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This study aims to evaluate the practices of carbon management accounting (CMA) made by companies committed to sustainability in Australia’s four highest carbon-emitting industries, including electricity, transport, stationary energy and agriculture. The evaluation covers three CMA phases (i.e. data collection, interpretation and reporting).

This is a cross-sectional study using descriptive research. Data was collected using a questionnaire primarily derived from Burritt et al.’s (2002, 2011) CMA framework and suggestions from other references. The questionnaire includes a set of closed- and open-ended questions. Data was collected from 39 senior managers in the selected industries with direct knowledge and experience in their companies’ CMA practices.

The respondents disclose numerous different motivations for their companies to practise CMA and various ways of practising their CMA. This reflects diverse industry practices due to the absence of a generally accepted standard and different stages of organisational learning. The findings also show that the respondents perceived CMA practices as essential to enhancing their companies’ sustainability performance and overall reputation. However, the majority of the respondents showed little appetite for carbon emission disclosure.

The findings thoroughly describe the current CMA practices by companies committed to sustainability in Australia’s high carbon-emitting industries. Overall, the results show that while the respondents perceived CMA practices as essential for their companies’ sustainability performance and energy-saving, the CMA applications were inconsistent, along with some concerning results, such as a lack of assurance and accountability in the data validation and audit. These indicate the importance of policymakers to consider establishing CMA guidelines or standards to improve its practice. For any company, these findings can be used as learning materials to start or enhance CMA practice at their companies. A broader professional CMA community can strengthen the collective efforts to make CMA more robust.

The findings portray the perceptions of practitioners from Australia’s four highest carbon-emitting industries, indicating motivations to use CMA to understand their companies’ carbon footprint and reduce their companies’ environmental impacts.

The findings contribute to the limited literature in this area and offer several valuable insights regarding the current practice of CMA in Australia, focussing on high carbon-emission industries. It also encourages more research in this area using data from other industries or countries to develop comparative results and strengthen the literature. Future research using actual carbon emission information or a longitudinal approach could also evaluate the changes and progresses in CMA practices.

The importance of ethical considerations in the construction industry is acknowledged. This is particularly the case that the industry plays a significant part in a nation’s development. The Zambian construction industry has seen an increase in activity due, in part, to massive infrastructure development programmes adopted by successive governments, increase in foreign direct investment and housing development. The Zambian construction industry, like any other, is not immune to unethical behaviour. This study aims to investigate students’ perception of the prevalence of unethical practices in the Zambian construction industry. A review of literature demonstrated that a number of contextual factors including location can influence the perception of unethical practices. A focus on Zambia was therefore considered necessary.

In total, 121 students took part in a questionnaire survey to examine their perception of the extent to which unethical practices were prevalent in the Zambian construction industry.

The findings suggest that students perceived bribery/corruption and political/societal influences as the two most common unethical practices, while the least prevalent unethical practices were perceived to be alcohol/drug abuse and workplace violence. The findings are largely consistent with previous studies investigating the ethical perception of professionals in the Zambian construction industry. In addition, the findings suggests that when the year and programme of study are taken into consideration, the differences in perception of unethical practices are evident for these demographic groups.

This study provided an added dimension to the understanding of ethical issues in the Zambian construction industry as it was the first of its kind involving students’ perceptions. This paper therefore contributes to the list of countries where similar studies have been undertaken.

The state of the different practices in construction industry determines its performance level. Hence, improving performance of construction industry needs assessing state of the practices in the industry and devising improvement intervention. The purpose of this paper is to measure improvement requirement level of different construction management practice areas and to identify the underlying improvement dimensions in Ethiopian construction industry.

Questionnaire survey was developed for data collection based on a thorough literature review which yielded 28 construction management practice areas. Purposive sampling method was used to select respondents for the survey. Mean score was used to identify the required improvement level, and one sample T-test was carried out to identify significance of improvement requirement. Factor analysis was conducted to identify the underlying dimensions of the construction management practice areas.

Findings indicate 27 areas need significant improvement. This shows the low level of adoption of good construction management practices in Ethiopian construction industry. Factor analysis resulted in the areas being grouped to four broad improvement dimensions, namely, project management, organization management, knowledge and risk management and project development and contract management.

The findings provide information for appropriate action by the stakeholders to raise standards of adopted construction management practices. It also show areas of construction management which require more focused research in the context of Ethiopian construction industry. Considering the similarity of nature of construction industry problems in developing countries, the findings can be extended to similar countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine institutional influences on the customer service (CS) and complaints handling (CH) practices of the Australian Internet industry.

