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This paper introduces initial foundations of a sustainability-dominant logic theory intersecting the sustainable operations and supply chain management (SOSCM) discipline with the circular economy (CE) field of knowledge.

The paper applies propositional forms of theorising to derive the formulation of propositions and interconnections that interrelate SOSCM and CE principles, concepts and practices which provide a reinforcing theoretical basis underlying the proposed sustainability-dominant logic theory.

Key findings are represented by elaborated theoretical propositions for a sustainability-dominant logic linking SOSCM and CE principles, concepts and well-established practical assumptions. The initial set of propositions offers useful insights for a sustainability-dominant logic at three managerial levels: product, firm and supply chain level.

The paper offers an original theoretical common ground based on a sustainability-dominant logic linking key SOSCM with CE tenets, this way developing SOSCM theory anchored in the CE paradigm and, conversely, developing CE theory supported by SOSCM principles and praxis. The initial set of propositions introduced in the paper provides a new pathway for future research and debate by OM scholars engaged with SOSCM and CE developments.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodological approach to support qualitative analysis of waste flows in food supply chains. The methodological framework introduced allows the identification of circular food waste flows that can maximise the sustainability of food supply chains.

Following a qualitative approach, circular economy perspectives are combined with core industrial ecology concepts in the specification of a standardised analytical method to map food waste flows and industrial synergies across a supply chain.

The mapped waste flows and industrial linkages depict two time-related scenarios: (1) current scenarios showing the status quo of existing food waste flows, and (2) future scenarios pointing out circular flows along the supply chain. The future scenarios inform potential alternatives to take waste flows up the food waste hierarchy.

The qualitative approach does not allow generalisations of findings out of the scope of the study. The framework is intended for providing focussed analysis, case by case. Future research involving mixed methods where quantitative approaches complement the qualitative perspectives of the framework would expand the analytical perspective.

The framework provides a relatively low-cost and pragmatic method to identify alternatives to minimise landfill disposals and improve the sustainability of food supply chains. Its phased methodology and standardised outcomes serve as a referential basis to inform not only comparative analysis, but also policymaking and strategic decisions aimed at transforming linear food supply chains into circular economy ecosystems.

Companies are concerned about the well-being of workers in their supply chains, but conventional audits fail to uncover critical problems. Yet, if the happy worker – productive worker thesis is correct, it would benefit factories in fast-developing countries, particularly China which is key to many global supply chains, to ensure the well-being of their workers. The authors set out to better understand the relationship between well-being and performance in four Chinese factories.

Over 12-months the authors collected digital diaries from 466 workers in four factories, and monthly data about the performance of their factories. The authors used this data to gain insights into the well-being of workers in these factories; to design experimental interventions to improve this; and to consider any effects these had on factory performance.

The experiments showed that training interventions to improve workers' well-being through their work relationships and individual skills improved not just a factory's general worker well-being, but also some aspects of its performance and worker retention. Thus, it brought benefits not only for the workers but also for the factory owners and their client companies.

While there is a significant body of research investigating the happy worker – productive worker thesis, this was not conducted in Chinese factories. The authors’ work demonstrates that in this and similar environments, workers' eudaimonic well-being is more important than might be assumed, and that in this context there is a relationship between well-being and performance which can be practically addressed.

Businesses are under pressure to ensure social responsibility in their globalised supply chains. However, conventional factory audits are not providing adequate data about production workers’ well-being. Industry attempts to measure working conditions have shown bias and inconsistency, and there is no consensus on what to measure, or how. Well-being can be intangible and difficult to capture without appropriate theoretical and methodological frameworks. This paper investigates factors influencing the well-being of a Chinese factory’s workers, tests an innovative research method, and proposes interventions to improve well-being in factories.

This is a longitudinal study using the diaries of production workers at a large assembly manufacturing site in China. Workers left daily digital voice diaries about their day, which were analysed to identify factors related to their well-being at work.

The picture is more complex than the concerned Western narrative suggests. Workers’ personal and professional concerns extend beyond the criteria currently measured in audits, tending to be more relational and less about their physical state.

The current approach of auditing management practices neglects workers’ well-being. This study offers a more comprehensive view of well-being and tests a new method of investigation.

This is the first study to use diary methods in a Chinese factory. It addresses an issue supported by little empirical evidence. It is the first longitudinal study to hear from factory workers themselves about how they are and what impacts their well-being daily.

Trade and transport facilitation is a challenging area for international logistics and supply chains. A major problem in the area is the lack of a specific framework to support measurement and analyses of performance aspects concerning border‐crossing operations. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for the area comprising strategic performance objectives of operations.

