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This study aims to present a conceptual framework aimed at promoting educational innovation in supply chain management and logistics (SCM&L). The framework can help to design active learning experiences regarding student learning outcomes that tackle current challenges in the discipline. Emphasizing the significance of linking students’ learning to real-world scenarios, the framework enables reflective learning through hands-on engagement in a constructive alignment, overcoming existing pedagogical limitations in the field.

This study presents a qualitative research methodology that relies on the case study method. Three instances are presented to illustrate educational efforts of active learning in countries of Latin America, Bolivia, Mexico and Peru, linking real-world relevant situations to disciplinary teaching and learning.

The innovative learning experiences introduced in this study transform real-world SCM&L operations into distinctive educational opportunities. These experiences facilitate learning not only within traditional classrooms but also in urban areas of the Latin American region, enabling students to interact with educational partners in authentic settings to achieve their intended learning outcomes. These experiences are characterized by their focus on establishing meaningful connections between learning and local communities, businesses or specific contexts.

The study recognizes various limitations of conceptual, methodological, execution-related and research process aspects. First, not all academics in the SCM&L discipline may universally acknowledge the importance of educational innovation and active learning experiences because of limited pedagogical awareness. Moreover, execution-related limitations arise from the demanding nature of incorporating active pedagogical approaches into courses, as they can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. Regarding research process limitations, the case study limits generalizability and broader inferences because of its particular views and locations, which require further investigation with other instances across other disciplines and geographical regions for validation.

The practical implementation of this framework within the MIT SCALE network for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) demonstrates its potential in meeting diverse academic and institutional expectations and providing educational benefits to students.

The study makes a valuable contribution to prioritizing and coordinating pedagogical research by investigating the success of learning outcomes achieved through active and experiential implementations in various contexts. It provides inspiring examples of innovative learning experiences that can drive new developments not only within the LAC region but also in other areas, prompting a shift away from traditional educational approaches.

This research presents a conceptual framework, which is developed from the insights obtained in the three learning experiences to guide future efforts in SCM&L education. The findings demonstrate how to structure active learning experiences based on authentic assessment and illustrate the potential for increased cooperation among institutions in Latin America. It also promotes the recognition of novel SCM&L active learning experiences and highlights some of the benefits of this approach.

Blockchain technology (BT) is creating a new standard for all business operations. It can assist businesses in handling the complexity of circular digital supply chain (DCM) management. Despite this optimistic view, several barriers hinder its implementation. In this regard, this study contributes to Industry 4.0, circular economy (CE), the viability with a critical emphasis on its potential ramifications and influence on the future agenda while using BT technology in the supply chain (SC). In addition, the research reduces the knowledge gap by investigating and ranking the key barriers to the deployment of BT in viable circular digital supply chains (VCDSCs) and studies their interdependencies and causal relationships. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

The barriers to BT adoption in the VCDSC are identified through a thorough literature review and considering viability performance. These barriers are then classified using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is then employed to examine the cause/effect, correlation, and connection among the 14 barriers selected barriers from the AHP classification to estimate each barrier's overall degree of impact over the others.

This paper identifies and analyzes the BT adoption barriers in the VCDSC as well as examines how the key barriers interact. As a result, according to the AHP/DEMATEL method, the most prominent influencing barriers to the BT implementation in the VCDSC are “Data transparency,” “Market competition,” “Missing infrastructure,” “Lack of standardization,” “Complex protocol,” “Lack of industry involvement,” “Financial constraints,” “Missing infrastructure,” “Data transparency” and “Interoperability.” The outcomes offer a potential path for identifying important barriers as well as insight into the implementation of BT in the SC while integrating different capabilities such as viability, sustainability and CE principles.

Managers and researchers will benefit from this research by gaining an understanding of the challenges that must be prioritized and examined for BT to be implemented successfully in the VCDSC.