The study adopted a qualitative research methodology using semi-structured interview as a research method. The study was informed by constructivist/interpretive research paradigm approaches to knowledge. Eleven senior executives from key Internet industry stakeholder organizations were interviewed.

Using the neo-institutional theory lens, this study found that the institutional forces (regulatory, customer and competition pressures) played a pivotal role in bringing all Internet industry stakeholders together to address CS/CH shortcomings in the old Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code 2007. This led to significant changes to the CS/CH practices detailed in the revised TCP Code 2012. The study findings revealed that frequent and fateful collaborations between central institutional actors have led to the emergence of organizational fields. The actors identified in the emerging organizational fields actively influence the CS/CH practices and the subsequent implementation of the practices in vLISPs.

The study focused on the functional aspects of service quality (SQ). Technical aspects of SQ is equally important, and future research needs to consider both aspects of SQ when assessing overall performance of vLISPs.

The study findings encourage vLISP managers to continue collaboration with external stakeholders and develop customer-friendly practices that deliver desirable CS/CH outcomes.

The study findings revealed that when all vLISP industry stakeholders collaborate with each other on a focal issue, there is noticeable progress towards development of CS practices that will contribute to a better CS experience.

An evidence-based approach was used towards understanding and explaining how and why institutional actors of technology-based service organizations act together. A significant contribution arising from this study is the identification and discussion of emerging organizational fields comprising the central actors in the Internet industry. These emerging organizational fields have the potential to develop into mature organizational fields and inform future CS/CH practices and consumer protection policies in the Australian Internet industry.

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) concepts have received immense attention in the recent past in both academia and industries. Especially, manufacturing industries in developing countries realize the importance of adopting sustainability concepts in their supply chain. The SSCM adoption has not been to the same level across different manufacturing sectors and hence a single implementation framework will not have the same effect across sectors. This paper aims to compare the adoption level of 25 SSCM practices across three major manufacturing sectors, namely, automobile, electronics and textile, in an emerging economy, India.

A questionnaire-based data collection technique is used to obtain adoption levels of each of the identified SSCM practices on a five-point Likert-type scale with “1” representing not considering presently to “5” indicating successful implementation. Second, a hypothesis is framed and tested to compare the adoption levels across sectors using a one-way single-factor ANOVA followed by a post hoc test by Tukey’s test.

The results derived suggest that though the industries across different sectors are in the course of adopting SSCM practices, the level of adoption is found to be not the same. The textile sector has adopted the least, and the electronic sector edges ahead of the automobile sector in terms of successful transformation to SSCM.

This study focuses on the differences and similarities in the adoption of policies in the automobile, electronics and textile sectors using statistical data analysis tools. A total of 25 individual practices are identified from existing literature and classified into six groups, namely, management, supplier, collaboration, design, internal and society, based on their similarities. Based on a detailed questionnaire survey with industrial experts in relevant fields as respondents, the adoption levels of practices are rated individually and categorically.

The wine industry is the one that is tightly linked to sustainability as its processes both impact and are impacted by the environment, society and companies’ financial well-being. However, data show that this may not be recognized in practice. Thus, this research paper aims to examine what has changed with respect to sustainability practices over the past 10–15 years in this industry.

A development-based multi-method approach was used to examine the purpose. In Phase 1, a grounded theory study conducted between 2009 and 2015 from wine businesses in 12 different global regions brought to light a potential disconnect between theory and practice in the importance of sustainability. In Phase 2, a comprehensive literature review and analysis of updated online content from the Phase 1 companies was conducted to paint a picture of the progression of sustainability focus and its implementation in company processes.

Using legitimacy theory as a foundation, it was found that the choice to pursue sustainability in this industry generally begins with a focus on environmental practices followed by financial sustainability and more recently social sustainability. Producers are also starting to emphasize overall sustainability often encompassing all three dimensions. The industry has also progressed through “levels of sophistication” in the different major supply chain processes (supply, production and distribution) over the years with their environmental efforts.

A framework of sustainability growth in the industry through a matrix of process sophistication is developed from the data. The results offer implications for theory, practice and industry policy and informs the future trajectory of sustainability within global business.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the significance of various technology push (TP) and demand pull (DP) practices substantial for achieving sustainable development in Indian manufacturing industries. The research crucially examines the effectiveness of TP-DP practices in manufacturing companies.

An extensive survey of 92 companies in India has been executed to identify improvements made by TP-DP practices, to achieve sustainable development in manufacturing industries. The companies in the survey include medium- and large-scale manufacturing enterprises. The correlations between various TP-DP practices and sustainable development parameters are evaluated and validated using various numerical methods and tools.

