-care setting of a developing economy. Empirical study can be conducted to verify the results along with selected case studies.
Practical implications
The present study identifies the BC adoption barriers in health-care industry. The study examines the pertinent issues in context to major support required, bottlenecks in adoption, key benefits of adoption planning and activities. The technology adoption practices are expected to provide applications such as distributed, secured medical and clinical data and patient centric systems that will enhance the efficiency of the health-care industry.
Originality/value
The study is among few primary studies that identify and analyze the BC adoption in health-care industry.
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Elvira Vieira, Ana Pinto Borges, Paula Lopes Rodrigues, Ana Maria Reis and Svitlana Ostapenko
Circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing worldwide attention as a manner to overcome the challenges linked to current trends of unsustainable energy and resource consumption…
Abstract
Purpose
Circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing worldwide attention as a manner to overcome the challenges linked to current trends of unsustainable energy and resource consumption. This paper aims to fill this gap and analyze the adherence to sustainable, access-based and collaborative consumption practices by exploring the role of CE awareness, specifically in the context of Porto, the second-largest city of Portugal.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology of choice is quantitative, based on partial least square-based structural equation modeling.
Findings
The result shows that there is an influence of CE awareness on subsequent sustainable consumption models.
Research limitations/implications
Present research contributes to the theory on CE awareness and sustainable consumption. It proposes a model that could be applied in other countries. As this research is developed within the city of Porto, it may limit generalizations of obtained results.
Practical implications
As CE practices are embodied into national and local policies, this research contributes to understanding local contexts of CE practices dissemination, providing practical suggestions for businesses and policymakers aiming the transition to the CE.
Originality/value
An original approach to measuring the awareness of CE economy is proposed, that is analyzed not only from the familiarity perspective but in six dimensions of its construction: familiarity, importance, perception or interpretation, advantages, social impact and barriers in this process. Further, the conceptual model of the impact that these dimensions have on the adoption of sustainable consumption models (purchase of sustainable products, access-based and collaborative consumption) is proposed.
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Gyöngyi Kovács, Markku Kuula, Stefan Seuring and Constantin Blome
The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of operations management in society. The article detects trends, raises critical questions to operations management research and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of operations management in society. The article detects trends, raises critical questions to operations management research and articulates a research agenda to increase the value of such research in addressing societal problems.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper evaluates the papers presented at the EurOMA 2019 conference to detect trends and discuss the contributions of operations management research to society. It further goes to identify gaps in the research agenda.
Findings
The article finds several important streams of research in operations management: sustainable operations and supply chains, health care and humanitarian operations, innovation, digitalisation and 4.0, risk and resilience. It highlights new trends such as circular economy research and problematises when to stop implementing innovation and how to address and report their potential failure. Importantly, it shows how it is not just a question of offshoring vs reshoring but of constant change in manufacturing that operations management addresses.
Originality/value
The article highlights not just novel research areas but also gaps in the research agenda where operations management seeks to add value to society.
In the face of increasing resource insecurity, environmental degradation and climate change, more governments and businesses are now embracing the concept of the circular economy…
Abstract
In the face of increasing resource insecurity, environmental degradation and climate change, more governments and businesses are now embracing the concept of the circular economy. This chapter presents some historical background to the concept, with particular attention paid to its assumed opposite, the ‘linear’ or growth economy. While the origins of the circular economy concept are to be found in 1960s environmentalism, the chapter draws attention to the influence of the then ‘new’ sciences of ecology and ‘cybernetics’ in shaping the public environmental discourse of the period. It also draws attention to the background of the present linear economy in postwar policies that encouraged reconstruction and a social and economic democratisation across the West, including an expansion of mass-consumption. It emphasises the role of the 1960s counterculture in generating a popular reaction against this expansionary growth-based agenda, and its influence in shaping subsequent environmentalism, including the ‘metabolic’ and ecological economic understanding of the environmental crisis that informs the concept of the circular economy. Reflecting upon this historical preamble, the chapter concludes that more attention should be paid to the economic, cultural and social contexts of consumption, now more clearly the main driver of our global environmental crisis. Without now engaging more directly with the ‘consumption problem’, the chapter argues, it seems unlikely that the goals of the circular economy can be met.
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Rajesh Kumar Singh, Saurabh Agrawal, Abhishek Sahu and Yigit Kazancoglu
The proposed article is aimed at exploring the opportunities, challenges and possible outcomes of incorporating big data analytics (BDA) into health-care sector. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
The proposed article is aimed at exploring the opportunities, challenges and possible outcomes of incorporating big data analytics (BDA) into health-care sector. The purpose of this study is to find the research gaps in the literature and to investigate the scope of incorporating new strategies in the health-care sector for increasing the efficiency of the system.
Design/methodology/approach
Fora state-of-the-art literature review, a systematic literature review has been carried out to find out research gaps in the field of healthcare using big data (BD) applications. A detailed research methodology including material collection, descriptive analysis and categorization is utilized to carry out the literature review.
Findings
BD analysis is rapidly being adopted in health-care sector for utilizing precious information available in terms of BD. However, it puts forth certain challenges that need to be focused upon. The article identifies and explains the challenges thoroughly.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed study will provide useful guidance to the health-care sector professionals for managing health-care system. It will help academicians and physicians for evaluating, improving and benchmarking the health-care strategies through BDA in the health-care sector. One of the limitations of the study is that it is based on literature review and more in-depth studies may be carried out for the generalization of results.
Originality/value
There are certain effective tools available in the market today that are currently being used by both small and large businesses and corporations. One of them is BD, which may be very useful for health-care sector. A comprehensive literature review is carried out for research papers published between 1974 and 2021.
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