The use and implementation of blockchain-enabled VCDSC continue to face challenges despite an increase in relevant practice and research. Despite the benefits of BT, managers struggle to apply such technology in the context of their company. In this respect, this paper uses an integrated AHP–DEMATEL for categorizing the BT barriers as well as the interrelationship between them. In this respect, this paper presents the BT barriers studied are those related to the use of BT in the SC while integrating different paradigms such as viability, digitalization and CE. While many studies look at the barriers to BT adoption; none of them has ever included the viable capability, which means the ability to “react agilely to positive changes, be resilient to absorb negative events and re-cover after disruptions and survive at long-term periods.” The study concludes with insightful comments based on the findings and suggestions for eradicating those obstacles and their associated effects.

This chapter of the book aims to introduce multiobjective linear programming (MLP) as an optimum tool to find the best quality engineering techniques (QET) in the main domains of supply chain management (SCM). The importance of finding the best quality techniques in SCM elements in the shortest possible time and at the least cost allows all organizations to increase the power of experts’ analysis in supply chain network (SCN) data under cost-effective conditions. In other words, this chapter aims to introduce an operations research model by presenting MLP for obtaining the best QET in the main domains of SCM. MLP is one of the most determinative tools in this chapter that can provide a competitive advantage. Under goal and system constraints, the most challenging task for decision-makers (DMs) is to decide which components to fund and at what levels. The definition of a comprehensive target value among the required goals and determining system constraints is the strength of this chapter. Therefore, this chapter can guide the readers to extract the best statistical and non-statistical techniques with the application of an operations research model through MLP in supply chain elements and shows a new innovation of the effective application of operations research approach in this field. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a supplemental tool in this chapter to facilitate the relevant decision-making process.

Through the “Going Digital Initiative,” the Ghanaian government has introduced policies that aim at improving the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure of the country. These ICT policies have benefited numerous sectors of the Ghanaian economy. In logistics management, ICT has impacted drone medical delivery in the healthcare and maritime sectors. However, the importance of ICT is not realized in the motorcycle goods transport (MGT) industry, regardless of its popularity and high economic dependency. Second, all research on motorcycles is focused on diverse social concerns, and no study has attempted to analyze ICT implementation for MGT operations. This is a significant gap in logistics management. Hence, the study aimed to investigate the impact of ICT on Ghana's MGT industry empirically.

The study adopts a two-phase data collection approach to collect the data. The authors use partial least square structural equation modeling to analyze the study's measurement and structural assessment model.

ICT positively impacts MGT and the drivers considered. The drivers positively influence MGT. The study further analyzes novel results on the relationships between the drivers and their mediating roles in enhancing MGT performance.

The study's originality is the extension of ICT adoption and usage in MGT. The lack of literature on the importance of ICT for MGT services makes this study the primary source of literature, and the relationships investigated are unique as the research area is unexplored.

This study aims to empirically test the effects of key characteristics of performance-based contracting (PBC) (i.e. reward/payment scheme, increased supplier autonomy and transfer of responsibilities) on supplier goal commitment.

This study developed a conceptual model applying goal-setting theory (GST), expectancy theory (ET) and job characteristics theory (JCT). Survey data were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to establish a validated measurement instrument for testing the hypotheses.

The findings revealed that PBC positively affects supplier goal commitment due to its unique characteristics, which translates into improved supplier performance. Furthermore, this study validated the mediating role of goal alignment and felt accountability operating between PBC characteristics and supplier goal commitment.

This study explored the buyer–supplier relationship from the supplier's standpoint. Using a more inclusive data set, future research may involve a dyadic analysis and focus on the effects of the following factors on the supplier goal commitment: relational aspects (e.g. trust and collaboration), the risk transfer from the buyer to the supplier, different incentive schemes and successful PBC implementation factors.

This study presents new, validated insights for contract selection, design and management. It underlines the importance of choosing the proper contract, having the appropriate contract design based on the desired outcomes and effective contract management by exhibiting the psychological/behavioral effect of fundamental PBC characteristics.

PBC represents an active research stream, but its psychological/behavioral implications are understudied. Therefore, this research puts forth a conceptual framework with multiple testable hypotheses illustrating the relationship between PBC and supplier goal commitment.