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This paper aims to assess how cocoa supply chain companies disclose sustainable development goals (SDGs) information in their sustainability reports. This assessment highlights strategic aspects of sustainable supply chain management and reveals leveraging sustainability points in the cocoa industry.

The two-step qualitative approach relies on text-mining company reports and subsequent content analysis that identifies the topics disclosed and relates them to SDG targets.

This study distinguishes 18 SDG targets connected to cocoa traders and 30 SDG targets to chocolate manufacturers. The following topics represent the main nexuses of connections: decent labour promotion and gender equity (social), empowering local communities and supply chain monitoring (economic) and agroforestry and climate action (environmental).

By highlighting the interconnections between the SDGs targeted by companies in the cocoa supply chain, this paper sheds light on the strategic SDGs for this industry and their relationships, which can help to improve sustainability disclosure and transparency. One interesting input for companies is the improvement of climate crisis prevention, focusing on non-renewable sources minimisation, carbon footprint and clear indicators of ecologic materiality.

This study contributes to policymakers to enhance governance and accountability of global supply chains that are submitted to different regulation regimes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has framed the cocoa industry from a broader SDG perspective. The interconnections identified reveal the key goals of the cocoa supply chain and point to strategic sustainability choices for companies in an important global industry.

To understand the context surrounding the sustainable supplier management (SSM) process (i.e. selection, development and evaluation), this paper aims to explore institutional logics existing in the Ecuadorian cocoa supply chain (SC). By considering local characteristics and sustainability practices, this study illustrates how competing logic influences SSM.

This paper uses a multiple-case study method for which the authors interviewed different cocoa SC members in Ecuador and used a ground-up approach to analyse the data and reveal singularities influencing sustainability management.

The analysis uncovered two main logics operating within the Ecuadorian cocoa SC SSM process: a commercial logic (e.g. potential for market access, product traceability) and a sustainability logic (e.g. local development and traditions/cultural issues). These logics address market demand requirements; however, some local producers’ needs that impact SSM remains unexplored such as the existence of a regional ancestral culture that poses sustainability as a dominant logic with meaning beyond the triple bottom line. While the two logics have influenced supplier sustainability performance, this paper finds that, of the three SSM sub-processes (selection, development and evaluation), supplier development was the most relevant sub-process receiving attention from SC managers in the studied context.

By understanding the differences in logic and needs, SC managers can better develop strategies for SSM.

The study highlighted in this paper investigated the underexplored topic of the effects that competing logic may have on SSM. This paper focusses on the supplier’s point of view regarding sustainability requirements, addressing a consistent research gap in the literature.

Amidst burgeoning attention for global value chains (GVCs) in international business (IB), this paper aims to identify a clear “missing link” in this literature and discusses implications for research and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy-making and implementation.

The paper combines an overview of relevant literature from different (sub)disciplinary fields, with insights from practitioner and expert interviews and secondary data.

Because IB GVC research stems from a focus on lead firms and their producing suppliers, it lacks attention for intermediary actors that may significantly impact the organization of production in general, and firms’ CSR commitments in particular. Import intermediaries are often “hidden” in GVCs. This paper indicates the emergence of GVC parallelism with “frontstage” chains managed by lead firms and increasingly exposed to public scrutiny following calls for transparency and CSR, and “backstage” ones in which buyers and intermediaries operate more opaquely.

This study points at salient yet little known practices and actors that influence the organization of production and the implementation of CSR policies in various ways, and therefore offers ground for reflection on the design of proper supply chain and CSR policies.

This study exposes a hitherto neglected category of actors in GVCs and broader IB research and discusses implications, relevance and areas for further investigation. An illustrative example explicates the importance of carefully considering this “missing link”. The study emphasizes the need for further study into ways in which both lead firms and intermediaries deal with contradicting demands of implementing CSR policies and offering competitive prices with short lead times.

Blockchain technology enhances information management in healthcare supply chains by securing healthcare information and providing medical resource traceability. However, there is no decision framework to support blockchain implementation for managing information, especially in emerging economies’ healthcare supply chains. This paper develops a hierarchical decision model for implementing blockchain technology for information management in emerging economies’ healthcare supply chains.

This study uses 20 health supply chain experts in Ghana to rank 17 decision criteria for implementing blockchain for healthcare information management using the best-worst method (BWM) multi-criteria decision technique.

The results show that “security” and “privacy,” “infrastructural facility” and “presence of training facilities” are the top three critical factors impacting blockchain adoption in the health supply chain for healthcare information management. Other sub-factors are prioritized.

To implement blockchain effectively to enhance information management in the healthcare supply chain, health institutions, blockchain technology providers and state authorities should concentrate on the highly critical factors extracted from the study.

This is the first study that develops a hierarchical decision model for implementing blockchain technology in emerging economies' health supply chains.

