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This study aims to carry out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the integration of Lean, Industry 4.0 and the supply chain or the Lean Supply Chain (LSC) 4.0. The research analyses the current research on the LSC 4.0 concept in an increasingly digitalised world. The authors present the benefits, motivations, critical success factors and challenges of integrating the LSC with Industry 4.0 technologies within this emerging area of research.

An SLR is carried out on how Lean can be integrated with Supply Chain 4.0. Using the search strings of “Lean Supply Chain 4.0,” “Lean Supply Chain Management 4.0” and “Lean Supply Chain Digitalisation,” a review of published literature was carried out via searches on academic databases.

Industry 4.0 has a synergistic effect on the LSC and, depending on the technology and sector applied in, can complement and enhance the LSC. Similarly, the LSC is a precursor for digitalisation. There are considerable implications in the LSC 4.0 for green and sustainable processes.

Organisations can use this study to understand what the LSC 4.0 means to industry, the benefits and motivating factors for implementation, the critical success factors (CSFs) to implementation and the challenges for implementation.

This study adds to state of the art around the LSC 4.0 and future directions in this nascent research area. This study will aid organisations in understanding how Lean, supply chain management and Industry 4.0 can be integrated.

The boom in livestreaming commerce (LSC) has brought significant changes to social interaction methods. Understanding customer engagement in LSC is critical for online sellers who try to enhance the social influence and improve marketing effectiveness of LSC. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) paradigm, this study aims to develop a model to investigate the effects of perceived attributes of LSC (real-time interaction, perceived proximity and perceived authenticity) on social support (informational and emotional support) and subsequent engagement.

An online survey is conducted to collect data from LSC customers, and data are analyzed using SPSS and SmartPLS.

The results indicate that informational and emotional support are positively affected by real-time interaction, perceived proximity and perceived authenticity. In turn, informational and emotional support enable and mediate the prediction of customer engagement intention in LSC.

Prior LSC studies tend to focus on the motivation influencing LSC engagement from the perspective of perceived value. This study confirms the importance of perceived attributes of LSC in driving customer engagement from the perspective of social support.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effect of a set of contextual variables on the implementation of lean supply chain (LSC) practices. The authors do that by investigating one main research question: “how do the contextual variables (i.e. plant size, supply chain level, level of onshore suppliers and age of the LM initiative) influence on the degree of adoption of LSC practices?”

To this end, the authors collected data from 115 companies from different sectors located in Southern Brazil. Data collected was analyzed by means of multivariate techniques. The authors tested if the frequency of observations for each contextual variable was associated to the implementation levels of the LSC practices.

The evidences suggest that supply chain context significantly impacts the likelihood of implementing LSC practices. In particular, the influence of tier level, plant size and larger experience in implementing LM seems to be substantial across a wide mix of practices. On the other hand, results indicate that contexts in which companies are still beginners at the lean journey and their level of onshore suppliers appear to be less pervasive than previous empirical researches imply.

The implementation of LSC practices entails a different business model, in which improved profits arise from the cooperation rather than bargaining or imposing power over supply chain partners. However, not all organizations should implement the same set of practices, since the adoption of any specific management practice depends upon a set of contextual variables. The understanding of the relationship between the level of adoption of LSC practices and the contextual variables helps to anticipate occasional difficulties and sets the proper expectations along the implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the relationships among the implementation of LSC practices. Particularly, the authors examine the adoption level of 27 LSC practices, which were identified in a literature review, within 113 manufacturing companies from different sectors located in Southern Brazil.

Data collected were analyzed by means of multivariate techniques (partial correlation analysis) and two control variables were used: level of onshore suppliers and company’s experience on lean manufacturing implementation.

The results showed that the relationship among practices may not always be synergic, since there are pairs of practices that, when concurrently implemented they tend to conflict, hindering their benefits.

The use of partial correlations between pairs of LSC practices provides means to better understand specific associations, disregarding the implementation effect of the whole set of practices. The research also provides managers and practitioners arguments to better comprehend how practices interact with each other under specific contexts.

This study aims to assess the possibility of implementing lean practices in the Halal food supply chain, and the barriers to their implementation.

A survey was used to identify the perceived issues and attitudes towards implementing lean practices in the supply chain. The questionnaire was distributed to 300 Halal food firms in Malaysia. A total of 61 usable replies were received.

More than 70 percent of the firms reported that lean supply chain (LSC) has not yet been implemented in their firm. Data analysis shows that 14 percent of non-lean firms urgently need to implement lean manufacturing. Market competition and uncertainty was highlighted as an important barrier in implementing LSC among lean firms. In contrast, lack of customer awareness of LSCM practices was recognised as a major barrier in non-lean firms.

There is little documentation regarding the status of LSC implementation in the Halal food industries, and therefore identifying the necessity of its implementation and the important impediments was identified as a gap in the existing literature. This paper provides insightful information on the necessity of implementing lean manufacturing practices in Halal food supply chains.

This research aims to develop an approach to assess the reliability of integrated construction supply chains via an integrated model of building information modelling (BIM) and the lean supply chain (LSC). It reflects the synergistic workflow between BIM and LSC as a novel approach to improve the reliability of construction projects.

This research evaluates the reliability of the BIM-LSC approach through a combination of entropy theory, set pair analysis (SPA), and Markov chains (EESM). An exploratory survey was conducted to collect data from 316 industry professionals experienced in BIM and LSC. Subsequently, multiple cycles of calculations were performed with indirect data inputs. Finally, a reliability evaluation index is established for the BIM-LSC approach and potential applications are identified.