The focus of the paper is on the distinguishable contributions made by TP-DP practices like innovative capability, research and development, corporate strategy, export orientation, stringent implementation of government regulations, transforming capabilities, unionized labor and customer attributes toward achieving sustainable development in manufacturing industries. The inter-relationships between different TP-DP practices with sustainable development parameters are evaluated to effectively manage the goals and objectives of industries related to sustainability and growth. However, it is also acknowledged that manufacturing firms need to work more actively on managing certain practices of TP-DP.

In the present investigation, contributions made by TP-DP practices are evaluated to accomplish sustainable development in Indian manufacturing industries. Hence, the results obtained may need some modifications before applying to other countries. Moreover, issue-wise independent modeling can also be performed to assess the importance of TP-DP practices under specific orientations.

The research gives priority to enhancement in the planning among various TP-DP practices and sustainable development indicators in the industries, to impart TP-DP as important practices to meet the challenges of competent markets worldwide.

It has been exhibited from the observations that adequate TP-DP practices can efficiently contribute toward recognition of sustainable development to compete in the highly progressive global market. The results of various inter-relationships among TP-DP practices and sustainable development parameters represent the effectiveness of TP-DP practices for accomplishment of social as well as organizational objectives.

The investigation shows that TP-DP practices are significant initiatives employed by the manufacturing industries for performance improvement and sustainable development. The paper peeks into the research to find out TP-DP issues that need to be assessed efficiently by companies to avail the benefits of sustainable development to meet the challenges posed by international markets.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), introduced in 2015, connect several manufacturing strategies and promote sustainable practices in an organization. Manufacturing companies are struggling to meet changing market demands while also addressing social and biological issues. The current study aims to develop a framework that can assist practitioners and managers contribute to the attainment of the SDGs through the adoption of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) practices and Industry 4.0 technologies.

An extensive literature review was carried out to identify RMS-Industry 4.0 practices and their interconnection, as well as their contribution to achieving the SDGs. The stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method was then used to compute the weights of the selected RMS-Industry 4.0 practices, whereas the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method was used to prioritize performance metrics. The developed framework's robustness was tested using a sensitivity analysis across five different organizations.

The findings show that advanced technologies practices have the most importance, followed by customization and rapid adjustment of capacity and functionality practices. The sensitivity analysis revealed the robustness of the developed framework as well as its adaptability among the chosen organizations.

This research will assist in the adoption of RMS and includes recent technologies that can help in the attainment of industrial SDGs. Managers will also be able to evaluate RMS in the context of industrial SDGs. Researchers and practitioners can now address the various RMS-Industry 4.0 practices while keeping the social and environmental aspects in mind.

No previous research has investigated the SDGs through the nexus effect of Industry 4.0 and RMS practices.

This study aims to investigate stakeholders' perception of the most prevalent unethical practices in the Ghanaian construction industry.

Data used for this study came from a cross-sectional survey (questionnaire), which was administered to 273 stakeholders in the construction industry using convenience sampling technique. The data were analyzed using statistical software package SPSSv17 to determine the most prevalent unethical practices. The ranking factor was calculated based on relative importance index (RII) value.

The results of this study reveal that corruption was perceived by major stakeholders as the most prevalent unethical behavior (RII = 0.82) followed by bribery (RII = 0.79). Political interference and kickback came third (RII = 0.77) and fourth (RII = 0.74), respectively. However, the least prevalent unethical behaviors were extortion (RII = 0.56), workplace violence (RII = 0.57), alcohol abuse (RII = 0.59) and harassment (RII = 0.59). The findings suggest that when the various groupings were taken into consideration separately, the differences in their perceptions were obvious.

Data for this study were collected from construction stakeholders in Ghana who were conveniently sampled. As a result, in reference to the sampling framework which focused on major stakeholders in only two regions of Ghana does not sufficiently ensure full generalization of the results.

The findings of the study provide significant information for construction organizations and practitioners regarding unethical practices, which are most prevalent in the Ghanaian construction industry. Construction organizations and practitioners seeking to mitigate the negative effect of unethical practices on their performance should focus on educating construction workers on how to avoid corrupt practices and report same to the authorities. Also, ethics training programs must be instituted for staff coupled with constant and random inspection and checking of ethical compliance, verbal promotion and praise for ethical conduct and in some cases increase in employees pay.

This paper is one of the first to have accessed the views of broader stakeholders, i.e. consultants, contractors, professionals, suppliers, regulators, clients and construction workers in the construction industry regarding the most prevalent unethical practices in the Ghanaian construction industry in one study. This study, therefore, enriches the current literature by providing additional dimension to the understanding of unethical practices in the Ghanaian construction industry.