The framework derived from a theoretical and empirical basis. The empirical method involved a Delphi study with 11 experts with recognised knowledge in the area of international logistics and supply chain. The framework was validated through a substantive validity test conducted in a pilot study with 20 managers from organisations operating in a major international seaport overseas.

The study developed a framework structured by critical operations performance factors operationalised in terms of trade and transport facilitation aspects.

The framework was pre‐tested in a specific context in Brazil. Its construct validity and reliability require further testing and refinement.

The framework provides reference for the definition of priorities and targeted initiatives in specific areas of trade and transport operations at border‐crossing levels. The initiatives can be aligned with relevant strategic performance objectives of operations in general.

The theoretical, empirical, and practical issues addressed in the research provide an insightful basis for future research and managerial initiatives. The framework defined in the study offers robust measures that allow academics and practitioners to understand and address critical aspects inherent in the operational dimension of trade and transport facilitation.

The objective of this paper is to point out the potentialities of customer relationship management (CRM) in the building of government reputation by raising key aspects of corporate reputation theory that can be strengthened by similar CRM strategic orientations and supported by the deployment of CRM solutions.

From a public sector perspective, the authors develop a comparative approach to corporate reputation and CRM premises, concepts, and practices. They draw aspects from both theories that can enable the building and management of corporate reputation in the public sector with the support of CRM solutions.

Challenging the popular criticism that most public agencies and departments are bureaucratic, slow, and incapable of taking immediate action, governments are striving to revert this negative image by adopting new business approaches and applying new information technologies to optimize their processes. In this context, CRM has a potential value to fulfil government needs to become more responsive to the public.

The considerations raised in this paper provide relevant issues for future research aimed at studying CRM and reputation in the government context. Public managers may benefit from the practical aspects and cases provided in this paper.

A theoretical link is developed between CRM and corporate reputation, bringing a new dimension to the matter. Many public managers are leading projects to adopt customer‐focused strategies without realizing they are also working on government reputation. An attempt is made to bring this awareness to the surface by linking some aspects of corporate reputation theory with CRM. Focusses on the public sector, which usually faces the problem of public cynicism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the supply chains, and this brought researchers and practitioners to think about more on circular supply chains (CSC). The CSC concept has been discussed in the literature more than a decade. This study aims to find out the theoretical roots of CSC by analyzing scholarly articles in literature.

This paper uses document cocitation analysis for reaching this aim. After retrieving data from Web of Science database, this paper explores data set by considering used references of these publications and clusters them based on their title terms and visualizes them by using cosine similarity index.

This paper concludes that CSC is mainly discussed along with sustainability, sustainable supply chains and green supply chains, where the focus is integrating circular economy principles to supply chain management (SCM). On the other hand, although resiliency is an essential characteristic of SCM, contribution of CSC to supply chain resilience is neglected in the literature.

CSC will gain importance in near future to increase national/firm productivity, and findings of this paper will give researchers insights for furthering their studies.

To avoid supply chain and market collapse caused by natural disruptions, supply chain resilience is of paramount importance. According to the findings of this paper, the authors believe that business resilience in COVID-19-restricted environment may have exit point by using circular perspective.

The importance of CSC has increased due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this unique study was undertaken to investigate the evolution of this crucial topic with evidence from the literature through a cocitation analysis.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

Antibiotics shortages have become an increasingly common problem in Europe because of several reasons, including the offshoring of the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients for many of these products to low production cost countries, such as China and India. The problem has deteriorated because of the Covid-19 crisis that has put most global value chains (GVCs) under great stress. This situation has boosted extensive discussions among academics, practitioners and policymakers on possible changes to the configuration of GVCs. This paper aims to focus specifically on antibiotics supply chains from the perspective of a small country (Sweden), and analyse the pros and cons of backshoring and nearshoring alternatives, as a means to reduce drug shortages.

This work adopts a systemic perspective to capture the implications of reshoring for the different stakeholders involved in the antibiotics field. The present meso-analysis, focusing at the industry level, is based on multiple sources of primary data collected between 2014 and 2021, including participation in policy-related projects and interviews with over 100 representatives of key stakeholders in the antibiotics field.

This paper shows how reshoring can address the problems of drug shortages and reduce availability risk in antibiotics’ GVCs. However, the authors show that no simple and best solution exists because both alternatives of reshoring, i.e. backshoring and nearshoring, entail pros and cons for different stakeholders. The authors conclude with implications for policymakers and managers.

The analysis of pros and cons of both backshoring and nearshoring for various stakeholders offers relevant implications for research on operations and supply management, international business and economics/political science.

This paper looks at reshoring as a policy-driven decision and provides an innovative systemic perspective to analyse the implications for different stakeholders of two reshoring options concerning the antibiotics supply chain.