The results show that the EESM model of BIM-LSC developed in this study can handle not only supply chain reliability evaluation at a given state but also the prediction of reliability in supply chain state transitions due to changing project conditions. This is particularly relevant to the current environment of the construction project, which is characterised by an increasing level of complexity in terms of labour, technology, and resource interactions.

Future research could consider the accuracy and validity of the proposed model in real-life scenarios with by considering both quantitative and qualitative data across the entire lifecycle of projects.

The research offers a model to evaluate the reliability of the BIM-LSC approach. The accuracy of BIM supply chain reliability analysis and prediction in an uncertain environment is improved.

The BIM-LSC reliability evaluation and prediction presented in this study provides a theoretical foundation to enhance understanding of the BIM-LSC in the construction project context.

The significant changes that supply chains (SCs) are undergoing and the emergence of disruptive technologies have led to a growing effort to integrate novel and mature technologies into existing SC strategies. Thus, this study investigates the relationships between mature information technologies (ITs), emerging IT and the lean supply chain (LSC) and agile supply chain (ASC) strategies.

An empirical study based on structural equation modeling of survey data from 256 Spanish focal companies has been conducted to test six hypotheses.

Drawing on resource orchestration, our results point to mature IT use being an enabler of both LSC and ASC strategy implementation. The results also show an LSC mediating effect on the relationship between mature IT and ASC when SCs follow both strategies. Also, the implementation of emerging IT requires a process of consolidation over time to be genuinely useful as a facilitating mechanism for developing both the lean and agile strategies along the SC. In this sense, a suitable mix needs to be orchestrated between emerging and mature IT.

This study sheds light on the relevance of the mature IT and emerging IT in the context of two SC strategies (lean/agile) and provides practical and theoretical implications.

By engaging with recent debates between management historians over social constructionism, this paper aims to show the merits of adopting a new realist ontology of the business enterprise. In contrast with ANTi-History, the purpose is to provide a philosophically rigorous conception of social objects and to argue that enterprises are a member of this category.

Insights from Maurizio Ferraris’s documentality theory and Graham Harman’s philosophy of social objects are used to identify the ontological forming ground and developmental pathway of an Antipodean stevedoring company that operated prior to the deregulation of New Zealand’s ports in 1989.

With regard to social entities in general and firms in particular, continental philosophy’s resurgent realist movement provides a history-aware social ontology that incorporates the grain of truth lying within social constructionism. As exemplified by the writings of Ferraris and Harman, realism provides a viable conception of social objects and, in so doing, a more coherent ontological foundation for the business enterprise than the relational ontology embraced by management history ANTians.

By drawing on two realist perspectives hitherto neglected by management historians, this paper resolves disagreements about the ontology of the business enterprise.

Congruent with the world-wide call to combat global warming concerns within the context of advancements in smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, algorithms (STARA), and digitalisation, organisational leaders are being pressured to ensure that talented employees are effectively managed (nurtured and retained) to curb the potential risk of staff turnover. By managing such talent(s), organisations may be able to not only retain them, but consequently foster environmental sustainability too. Equally, recent debates encourage the need for teams to work digitally and interdependently on set tasks, and for leaders to cultivate competencies fundamental to STARA, as this may further help reduce staff turnover intention and catalyse green initiatives. However, it is unclear how such turnover intention may be impacted by these actions. This paper therefore, seeks to investigate the predictive roles of green hard and soft talent management (TM), leader STARA competence (LSC) and digital task interdependence (DTI) on turnover intention.

The authors used a cross-sectional data collection technique to obtain 372 useable samples from 49 manufacturing organisations in Nigeria.

Findings indicate that green hard and soft TM and LSC positively predict turnover intention. While LSC amplifies the negative influence of green soft TM on turnover intention, LSC and DTI dampen the positive influence of green hard TM on turnover intention.

Our study offers novel insights into how emerging concepts like LSC, DTI, and green hard and soft TM simultaneously act to predict turnover intention.

The purpose of this paper is to extend and elaborate the notion of successful organizational change to incorporate the concept of large system change (LSC), by developing a framework that brings together complexity and wicked problems theories to understand how individual organizations and change agents can better influence LSC.

This conceptual paper integrates wicked problems and complexity theories to understand and cope with large system initiatives from the perspective of change agents in organizations, and uses the case of the electricity system as an illustrative example for these concepts.

The paper provides implications for LSC and action steps for change agents in organizations, arguing that by understanding change initiatives through the lenses of complexity and wicked problems, change agents are likely to be more effective.

The integration of complexity science and wicked problems underpins the development of a comprehensive framework for creating effective LSC solutions, however, these ideas still need to be grounded in practice and empirical research.

Using these ideas, change agents in organizations can enhance their influence and use the power of system dynamics to support positive action for sustainable change. This paper provides a foundation to help think through the cross-sectoral, inter-organizational, and change dynamics involved in LSC efforts needed to bring about a more sustainable, secure, and equitable world for all.

The world greatly needs system change; however, there is limited theory on effective LSC. This paper hopes to contribute to understanding the ways in which the difficulties of such change can be harnessed to move in positive directions with minimal disruption and greatest effectiveness.

Theories of change management that position the organization in the context of a broader system and define its role in creating change do not yet articulate the nature of the problems at hand in relation to the large systems where they are embedded. This paper builds upon wicked problems and complexity theories to shed light on the role of change agents and organizations in effective transformational change.