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This study seeks insights into the engineering undergraduates’ knowledge of problem-solving process, teamwork characteristics and communication skills.

The data for the study were collected through consecutive sampling technique from 78 engineering undergraduates at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Pilani Campus, India on a five-point Likert scale-based questionnaire.

Exploratory factor analysis results traced three stages of the problem-solving process. However, the results of teamwork characteristics and communication skills validated the literature-based results. An important finding was that all the three skills were correlated. This means that one skill can be used to develop and promote other skills. The paired sample t-test demonstrated that all the three skills were perceived with a difference, which indicates that these skills worked in collaboration without losing their individuality.

This study supports that there is a need to engage learners in an active and collaborative environment to improve the engineering undergraduates’ knowledge of skills.

The conscious effort to make the engineering undergraduates aware would reduce the gap between the graduating engineers skills currently possessed in academia and the required skills at workplace.

Problem solving skills (PSS), an important component of learning outcomes, is one of the desirable skills in engineering graduates as stated by many employers, researchers and government bodies in India for a strong foothold in professional world. There is a need to develop comprehensive understanding and integration of theory (concept) and practice (process) of PSS in the context of experiential learning (EL).

The present study is qualitative in nature using a conceptual research design focussing on synthesis and model building framework. The key elements of the study are PSS, EL and their integration. The study seeks to develop conceptual integration of PSS across multiple theories and perspectives. It offers an enhanced view of a concept of PSS by summarising and integrating extant knowledge. It presents the complete and comprehensive meaning/definition of PSS. Subsequently, it also explores EL and synthesises the different variants of EL that can be used to develop PSS. Finally, the study builds a theoretical framework that proposes integration and interplay between PSS and EL.

Problem-solving operates at three levels: problem concept (nature and context), process (stages with strategies) and solution (open-ended). EL can be used as a tool to develop PSS in an integrated manner. It is found that EL and problem-solving interplay with each other as both are cyclic in nature and have commonalities strengthening each other.

The proposed framework can be adopted in engineering education for making the engineering graduates job ready.

The study proposes a framework based on integration of EL and problem-solving focusing on specific aims and goals of the course, learning approaches, learning strategies and authentic learning (learning environment). This integration would bridge the gap between engineering education and industry requirements. EL integrated problem-solving focus on pedagogical knowledge (knowing how to facilitate discussion among learners and curricular knowledge) and instructional knowledge (knowing how to introduce, organise different methods and assess).

The paper aims to critically review the literature based on the factors identified by the authors to discuss and provide direction for future research. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the factors responsible for affecting consumers’ perceptions and purchasing attitudes toward organic food products.

The literature review follows the review methodology elaborating on key factors identified which affect the consumer’s perception and attitude toward organic farming and products. A total of 50 articles are downloaded from different sources such as Google Scholar and Scopus and later the articles were finalized based on core areas and specializations.

The findings reveal that the behavioral aspect plays a crucial role in the adoption of organic products by consumers; also various factors such as customer perspective, demand and supply, health aspect, cost-effectiveness, standard and reliability are responsible in endorsing organic products. The authors also reveal that among the factors mentioned, the lack of a supply chain market for organic products is the prime concern for the non-availability of products.

The lack of effective distribution and promotion system affects the availability of organic food products.

The paper provides a comprehensive review of organic food in terms of highlighting the factors affecting the perception and purchasing attitude of consumers toward organic food products consumption. Also, the present review study gives an idea of organizing the literature on the organic food based on factors influencing the customer responses.

This paper aims to minimize the total carbon emissions and costs and also maximize the total social benefits.

The present study develops a mathematical model for a closed-loop supply chain network of perishable products so that considers the vital aspects of sustainability across the life cycle of the supply chain network. To evaluate carbon emissions, two different regulating policies are studied.

