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This study investigates the impact of human capital (managers' capital, employees' capital) and orientation (market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) for accelerating the digitalization process and improving the firm performance. It also studies the role of supply chains as both direct and indirect mediators of the correlation between digitalization and business performance.

This article aims to develop an empirical study using a random sampling technique and survey data collected from 368 managers and owners of different food enterprises in Vietnam. The study adopted a methodological approach quantitatively. Analysis of the relationships and confirmatory factors was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM), a technique to evaluate the proposed relationships.

In line with expectations, the findings emphasize the impact of human capital (managers' capital, employees' capital) and orientation (market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) for accelerating the digitalization process and the role of supply chains as both direct and indirect mediators of the correlation between digitalization and improving the firm performance, in the context of emerging markets.

This is an important investigation, according to the authors' knowledge, regarding the role of developing human capital (managers' capital, employees' capital) and orientation (market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) as a key strategy for accelerating the digitalization process and improving the firm performance. Further, the study's novelty reinforces the role of supply chains as both direct and indirect mediators of the correlation between digitalization and business performance in the Vietnamese food companies, where a market economy is emerging.

Organizations have released the importance of lean manufacturing practices (LMPs) and total quality management (TQM) in enhancing competitiveness. However, the implementation of LMPs and TQM becomes more complex when discerning the environmental sustainability position. The complexity stems from the fact that LMPs and TQM are more intricate because of cultural differences. Thus, this study aims to tackle the aforementioned phenomenon by investigating the impact of LMPs and TQM on environmental sustainability moderated by quality culture.

A survey was distributed among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan; thus, 315 valid responses were received. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data and test hypotheses.

The findings showed that environmental sustainability was significantly impacted by all the LMP practices except Kanban and all the TQM practices except statistical process control. Moreover, quality culture significantly and negatively moderated the relationship between TQM and environmental sustainability. However, the influence of LMPs on environmental sustainability was not significantly moderated by quality culture.

This study has implications for policymakers in SMEs, supply chain managers and academics regarding the importance of LMPs and TQM systems for implementing environmental sustainability and the role of quality culture.

This study provides guidelines for decision-makers on the pathways that enable them to sustain the environment to safeguard the natural ecosystem and natural resources for upcoming generations.

The originality of this study stems from the alignment of LMPs and TQM in enhancing environmental sustainability, taking into consideration the role of quality culture in SMEs, where previous studies failed short to investigate this phenomenon.

Contingency studies within logistics and supply chain management have shown a need for longitudinal studies on fit. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the logistics strategy from a process of establishing fit perspective.

A large Swedish building contractor's logistics strategy process was analysed using a longitudinal single-case study for a period of 11 years (2008–2019).

The case study reveals three main constraints to logistics strategy implementation: a dominant purchasing organisation, a lack of incentives and diverging top-management priorities. This suggests that logistics strategy fit is not a conscious choice determined by contextual factors.

Establishing fit is a continuous cycle of regaining fit between the logistics context and logistics strategy components. Fit can be achieved by a change to the logistics context or to logistics strategy components.

Logistics managers may need to opt for satisfactory fit in view of the costs incurred by changing strategy versus the benefits to be gained from a higher degree of fit.

This paper adopts a longitudinal case design to study the fit between the logistics context and strategy, adding to the body of knowledge on organisational design and strategy in logistics and supply chain management.

Second-order system-dynamics engineering (SOSDE) involves constructing and running enterprise manufacturing simulation models with new proposals for operational processes, byproducts, supply chain and/or downstream marketing designs. This paper aims to describe sustainability the principal lessons from enacting SOSDE research for achieving goals in large manufacturing firms.

This study is a case research commentary in the agricultural industry that contributes abductively derives six principal lessons from SOSDE research on introducing sustainability-focused manufacturing and product innovations. Operational processes in large-scale poultry processing plants in an emerging market represent the specific industry and firm domain of this case study. Alternative SOSDE simulation models of decisions, materials flow and outcomes with versus without operational innovations were constructed following one-to-one interviews with experienced farm managers and entrepreneurs.

The principles demonstrate how large farms in a developing nation (i.e. Bangladesh) go about adopting radically innovative manufacturing, supply chain and marketing operations to improve traditional operations. This study confirms and expands on the general observation that SOSDE can help achieve sustainability and environmental, social and governance goals, contribute new value outcomes by converting unused production wastes into valuable byproducts and introduce design efficiencies in production, supply chain and marketing processes. SOSDE complements, while being a revolutionary departure from, “six sigma management programs” that focus on achieving exceptional and near mistake-free manufacturing operations. Both represent distinct philosophies and sets of actions that sometimes can conflict with one another. Embracing both successfully in the same enterprise is a goal that may appear unreachable, seemingly impossible to achieve and yet represents a manufacturing/marketing epitome that is observable in exceptional enterprises.

