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Businesses are increasingly striving to become sustainable in terms of economic, environmental and social aspects. However, in the fresh food retail supply chains (SCs), achieving environmental objectives can be challenging because of the unique characteristics of products such as perishability, bulkiness, short product lifecycle and the requirement for cold chain infrastructure. The retail industry is the face of a SC. Therefore, its role in achieving sustainable objectives is pivotal. This study examines the effect of green in-store operations on sustainability performance indicators of fresh food retail and examines the moderating role of organization size in this context.

Data are collected through surveys using self-administered questionnaires from 70 retail stores with 188 completed responses. Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results show a positive relationship between green in-store operation with environmental social and economic performance. Furthermore, these relationships are moderated by the organization size such that the positive green in-store operation and performance relationships are stronger in the case of environmental and social performance only and for larger retail stores. No moderation is seen for economic performance.

The study broadens the understanding of green SC management’s effect on sustainability performance in the retail industry. It shows how the positive implications of a green SC are contingent on organization size and have prominence for environmental and social performance.

Green supply chain management (GSCM) research is so far dominated by studies focusing on manufacturing companies, while research on retailers is missing. The purpose of this study is to assess the interaction between green in-store activities (environment-related infrastructure and retail in-store processes), GSCM and environmental and economic performance outcomes.

The paper builds on empirical evidence gathered from 190 responses by Croatian food retailers to a self-administered survey. The identified relationships in the conceptual model are tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results reveal a positive relation between green in-store activities and GSCM in food retailing regarding environmental and economic performance. The relevance of these relationships accrues from the positive association between GSCM and food retailers’ environmental performance, which in turn drives economic performance. It is noteworthy that green supply chain practices drive environmental and then also economic performance.

The study extends the application of GSCM to retailing and, therefore, broadens its scope. However, the data collected are based on one country and, thus, should be extended to assess the impact of green retailing practices in the supply chain on environmental and economic performance in other countries.

This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first empirical analysis on the relationship between green in-store activities and GSCM in the context of food retail. This important link to customers has rarely been explored. Further, the representative sample of food retailers in Croatia is unique as generally data from Central and Eastern European countries are still rare. Finally, the operationalization of GSCM practices into three constructs as green logistics, green purchasing and cooperation with suppliers’ offers conceptual contributions to the GSCM field.

Building on stimulus organism response theory, the current study examines the influence of pickup service quality of buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) service on the BOPIS users' satisfaction, trust and commitment, subsequently leading to customer citizenship behavior (CCB). It examines the proposed relationships against boundary conditions, product categories and gender.

The research is descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional investigation. It was conducted using data collected from 401 Indian omnichannel shoppers using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The proposed conceptual model was tested using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Partial Least Squares-Multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA).

The results indicate that pickup service quality in BOPIS positively impacts all the dimensions of relationship quality of the BOPIS users. Satisfaction and commitment directly affect CCB. However, trust impacts CCB indirectly through commitment. The moderating effect of the product category purchased and gender on specified relationships was tested. Results revealed the impact of pickup service quality on BOPIS users' trust and commitment differed across product categories. More impact was seen among users who purchased shopping and specialty goods. The study also found that trust-driven citizenship behavior was seen more among female BOPIS users when compared to males.

The study is carried out on the Indian population, where omnichannel retailing is still nascent.

This study addresses the gap to investigate the value co-creation behavior (CCB) in the omnichannel retail context among BOPIS users. This study is the first to show that in-store pickup service quality in BOPIS might affect customer citizenship behavior through relationship quality dimensions, assessed against boundary conditions such as the product category and BOPIS user gender.

Commonly, supermarkets are perceived as more sustainable than discount stores, which are accused of following an aggressive price and no-frills approach. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether supermarkets and discounters differ substantially in their sustainability communication.

Sustainability reports and in-store communication are two important channels for retailers’ sustainability communication. To analyze both communication channels, the authors use a multi-method approach with data triangulation, analyzing sustainability reports and store observations of eight German retailers (two supermarket chains, six discount chains).

The study reveals no major differences between supermarkets and discounters regarding the readability of sustainability reports and the number of key figures on sustainability presented. However, supermarkets perform significantly better in translating sustainability to the store level than discounters. Furthermore, the results indicate that poor quality in the readability analysis is reflected in fewer concrete data provided in the sustainability reports and poorer translation of sustainability to the retail store.

This paper presents an empirical analysis of how well German retailers communicate about sustainability on both the report and the store level for the interest of academia and retail managers. It reveals different performance qualities among retail chains and retail formats and identifies the shortcomings within current reporting legislation with a clear indication toward policy makers.

Building on stimulus organism response theory, this study aims to examine the influence of Integrated store service quality (ISSQ) on omnichannel shoppers’ attachment to the integrated store with the mediating role of omnichannel customer engagement (CE) dimensions (absorptive attention, enthusiastic participation and social connection). This research demonstrates the effect of customers’ attachment to the integrated store on the willingness to pay more for omnichannel services and products of the retailer, their cross-buying behaviors in future purchases and loyal webrooming intentions. The moderating role of perceived relationship investment and alternative retailer attractiveness (ARA) in a few proposed relationships was also tested.

The research is descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional investigation. A purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the study respondents. The data was collected from n = 589 Indian omnichannel shoppers who have experience shopping in the brick and mortar store of channel-integrated stores using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The proposed conceptual model was tested using PLS-SEM.