Block chain technology (BCT) has apparent capability of handling information in digital format, which has dragged attention of the practitioners for its utility in industrial and manufacturing practices. Conversely, the managerial adoption of BCT is relatively limited, which motivated the authors to identify crucial dimensions that can persuade the acceptance of BCT from an executive perspective. Thus, the present study is aimed to conduct to understand crucial barriers under BCT for managerial implementation in supply chain management (SCM) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The present study investigated evident barriers to understand implementation of BCT. A questionnaire based survey is performed to collect primary data from service and manufacturing based companies in India. Survey responses are received online and the data is analyzed in a scorecard. The scorecard embedded the scribed entries of Likert scale to determine the relative score.

In present study, sixteen barriers from three categories named as technological, organizational and environmental are evaluated, where, five sub-barriers from technological domain, seven sub-barriers from organizational domain and four sub-barriers from environmental domain are evaluated. The findings of the study determined that the three factors, i.e. “complexity in setup/use”, “Security and privacy concern” and “Technological awareness” mostly affect the adaptation of BCT in SCM. Conversely, “Market dynamics”, “Scalability” and “Cost” do not influence the intention to adopt the technology.

Only few studies have endeavored to ascertain the BCT adoption in SCM of SMEs in developing country like India. Thus, the study is filling a momentous gap of mapping BCT dimensions in the scholastic literature. The findings are expected to enable SMEs to understand important factors to be considered for adopting BCT in their curriculum. Furthermore, the study may benefit the BCT developers and suppliers to endure customized solutions based on the findings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role and contribution of San Martin and Chazuta subnational governments in promoting development and internationalization of the cocoa and chocolate value chain from the stakeholders’ perceptions. This work was based on a qualitative approach in which information triangulation method, information processing with evaluation rubric and WebQDA software were used. The results showed that stakeholders of both value chains perceive that the subnational government’s actions taken to develop and internationalize these value chains are poorly valued and insufficient. Likewise, six internationalization barriers were identified in which two are perceived as the main limitations: low productivity levels and access to innovations and technology. These results contribute to enrich the decision-making process of political authorities and public officials from the San Martin subnational governments. Moreover, they provide information, according to the Peruvian national requirements, on the perceptions needed to rethink and improve the governmental services available, especially productive activities in the rainforest area (Presidencia del Consejo de Ministros, 2015; Wiener Fresco, 2010). This can improve or create new extension services to increase the quality of the Chazuta’s cocoa and chocolate products and to facilitate their entry into more demanding and profitable markets (Shapira, y otros, 2015).

This paper has been developed by using a qualitative approach with an exploratory and descriptive scope. The objective was to examine a study case of how subnational governments contribute in the promotion of development and internationalization of agro-industrial value chains as alternatives to illicit crops (Hernandez, Fernandez, & Baptista, 2010). The Chazuta case was selected because it is representative of the region in terms of coca eradication and is located between two regions of high biodiversity – Cordillera Escalera Regional Conservation Area and Cordillera Azul National Park.

One of the issues hindering the ability of the Chazuta cocoa and chocolate producers is based on their perception that the subnational governments’ efforts are focused on meeting already-established goals and little emphasis is placed on solving productive problems. On the other hand, at an articulation level, the most relevant efforts have been connecting the cocoa and chocolate customers to Chazuta producers through events. In spite of this, such events are not considered a permanent activity and the producers do not perceive that these mechanisms enable them to maintain these long-term trade relationships. This can be explained by the fact that Chazuta cocoa and chocolate organizations recognize that they still have incipient productive capacities to meet the foreign market’s demand. Furthermore, associations, cooperatives and SMEs are not able to maintain constant levels of production quality, except the family-based business. Knowledge and techniques provided by subnational governments and private organizations are not fully used or implemented by the associations’ members. This low level of knowledge application can be explained by cultural factors and also because the producers receive multiple and sometimes contradictory information from various providers of technology extension services. This leads to inadequate use or non-implementation of productivity improvements, thus generating a virtuous circle in which production and quality of the goods remain at low levels, which hinders their entry into demanding and profitable markets.

This paper has been developed with a qualitative approach considering an exploratory and descriptive scope. Chazuta case was selected because it is representative of the region in terms of eradication achievements and it is located between two regions of high biodiversity. A rubric is an evaluation method of individuals or organizations performance, taking into consideration the evaluator’s pre-established criteria to determine if the objectives and goals are being met. Based on these criteria, evidence and performance information is collected. Following, performance is graded based on the researcher’s predetermined criteria and finally a merit-based judgment is made on the performance.

The results contribute to enrich decision making of political authorities and public officials from San Martin subnational governments. They provide information, according to Peruvian national requirements, on the perceptions needed to rethink and improve provided government services, especially in rainforest area productive activities. This adds up to improvement or creation of new extension services to increase the quality of Chazuta’s cocoa and chocolate products, and to facilitate their entry into more demanding and profitable markets.

