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This paper aims to understand water and wastewater industry leaders’ perceptions of the current and future role of workplace spirituality, including the challenges and benefits of incorporating workplace spirituality in government utilities.

The Delphi technique was used to gather input and gain consensus from an expert panel of executive level managers.

The panel achieved consensus that workplace spirituality is evident in a higher sense of purpose for those working in the water and wastewater industry which is likely to be the greatest future benefit of workplace spirituality in the industry. Other central themes included making a positive environmental impact, going beyond compliance, collaborating with the community, creating a connection to peers and encouraging organizational belonging. Consensus was also achieved regarding obstacles to workplace spirituality’s future role in the industry, including concerns about terminology and the need for supportive leadership.

The water and wastewater industry face challenges including climate change, rising costs, aging infrastructure, increased regulatory requirements and a rapidly changing workforce. Workplace spirituality seems likely to support the industry in facing these challenges and can be promoted through encouraging a sense of purpose and meaning, collaborating with the community and recruiting individuals with resonant values and sense of calling.

Workplace spirituality has received growing attention in the private sector. However, workplace spirituality research in the public sector is minimal. This expert panel of top leaders from US water and wastewater agencies provide insight into the role of workplace spirituality in the public sector.

The main aim of this study is to explore the appropriate factors in measuring COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions and the impact of these disruptions on the economic vulnerability of small-scale farmers in Sri Lanka.

The findings revealed that most of the farmers have continued to cultivate even during the pandemic despite several challenges which affected their economic status. Therefore, it is concluded that COVID-19-induced transportation and demand disruptions exacerbated the economic vulnerability of small-scale farmers over the disruptions in supply and production.

The findings of this study are crucial for formulating novel policies to improve the sustainability of the Sri Lankan agricultural sector and alleviate the poverty level of Agri-communities in the countryside. As farming is a vital sector in the economy, increased attention ought to be given on facilitating farmers with government-encouraged loans or allowances for their financial stability. Further, the respective government authorities should develop programs for importing and distributing adequate quantities of fertilizers among all the farmers at controlled prices so that they can continue their operations without any interruption. Moreover, the government could engage in collaboratively work with private organizations to streamline the Agri-input supply process. There should be a government initiative for critical consideration of the issues of farming families and their continued motivation to engage in agriculture. Thus, farmers' livelihoods and agricultural prosperity could be upgraded through alternative Agri-inputs and marketing strategies, providing financial assistance, encouraging innovative technology, etc.

Despite the significance and vulnerability of the vegetable and fruit sector in Sri Lanka, there is a limitation in the empirical studies conducted on the supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 measures and their implications on the farmers' livelihood. Furthermore, previous empirical research has not employed adequate quantitative tools to analyze the situation or appropriate variables in evaluating COVID-19-induced disruptions. Hence, the current study explored the appropriate factors for measuring COVID-19-induced supply chain disruption using exploratory factor analysis. Then, the impact of those factors on the economic vulnerability of the small scale farmers was revealed through the ordinal logistics regression analysis.

This study assesses the potential impact of the European Income Stabilization Tool (IST – a whole farm income risk management [RM] tool) within a farm cooperative specializing in vineyards and operating in a small area of production. The authors assess the conditions under which IST could improve the well-being of the associated farmers and, at the same time, improve financial sustainability. Financial aspects are of particular relevance since the characteristics of the cooperative cause the management of the tool to become potentially risky.

The analysis relies on a balanced panel dataset to report the production and economic characteristics of individual associated farms. This is the basis for simulating the implementation of the IST as described in the current European regulation. The expected utility approach is then used to assess the potential impact on farmers' well-being under different levels of risk aversion and premiums. The analysis of the IST annual cash flow allows for an accurate assessment of its financial sustainability.

The results suggest that the IST can improve farmers' well-being under plausible levels of risk aversion and premiums, making most farmers willing to support its implementation. Furthermore, the tool could be financially sustainable even if implemented in a specialized and geographically concentrated group of farms. In addition, the results suggest that the use of strategies such as the IST could help cope with negative annual balances by treating the financial sustainability of the fund.

The analysis adds to previous research on the IST by accounting for farmers' risk aversion. Furthermore, it is the first analysis that simulates the implementation of this tool in a sector-specific and concentrated group of farms. The results provide useful evidence for those subjects planning to implement the IST in small and specialized farming systems.

We investigate the innovative supply chain contracts developed and implemented by Barilla, the leading Italian pasta company, in sourcing high-quality durum wheat from farmers in Northern Italy in the Emilia Romagna region.

Using case study techniques to gather information, we captured the evolution of the supply chain contracts adopted by Barilla. We gained information mainly through semi-structured interviews with Barilla’s managers, co-op and consortium managers representing farmers, Barilla’s quantitative data related to contracts’ elements and structure, preliminary experimental results, agri-business magazines, industry reports, and academic literature.

These contracts helped the company improve not only its long-term profits and strategic objectives such as supply security, but also the farmers’ income as well as environmental sustainability, thus providing triple bottom line benefits.

We investigate how Barilla and its suppliers – with the support of additional stakeholders, such as regional institutions – combine in their innovative contracts fixed and market-based prices as well as quality and sustainability-based premiums for desired triple bottom line benefits.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chain (SC) sustainability learning. In particular, it focuses on the learning associated with changes in the sustainability initiatives of emerging economy suppliers.

Through studying three scenarios (pre-outbreak, buyer-centred peak and supplier-centred peak) over a nine-month period, a multi-case study strategy was used to gain an understanding of the learning of export-oriented Brazilian coffee producers, using both exploitation and exploration capabilities. Content analysis was developed after each data collection phase to investigate how sustainability initiatives had changed.