According to the obtained results, increasing the lifetime of the perishable products improves the incorporated objective function (IOF) in both the carbon cap-and-trade model and the model with a strict cap on carbon emission while the solving time increases in both models. Moreover, the computational efficiency of the carbon cap-and-trade model is higher than that of the model with a strict cap, but its value of the IOF is worse. Results indicate that efficient policies for carbon management will support planners to achieve sustainability in a cost-effectively manner.

This research proposes a mathematical model for the sustainable closed-loop supply chain of perishable products that applies the significant aspects of sustainability across the life cycle of the supply chain network. Regional economic value, regional development, unemployment rate and the number of job opportunities created in the regions are considered as the social dimension.

The paper aims to incorporate the relationship of reverse logistics into the economic, environmental, and social sustainability, known as triple bottom line and developed a framework for reverse logistics performance evaluation.

The performance measures, based on triple bottom line approach, were selected, and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process and extent analysis approach was applied for estimating the weights, global weights of performance measures and hence, the reverse logistics performance index. Reverse logistics performance of three electronic companies were evaluated and compared for the demonstration of the methodology.

The results show that economic performance has highest performance index followed by environmental performance and social performance. “Recapturing value” and “return on investment” from economic, “minimum energy consumption” and “optimum use of raw material” from environmental and “community complaints” and “customer health and safety” from social perspective have higher performance indexes. Over all, “reduced packaging”, “use of recycled material” and “employee benefits” show very poor performance indexes.

The study will provide useful guidance to the academicians and practitioners for evaluating, improving and benchmarking the reverse logistics performance.

The analysis adds to the very few studies on triple bottom line aspects of reverse logistics and its performance evaluation. Also, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process and extent analysis is used first time being an efficient tool to tackle the fuzziness of the data involved in performance evaluation.

Environmental issues have become an important concern in modern supply chain management. The structure of closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) networks, which considers both forward and reverse logistics, can greatly improve the utilization of materials and enhance the performance of the supply chain in coping with environmental impacts and cost control.

A biobjective mixed-integer programming model is developed to achieve the balance between environmental impact control and operational cost reduction. Various factors regarding the capacity level and the environmental level of facilities are incorporated in this study. The scenario-based method and the Epsilon method are employed to solve the stochastic programming model under uncertain demand.

The proposed stochastic mixed-integer programming (MIP) model is an effective way of formulating and solving the CLSC network design problem. The reliability and precision of the Epsilon method are verified based on the numerical experiments. Conversion efficiency calculation can achieve the trade-off between cost control and CO₂ emissions. Managers should pay more attention to activities about facility operation. These nodes might be the main factors of costs and environmental impacts in the CLSC network. Both costs and CO₂ emissions are influenced by return rate especially costs. Managers should be discreet in coping with cost control for CO₂ emissions barely affected by return rate. It is advisable to convert the double target into a single target by the idea of “Efficiency of CO₂ Emissions Control Reduction.” It can provide managers with a way to double-target conversion.

We proposed a biobjective optimization problem in the CLSC network considering environmental impact control and operational cost reduction. The scenario-based method and the Epsilon method are employed to solve the mixed-integer programming model under uncertain demand.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a systematic literature review on innovation and sustainability. To accomplish this aim, a systematic analysis of the literature in the Scopus database was carried out for articles with the terms “innovation” and “sustainability” in their titles. Once identified, articles were analyzed in three ways: the ten most-cited articles; the ten most-cited literature reviews; and the most recent articles. Sustainable development is the central theme of the articles studied. Sustainable development is influenced by the ways that sustainability is measured within the network of which the organizations are a part, including adequate systems, and is mediated by compatible behaviors. Encouraging green innovation is an environmental commitment and managerial concern driven by customer pressure, environmental regulations and cost reductions. Suppliers and customers can contribute or benefit from the value created.