The situation of San Martín region and Chazuta district is contextualized and emphasis is given to socioeconomic conditions and the value of cocoa as an alternative crop to coca. From 1980 to early 2000, Peru lived a period of generalized violence due to narcoterrorism, which had large-scale outreach in southern highland and rainforest areas. To deal with this situation, subnational governments in collaboration with international cooperation decided to consolidate agro-industrial value chains in order to generate legal income for rural populations. For this purpose, alternative crop policies were implemented and San Martin region achieved the best results.

This fieldwork was carried out as part of the undergraduate thesis but after fieldwork, with the use of online software tool WebQDA, codes were created to systematize and quantify the collected information in the content manager. The codes were created taking into account assessment and evaluation variables. Each value represented a code referred to a performance level as perceived by Chazuta cocoa and chocolate value chains stakeholders.

While the literature has highlighted the impacts of COVID-19, there is limited evidence on the gendered determinants of the impact of COVID-19 among small-scale rural traders in developing and emerging economies.

Cross-border fish traders who had operated before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were interviewed in a survey conducted in Zambia and Malawi. Logistic regressions among male and female traders were employed to assess the gendered predictors.

Heterogeneous effects in geographical location, skills, and knowledge were reported among male cross-border traders. Effects of household structure and composition significantly influenced the impact of COVID-19 among female traders. Surprisingly, membership in trade associations was associated with the high impact of COVID-19.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the migratory nature of cross-border fish traders, the population of cross-border fish traders at the time of the study was unknown and difficult to establish, cross-border fish traders (CBFT) at the landing sites and market areas were targeted for the survey without bias.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature on understanding gendered predictors of the impacts of COVID-19 among small-scale cross-border traders.

In the developing countries, formal credit has dominant role for the development of agriculture sector. It increases the farmer's purchasing power for better farm inputs and agricultural technology for high crop productivity. The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder farmers for credit demand in Sindh, Pakistan.

A cross-sectional data set randomly collected from 90 smallholder farmers in Thatta district, Sindh, Pakistan, is examined. Descriptive statistics, correlation and the OLS regression method were used to demonstrate the important factors affecting the demand for formal credit.

The results revealed that formal education, experience of farming, landholding size, road access and extension contacts positively and significantly influenced the demand for formal credit.

This study is the first, to the best of authors' knowledge, to demonstrate the influence of various socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder farmers on demand for formal credit in Sindh, Pakistan. It also illustrates the imperative contribution to the literature regarding credit access and demand to improve the agricultural productivity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how, and by whom, institutional logics are determined in the action of sustainable organisation. The authors analyse a supply chain network structure to understand how multiple stakeholders' perceptions of sustainability emerge into a dominant logic and diffuse across an organisational field.

Stakeholder network theory provides novel insights into emerging logics within a chocolate supply chain network. Semi-structured interviews with 35 decision-makers were analysed alongside 269 company documents to capture variations in emergent logics. The network was mapped to include 63 nodes and 366 edges to analyse power structure and mechanisms.

The socio-economic organising principles of sustainable organisation, their sources of power and their logics are identified. Economic and social logics are revealed, yet the dominance of economic logics creates risks to their coexistence. Logics are largely shaped in pre-competitive activities, and resource fitness to collaborative clusters limits access for non-commercial actors.

Powerful firms use network structures and collaborative and concurrent inter-organisational relationships to define and diffuse their conceptualisation of sustainability and restrict competing logics.

This novel study contributes to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) through presenting the socio-economic logic as a new conceptual framework to understand the action of sustainable organisation. The identification of sophisticated mechanisms of power and hegemonic control in the network opens new research agendas.

Solar power forecasting will have a significant impact on the future of large-scale renewable energy plants. Predicting photovoltaic power generation depends heavily on climate conditions, which fluctuate over time. In this research, we propose a hybrid model that combines machine-learning methods with Theta statistical method for more accurate prediction of future solar power generation from renewable energy plants. The machine learning models include long short-term memory (LSTM), gate recurrent unit (GRU), AutoEncoder LSTM (Auto-LSTM) and a newly proposed Auto-GRU. To enhance the accuracy of the proposed Machine learning and Statistical Hybrid Model (MLSHM), we employ two diversity techniques, i.e. structural diversity and data diversity. To combine the prediction of the ensemble members in the proposed MLSHM, we exploit four combining methods: simple averaging approach, weighted averaging using linear approach and using non-linear approach, and combination through variance using inverse approach. The proposed MLSHM scheme was validated on two real-time series datasets, that sre Shagaya in Kuwait and Cocoa in the USA. The experiments show that the proposed MLSHM, using all the combination methods, achieved higher accuracy compared to the prediction of the traditional individual models. Results demonstrate that a hybrid model combining machine-learning methods with statistical method outperformed a hybrid model that only combines machine-learning models without statistical method.