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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact that crisis had on quality management and basic business processes using INSEAD’s industrial excellence framework (IEF) towards large Greek industrial units. This study proposes a modified version of the IEF which can help firms to operate through a turbulent environment.

Data that were collected during the current financial crisis were compared with a matched sample of business units surveyed a decade earlier. The variables that were used to measure performance were grouped into two categories, quality management and process improvement.

Through the examination of these cases, the authors identify the characteristics that empowered those BUs so as to remain alive during the turbulence. According to the results, the survivors train their staff systematically, have closer relationships with their suppliers, assess their processes and follow up with action plans. Findings also suggest cultural differences between survivors vs non-survivors. Survivors display a cultural profile typical to adhocracy since they describe themselves as more flexible and externally focused instead of being stable and internally focused. These findings are discussed and avenues for future research are presented.

The results of the study can be applied by quality managers of industrial organizations to achieve higher performance and overcome a turbulence of the external environment.

Previous research on the business excellence frameworks neglects the essential issue of sustainability and how an organization can survive a crisis. The study provides new insights into the long-term benefits of applying an excellence framework.

Knowledge management (KM) has been gradually established as a strong methodology to support business viability, competitiveness and growth; however, the lack of maturity is obvious, as evidenced by divergent points of view in critical sub‐domains of the related theory and practice, such as the spectrum of processes and the clusters of tactics scheduled to underpin them. The systems thinking logic, the discipline for seeing structures underlying complex phenomena, is perceived as a promising direction for consolidating the various approaches and developing a holistic KM paradigm. Through the integration of the fragmented landscape of knowledge management on a transparent and concrete framework based on cause‐effect relationships, not only the underlying theoretical assumptions are clarified and subjected to further analysis at a strategic level, but also practical issues concerning planning and decision making become less complicated, increasing effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated methodology for benchmarking the sustainability of organizations. The fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods have been used for this purpose. The FAHP is used to determine the weights of the criteria by decision makers, and the rankings of the alternatives are determined by TOPSIS. The proposed instrument is used to calculate the Sustainable Business Excellence Index (SBEI) and its potential impact on the formulation of firm strategy. To demonstrate the applicability of the model, illustrative examples are presented.

After a careful literature review, a sustainable business excellence framework is created and a fuzzy system is developed to assess firms’ sustainability. Finally, the SBEI is computed.

The results indicate that the suggested fuzzy approach is feasible for benchmarking the sustainability of organizations. It allows the decision makers to express their opinion regarding the importance of criteria and evaluate each alternative and then have this input coordinated in a quantitative fashion.

Practitioners and consultants can use the instrument for conducting quality management benchmarking within and across organizations. Researchers can use the instrument in future studies for further theory development in this area.

As far as the authors are aware, no previous study research has assessed the SBEI of an organization with fuzzy sets. As such, it responds to a number of contemporary challenges in the business excellence theory, most importantly the broad need to identify agile organizations.

Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and consumer perception of CSR activities is increasing over the recent past. The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the consumer perceptions of CSR activities of banks in India. It provides insights on whether consumers want their banks to take up CSR initiatives and would these perceptions influence their attitude towards the bank.

Self-report questionnaires were personally administered by the researchers and their team. Respondents’ responses were based on their awareness of their bank’s involvement in CSR initiatives. The study uses convenience sampling, given the resource limitations. The research was conducted in the city of Nashik, India during June–October 2015.

The results of the study show that consumer perception towards the CSR activities of the bank influenced their attitude and satisfaction. Though consumers expressed a need for their bank’s taking up CSR initiatives, this need did not influence their attitude towards the bank, contradicting studies in the past. Consumer perception of the bank’s involvement in the CSR activities was moderate, indicating that banks need to increase their communication about the CSR initiatives undertaken by them.

Unique contribution of current research is that the CSR reputation and CSR concern of consumers in the Indian context have been investigated for their influence on consumer attitude. Unlike previous studies, CSR concern does not influence consumer attitude or satisfaction. Findings provide important insights for practitioners and academicians focussing on the banking sector in India.

Little research is reported on consumer perception of CSR in banking sector. Current research tries to fill this gap.

The execution of product recovery strategies and the definition of an adequate system to manage its performance are crucial to move toward the employment of a successful circular economy (CE) concept. Defining strategies for the efficient management of product recovery requires product data that is difficult to obtain, making it harder to handle. However, efficient product recovery management can play a key role in shifting companies from a linear economy model to a more sustainable CE model, providing economic benefits and increasing customer satisfaction by recovering and adding value to the discarded product. Therefore, this study aims to provide better models to support decision-making and to evaluate product recovery performance.

The present study highlights a comprehensive two-stage decision approach to identify and examine the relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) for performance improvement of an information facilitated product recovery system (IFPRS) in a CE context. In the first phase, a structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology is adopted to categorize the KPIs by employing exploratory factor analysis and measurement of the model fit is obtained using the confirmatory factor analysis. Further, in the second phase, the KPIs are ranked and prioritized on the basis of expert’s recommendations adopting fuzzy-technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS).

Empirical investigation is conducted by compiling data from an association of six decision-makers (DMs) and two DMs from a respective prospect. The results highlight that “Technology Capacity” is ranked as the highest and is the most prominent KPI for successful employment of IFPRS practices. The results of the study would benefit policy makers and company directors in the selection of KPIs based on their importance in a context of high competition and greater pressure to adopt sustainable practices in the management of their companies.

As far as the authors know, no study has been performed till date to identify and construct a structural KPIs model for IFPRS performance improvement in the context of CE. The paper, therefore, proposes a two-phase SEM-TOPSIS technique to measure the impact of KPIs which is a new integration in the existing literature. The results of the study would benefit policy makers and company directors in the selection of KPIs based on their importance in a context of high competition and greater pressure to adopt sustainable practices in managing their organizations.