This study was a Systematic literature review. The search terms “Innov * AND sustain *” were defined for the titles of the articles. The analysis was divided into three categories: the ten most-cited articles (without a year filter to form an idea of the impact of the main research in the field); the ten most-cited reviews (these were only filtered from 2009 to 2018); and the 10 most recent articles (all of the articles found were from the year 2018).

The main findings of this study were that network action, mobilization of relevant stakeholders, reinvention of the business model, redefinition with multiple values and a sustainable strategic scope are the mechanisms that effectively contribute to promoting the link between innovation and sustainability in organizations. Sustainable development is the central theme of the articles studied. Sustainable development is influenced by the ways that sustainability is measured within the network of which the organizations are a part of, including adequate systems, and is mediated by compatible behaviors.

This study contributes to the literature by providing perspectives for future studies that may contribute to the sustainable development of organizations. Sustainable development is strongly influenced by the ways that sustainability is measured within the network of which the organizations are part, including appropriate systems, and is mediated by compatible behaviors.

Although manufacturers have traditionally viewed reverse supply chain (RSC) activities as a costly nuisance, more recent research has found that the RSC can contribute to the firm’s financial performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify how the RSC can contribute to the firm’s financial performance and examine the exogenous contingency factors decisive for the contribution’s size. Because the exogenous factors are outside the control of the firm’s operations and supply chain management, the factors influence the RSC’s financial contribution irrespective of managerial policies and design decisions.

The paper applies a systematic literature review using the sequence of planning the review, searching and screening literature, extracting information from the selected literature, and synthesizing and analyzing findings. In total, 112 papers were included.

The study has identified 15 distinct opportunities for RSC-contribution to the firm’s financial performance. The study has identified 56 contingency factors. These are related to market segmentation, customer behavior, product design, and the firm’s distributor network. The study includes an interrelationship network between factors and the RSC’s contribution.

For managers, the paper shows how the RSC can increase the firm’s financial performance and which contingency factors determine whether operating a RSC will be financially viable if implemented.

While extant literature includes several reviews about RSC-related managerial policies and design decisions, this paper contains the very first collection of RSC-contribution opportunities available to manufacturers as well as the first review of exogenous contingency factors.

This paper aims to intend to help focal firms which are keen to develop a sustainable supply chain by identifying enablers, in knowing the interrelationships involved and in ranking the enablers.

Interpretive structural modeling and fuzzy MICMAC were used for the modeling and clustering of the enablers and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process has been used for the ranking purpose.

Awareness about sustainability incentives, pressure from stakeholders, support from supply chain partners and demand from customer for sustainable products were found very important for developing a sustainable supply chain.

This research will help practitioners to appreciate the importance of the enablers to focus on the making sustainability adoption feasible across the supply chain. This would also facilitate focal firm management to develop a sustainability culture across the supply chain.

Similar work has not been carried before in which interaction among enablers and their priorities were analyzed using hybrid methodologies in developing country context.

The purpose of this paper is to implement and evaluate active learning strategies to support engineering students in the development of research competences, contributing to the growing need for a closer relationship between research and teaching.

This study was developed using an action research approach. The data were collected through observations, questionnaire and focus group in order to evaluate the active learning strategies used in the context of the study, based on students' perceptions.

The results show that the implementation of active learning strategies, such as research-based learning and think-pair-share enhance the development of research competences, namely critical thinking and written communication. Additionally, this approach enables students to develop further their capstone projects, using the standards demanded in research process.

The study was based mainly on teacher's observation and the participants are undergraduate engineering students enrolled in the course “Scientific Methodology” during 1 academic year.

Two levels of implications can be identified in this study: (1) for teachers' practice, who can adapt the step-by-step descriptions of the implemented approaches and (2) for research, contributing to the discussion about how to explore the teaching-research relationship in undergraduate courses.

The course of “Scientific Methodology” is part of the curricular structure of most undergraduate engineering programs offered by Brazilian Higher Education Institutions, and this study is a contribution for the improvement of knowledge on how this course may be conducted in an effective and engaging way.