This paper may generate controversy as well as advance interest in applying SOSDE in introductions of improved manufacturing, supply chain and marketing operations aiming to accomplish radical improvements in sustainability goals.

This commentary describes how using SOSDE and running alternative production simulations with versus without including superior, radically new, process innovations enable the firm to find and eliminate glitches in system changes and reduce the fear associating with breakdowns and financial losses due to inadequate knowledge of operating new industrial procedures and outcomes.

Introductions of superior radically new innovations in industrial manufacturing and marketing via SOSDE frequently include manufacturing firms embracing new environment sustainability objectives and additional marketable byproducts from the firm's main productions lines. This commentary offers details on how this process is enacted in poultry manufacturing in an economically emerging nation.

Running simulations in SOSDE research offers a low-cost, fast and in-depth method to test “what-if” impacts of enhanced and radical innovations into product/service manufacturing operations – benefits supporting the recommendation to apply systems dynamics in business and industrial marketing.

Both technological and human-centric perspectives need to be acknowledged when combining lean production practices and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies. This study aims to explore and explain how lean production practices and I4.0 technologies may coexist to enhance the human-centric perspective of manufacturing operations in the era of Industry 5.0 (I5.0).

The research approach is an explorative and longitudinal case study. The qualitative data collection encompasses respondents from different job functions and organizational levels to cover the entire organization. In total, 18 interviews with 19 interviewees and five focus groups with a total of 25 participants are included.

Identified challenges bring forth that manufacturing organizations must have the ability to see beyond lean production philosophy and I4.0 to meet the demand for a human-centric perspective in socially sustainable manufacturing in the era of Industry 5.0.

The study suggests that while lean production practices and I4.0 practices may be considered separately, they need to be integrated as complementary approaches. This underscores the complexity of managing simultaneous organizational changes and new digital initiatives.

The research presented illuminates the elusive phenomena comprising the combined aspects of a human-centric perspective, specifically bringing forth implications for the co-existence of lean production practices and I4.0 technologies, in the transformation towards I5.0.

The study contributes to new avenues of research within the field of socially sustainable manufacturing. The study provides an in-depth analysis of the human-centric perspective when transforming organizations towards Industry 5.0.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of paradoxes, underlying tensions and potential management strategies when integrating digital technologies into existing lean-based production systems (LPSs), with the aim of achieving synergies and fostering the development of production systems.

This study adopts a collaborative management research (CMR) approach to identify patterns of organisational tensions and paradoxes and explore management strategies to overcome them. The data were collected through interviews and focus group interviews with experts on lean and/or digital technologies from the companies, from documents and from workshops with the in-case researchers.

The findings of this paper provide insights into the salient organisational paradoxes embraced in the integration of digital technologies in LPS by identifying different aspects of the performing, organising, learning and belonging paradoxes. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the intricacies and relatedness between different paradoxes and their resolutions, and more specifically, how a resolution strategy adopted to manage one paradox might unintentionally generate new tensions. This, in turn, calls for either re-contextualising actions to counteract the drift or the adoption of new resolution strategies.

This paper adds perspective to operations management (OM) research through the use of paradox theory, and we (1) provide a fine-grained perspective on why integration sometimes “fails” and label the forces of internal drift as mechanisms of imbalances and (2) provide detailed insights into how different management and resolution strategies are adopted, especially by identifying re-contextualising actions as a key to rebalancing organisational paradoxes in favour of the integration of digital technologies in LPSs.

This study offers practical insights into how generative artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance responsible manufacturing within the context of Industry 5.0. It explores how manufacturers can strategically maximize the potential benefits of generative AI through a synergistic approach.

The study developed a strategic roadmap by employing a mixed qualitative-quantitative research method involving case studies, interviews and interpretive structural modeling (ISM). This roadmap visualizes and elucidates the mechanisms through which generative AI can contribute to advancing the sustainability goals of Industry 5.0.

Generative AI has demonstrated the capability to promote various sustainability objectives within Industry 5.0 through ten distinct functions. These multifaceted functions address multiple facets of manufacturing, ranging from providing data-driven production insights to enhancing the resilience of manufacturing operations.

While each identified generative AI function independently contributes to responsible manufacturing under Industry 5.0, leveraging them individually is a viable strategy. However, they synergistically enhance each other when systematically employed in a specific order. Manufacturers are advised to strategically leverage these functions, drawing on their complementarities to maximize their benefits.

This study pioneers by providing early practical insights into how generative AI enhances the sustainability performance of manufacturers within the Industry 5.0 framework. The proposed strategic roadmap suggests prioritization orders, guiding manufacturers in decision-making processes regarding where and for what purpose to integrate generative AI.