Social sustainability was observed to be the main priority by suppliers facing this unprecedented outbreak, in ways that go beyond expected sustainability certification requirements. For instance, there was evidence of outstanding contributions to the local community. Suppliers initially developed their sustainability initiatives during the outbreak without any support from global buyers, certification bodies or government. In spite of this, stronger relationships with buyers ultimately emerged facilitating greater SC sustainability. Consequently, by using both exploitation and exploration learning capabilities, multiple levels of learning were observed (i.e. individual, organisational and SC) as related to planning, new procedures and social awareness.

A greater awareness of supplier learning processes will aid buyers in developing recovery plans that are appropriate for their global SC partners.

This paper provides an understanding of how emerging economy suppliers of global SCs are coping with this unprecedented outbreak in regard to sustainability management. Moving the spotlight from buyers to suppliers, the research demonstrates that supplier learning is central to global SC sustainability.

This paper discusses the American debate over price controls and economic stabilization after World War II, when the transition from a war economy to a peace economy was characterized by bottlenecks in the productive system and shortages of food and other basic consumer goods, directly affecting the living standard of the population, the public opinion, and political discourse. Specifically, we will focus on the economist Franco Modigliani and his proposal for a “Plan to meet the problem of rising meat and other food prices without bureaucratic controls.” The plan prepared by Modigliani in October 1947 was based on a system of taxes and subsidies to foster a proper distribution of disposable income and warrant a minimum meat consumption for each individual without encroaching market mechanisms and consumers’ freedom. We will discuss the contents of the plan and its further refinements, and the reactions it prompted from fellow economists, the public opinion, and the political world. Although the Plan was not eventually implemented, it was an important initiative for several reasons: first, it showed the increasing importance of fiscal policy among postwar government tools of intervention in the economic sphere; second, it showed a third way between direct government intervention and full-fledged laissez faire, in tune with the postwar political climate; third, it proposed a Keynesian macroeconomic approach to price and income stabilization, strongly based on econometric and microeconomic foundations. The Meat Plan was thus a fundamental step in Modigliani’s effort to build the “neoclassical synthesis” between Keynesian and Neoclassical economics, which would deeply influence his own career and the evolution of academic studies and government practices in the United States.

This chapter examines the selling practices of street vendors at a popular weekend market in Washington, DC. I discuss the role of social and moral norms in vendors' behavior toward one another, customers, and their work. Vendor success in this marketplace over the long term is influenced not only by their products and sales skills, but also by their understanding and acceptance of an ethical framework partly shaped by stories they tell about each other. As such, this study illustrates the embedded nature of sellers in marketplaces, as opposed to theoretical notions of how abstract individuals are supposed to act in a decontextualized “market.” Furthermore, stories that arise from encounters between vendors and customers add value to the products people buy. Objects in this marketplace, then, gain value not only through the interaction of supply and demand, but also through buyer and seller interaction, which provides a narrative base for future communication.

This article investigates how micro-foundations of sustainability can build supply chain resilience (SCRes). Specifically, by defining supply chains as social-ecological systems, this article explores how sustainability as a supplier capability leads to the transformative development of SCRes capabilities.

Longitudinal multi-case studies were developed over the first year of the COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 52 interviews were conducted with managers and employees of 12 global supplier firms as well as associated local cooperative and consultancy managers. Secondary data were also used for triangulation. An inductive approach was used for data analysis to elaborate theory through a metaphor.

Nine micro-foundations of sustainability were identified and categorised using the dynamic capabilities steps: sensing, seizing and reconfiguring. They were found to move together with the preparing, responding and transforming steps of SCRes, respectively, and thus to perform as dance partners using our dance performance metaphor. Moreover, ten supplier cases were found to be adopting a transformative social-ecological perspective as they performed all key stages of our dance performance metaphor. The transformations all resulted from either institutional or social sustainability, and the associated micro-foundations generated six main SCRes capabilities, most commonly linking visibility and organisation with institutional and social sustainability respectively.

A deeper understanding of sustainability micro-foundations is provided for supply chain managers to enhance the development of SCRes strategies in preparation for future sustainability-related crises.

Unlike previous research, this article explores an intertwined understanding of SCRes and sustainability during a crisis. Through the micro-foundations of sustainability we explain how sustainability capability builds transformative SCRes using a supplier perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to report the use of performance metrics among 121 Brazilian agribusiness companies, with the aim of helping accountants and academics to understand the actual use of performance metrics in non-integrated supply chains (SCs).

To identify which performance metrics are used among SC partners, four independent clusters representing specific SC roles (input suppliers, farmers, distributors, and retailers) were formed. Data relating to 49 performance metrics were collected by questionnaire and analyzed statistically to isolate common measures.

It was found among suppliers, farmers, distributors, and retailers that the performance metrics for return on investment, responsiveness, and response time to clients are not being used whereas customer satisfaction obtained a usage pattern in all roles in the four groups. Hence, it appears that customer satisfaction rather than financial sustainability is the driver for discussion between SC partners.

Although limited to a sample of firms within Brazil, the findings confirm evidence from similar SCs worldwide.

These findings suggest that the common metrics approach to measure SC performance may be very difficult to achieve in practice and other alternatives should be investigated by management accountants.

A predominance of customer satisfaction metrics to the exclusion of discussions on financial performance between partners in agri-food SC has implications for the sustainability of the industry and the ability of accountants and managers to negotiate when faced with increasing input costs.

This study contributes to the accountants’ understanding of how performance measurement works in fragmented SCs, whereas the majority of the literature is concerned with the integrated SCs.