The results indicate that omnichannel CE dimensions (absorptive attention, enthusiastic participation and social connection) positively mediate the relationship between ISSQ and customer attachment to the store. Customer attachment to the store significantly impacts their willingness to pay more, cross-buying behaviors and loyal webrooming intentions. The moderating effect of the customer-perceived relationship investment and ARA revealed that it significantly impacted the relationship between ISSQ and willingness to pay more, cross-buying behaviors and loyal webrooming intentions. This research also demonstrated the direct impact of ISSQ on willingness to pay more, cross-buying behaviors, loyal webrooming intentions and the indirect impact through different CE dimensions and attachment with the store.

The study is conducted in the Indian population, where omnichannel retailing is still nascent.

This study addresses the need to investigate the impact of CE and their attachment to stores driven by the in-store service quality of integrated stores on the various postpurchase consumer behaviors. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to show that ISSQ might affect their willingness to pay more, cross-buying behaviors and loyal webrooming intentions through different CE dimensions and their attachment to the store. The moderating effect of customer-perceived ARA and their perception of retailers’ investment in a relationship on proposed hypotheses was also tested.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale that evaluates the environmental elements in retail supply chains and to examine the environmental supply chain management initiatives of the world's largest 100 retailing companies.

The empirical evaluation has been undertaken through an investigative approach applying a web‐scan framework which included the analysis of web sites and publicly published documents such as annual reports and corporate social responsibility reports.

The authors identified 34 environmental sustainability initiatives which were grouped into eight categories; they refer to “fundamental environmental attitude”, “use of energy”, “use of input material”, “product”, “packaging”, “transport”, “consumption” and “waste”. The level of environmental supply chain management can be characterised as very operational and very short‐term oriented (green operations). Long‐term oriented green design initiatives were hardly observed. Furthermore, the specific environmental activities of three retailers from Denmark, France and the UK were compared.

The empirical study investigates supply chain operations of retailers and excludes other areas of retail management. The results are based on material that is published by the respective companies and thus do not include internal reports.

The main contribution of this paper is to test the proposition that global retailers follow the path of the “Greening Goliaths”, where environmental sustainability becomes a quasi industry standard for the ecological sustainability transformation of global retailing.

The paper aims to introduce a reliable and valid green Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) servicescape measure (i.e. one that utilises extraordinary leadership in energy and environmental design supporting green building design, construction, and operations) that examines the direct effects of the physical environment on consumers' evaluation of a service encounter. In addition, the mediating effects of service quality perception, customer satisfaction, and consumers' attitude toward a service provider are considered.

The study is based on a sample of 522 Brazilian respondents' evaluation of their experience with the green LEED servicescape. A comprehensive research model and its moderating effects are investigated using LISREL model. The LISREL model consists of two parts: the measurement model and the structural equation model. The measurement model specifies how latent variables or hypothetical constructs depend upon or are indicated by observed variables. It describes the measurement properties (reliabilities and validities) of the observed variables. The structural equation model specifies the causal relationships among the latent variables, describes the causal effects, and assigns the explained and unexplained variance. The LISREL method estimates the unknown coefficients of a set of linear structural equations. It is particularly designed to accommodate models that include latent variables, measurement errors, namely reciprocal causation, simultaneity, and interdependence in both dependent and independent variables.

Overall, the study provided significant support (p≤0.05) for seven of eight hypotheses with the eighth marginally supported by the data. Specifically, the results suggest that consumers' perceptions of the green servicescape have a direct effect on their service quality perceptions and on their overall satisfaction with the environment. Findings also suggest that a consumer's perception of service quality has a direct effect on their level of satisfaction with the service environment, and satisfaction along with service quality has a direct effect on a consumer's attitude‐towards‐a green service provider. The consumers' attitude‐towards‐a green service provider influences their purchase intentions.

A reliable and valid green LEED servicescape measurement scale is introduced to the literature.

The ability of a business to outperform its rivals is known as its competitive edge, and it presents special difficulties in the context of the “digital revolution,” or the fourth industrial revolution. To obtain a competitive edge in the startup operations 4.0 era, this study aims to examine the organizational, technological and competence-related challenges presented by Industry 4.0. It does this by concentrating on the tools, competencies, methods, approaches, tools and strategies that are crucial. Using the Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM) technique, the goal is to find, analyze and classify enablers for startup operations 4.0.

A closed-ended questionnaire and planned interviews were used in the data collection process. In startup operations 4.0, the cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification method is used to rank and categorize competitive advantage factors, whereas the TISM technique is used to analyze how components interact.

The study highlights the critical significance of the “Internet of Things (IoT),” “information technologies,” “technological platforms,” “employee empowerment,” “augmented reality (AR)” and “operational technologies” in its identification of 12 enablers for startup operations 4.0.

The main focus of the study is on the variables that affect startup operations 4.0’s competitive advantage.

Academics and important stakeholders can better understand the factors influencing competitive advantage in startup operations 4.0 with the help of this research.

Large businesses have been profoundly impacted by Industry 4.0 principles; however, startup operations 4.0’s competitive advantage has not received as much attention. This paper offers a fresh take on the concept of competitive advantage in startup operations 4.0 research.

Can operations management impact significantly the profitability of consumer‐based businesses on the Internet (called B2C)? During the past two years, Internet retailers have not provided satisfactory financial results. Whereas, leading in‐store retailers have been profitable using traditional modes for selling and delivering goods to customers. The research underlying this paper focused on analyzing the costs of doing business which are affected by operations management decisions. We wanted to determine if the criteria for best practice normally used by operations managers applied to firms engaged in e‐tailing (Internet B2C). To do this we singled out a well‐known dot.com retail failure, Webvan. Cost data were studied from startup (1998) to bankruptcy (2001). It was found that operating costs were way out of line with (even) good practice. Under in‐store retailing circumstances, the inability to reach breakeven would not have been tolerated. While concentrating on Webvan, this paper uses information about other firms to provide additional insights.