Sustainability has become a priority for companies due to pressure from multiple stakeholders. In an overly competitive market, shareholders push for economic results, allowing lean manufacturing to establish itself as dominant paradigm in manufacturing. However, concerns grow regarding how lean implementation can allow companies to achieve sustainable development goals, or, if the resources required for a successful lean implementation can result in a detriment of environmental and social performance. This paper intends to help close the knowledge gap regarding the effects of lean manufacturing on sustainable performance from a triple bottom line perspective, and how operational, environmental and social outcomes interact between themselves.

Two models for the interaction between lean and sustainability were proposed. The first is called the “sand-cone” model, which poses that performance improvements derived from lean are cumulative on each one of the sustainability dimensions. The second is called the “trade-offs” approach. In this case, the resources required to improve one dimension of sustainability clash with those required by the others. Data were gathered from a sample of 133 Colombian metalworking companies and processed using structural equations models.

The results support the cumulative “sand-cone”, which follows a sequence of operational-environmental-social improvement in the presence of lean. For the “trade-offs” model, partial evidence suggests that they can occur in detriment of social performance.

The “sand-cone” and “trade-offs” are empirically tested for the first time in the context of sustainability, providing further knowledge into its interaction with lean manufacturing. The models’ results contribute to practitioners by providing a tested path for companies to improve their performance in a cumulative sequence that will provide better long-term results.

This research aims to provide a new perspective on the evolving linkages between LAs and FSAs in the context of the technology-based manufacturing industry. Firm-level competitive strengths in an international context build upon the combination of (largely) exogenous location advantages (LAs) and endogenous firm-specific advantages (FSAs). The authors focus especially on the decay of LAs over time, which has been observed in many highly developed countries during the past decades. The authors show how the strengthening of FSAs can substitute for decaying LAs, thereby safeguarding against the demise of entire industrial regions.

The authors examine the technology-based manufacturing industry in Belgium, building upon an analysis of survey responses by 66 firms including a subgroup of 26 multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries. The professional association representing this industry in Belgium (Agoria) viewed the firms included in the survey as representative for Belgian technology-based manufacturing in terms of the LAs they presently build upon (or location disadvantages they face) and the internal strengths they command relative to (foreign) rivals. The investigation uncovered the decay of critical LAs in Belgium and in parallel, the rise of ‘compensating’ FSAs of Belgian operations relative to foreign firms, including, especially, MNE sister subsidiaries in other countries. The authors also conducted 23 in-depth interviews with senior level managers (CEOs and senior vice presidents) of technology-based firms, including 10 subsidiaries of foreign-owned MNEs, which validated our analysis of the interplay between LAs and FSAs.

The findings reveal that since inception, Belgian manufacturing operations experienced an overall decay in their critical LAs by 23% on average. Despite this, several Belgian subsidiaries of foreign MNEs consider themselves as commanding a resource-base superior to that of the next-best-in-class subsidiaries. Furthermore, when assessing the dynamic interplay between LAs and FSAs, there is some evidence that the decay of LAs fueled the quest for – and firm-level journey toward – stronger FSAs.

The originality of this study is the alternative perspective to the conventionally assumed “positive-positive” relationship between LAs and FSAs. Prior management research has not examined the impact of decaying LAs on new FSA-creation in the realm of technology-based manufacturing.

The concept of lean and ISO 14001 as a combined approach is an evolving strategy for streamlining operational processes and attaining environmental sustainability in the manufacturing context. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation in the manufacturing industry for achieving the operational and environmental benefits.

A systematic literature review (SLR) based on Scopus and Web of Science databases is conducted to present peer-reviewed articles on the CSFs for lean and ISO 14001 implementation in manufacturing operations. This article applies the CSF theory to classify the CSFs for a joint lean and ISO 14001 adoption.

Numerous CSFs are synthesised from the SLR across seven theoretical contexts of industry, competitive strategy, managerial position, environmental, temporal, internal/external, monitoring and building/adapting factors for a combined lean and ISO14001 implementation.

Numerous CSFs are synthesised from the SLR across seven theoretical contexts of strategic direction, competitive strategy, leadership and management, environmental, temporal, internal/external, monitoring and continuous process improvement factors for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation.

This paper contributes to academic scholarship by providing a theoretical perspective through classification of CSFs for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation to achieve operational and environmental performance. This paper also contributes to practitioners and policymakers who can use the emergent theoretical framework for application in practice for a more efficient and effective deployment of both strategies in the manufacturing industry.

To the best of author's knowledge, this study is the first to propose a theoretical framework of CSFs for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation based on the CSF theory and SLR findings in the manufacturing industry.