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Despite the significance, no study examines the relationship between supply chain (SC) learning components and focal firm performance. This study aims to investigate different types of SC learning (supplier, customer and internal learning) and their influence on the focal firm’s operational and financial performance.

Grounded in knowledge-based view and absorptive capacity theory, this study applies structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model based on data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China.

The findings indicate that supplier and customer learning improve internal learning. Customer and internal learning have direct influence on operational performance, whereas internal learning mediates the relationship between supplier learning and operational performance. Moreover, all three dimensions of SC learning do not affect financial performance directly but operational performance plays the mediating role in their relationship.

This study only investigates SC learning outcomes without exploring its antecedents. In addition, SC learning and their impacts on firm performance are tested empirically with cross-sectional data collected only from manufacturing firms in China.

The findings furnish managers to seek for competitive advantages through different types of SC learning.

This study offers new insights concerning the performance implications of SC learning. It divides SC learning into dimensions and shows the distinctive impacts of these dimensions on focal firm’s performance using an empirical method.

The firms use training evaluation practices (TEPs) to determine the return of billions of dollars spent on employee training and development activities. The firms need to modernize the set of TEPs for evidence-based workforce management decisions. This study aims to examine a mediation mechanism to explain how human resource (HR) professionals’ design thinking (DT) mindset strengthens the set of TEPs using predictive workforce analytics (PWAs).

The authors used SPSS computational named MLMED to test the proposed relationships by collecting data from 180 management professionals serving in subsidiaries of multinational corporations in Pakistan.

The statistical results demonstrated that DT is not directly related to firms’ TEPs. However, the statistical results supported the mediating role of firms’ use of PWAs between DT and TEPs.

The findings offer a new perspective for firms to use HR professionals’ DT mindset for modernizing the set of existing HR practices.

The current study investigates the effect of industry 4.0 on green practices, including green manufacturing and green logistics, in the context of emerging economies.

A cross-sectional data were collected from 234 manufacturing firms in Pakistan, and PLS-SEM was employed to test hypotheses.

With the advent of industry 4.0 in the current era, more emphasis is being given to the adoption of digital technologies in every field. The adoption of the green approach in supply chain management provides firms with socioeconomic and environmental benefits. The study results indicate that industry 4.0 positively affects green practices, including green manufacturing and green logistics. Moreover, the results also illustrate that these green practices have a substantial effect on the sustainability performance of the firms.

This study provides an amplified understanding of the industry 4.0 technologies in the adoption of green practices. The outcomes also offer a policy framework for managers, legislators and manufacturers to promote green practices (i.e. green manufacturing and green logistics) in businesses.

Although several recent studies have tried to investigate the effect of green practices on sustainability performance. However, as per the author's best knowledge, very few studies have analyzed the influence of industry 4.0 on green practices (i.e. green manufacturing and green logistics) in the context of emerging economies.

No study examines the role of human resources management (HRM) and information technology (IT) in stimulating supply chain learning (SCL) and operational performance. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of HRM and IT on SCL (i.e. internal, supplier and customer learning) and operational performance using socio-technical systems theory.

On the basis of data obtained from 213 Chinese manufacturing firms, the authors apply structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model.

This study finds that HRM improves all three dimensions of SCL, whereas IT improves internal and supplier learning only. The authors also observe that internal and customer learning improves operational performance. Supplier learning, on the other hand, has no influence on operational performance.

This study offers new guidelines that help managers to better understand how to design sociotechnical systems to improve SCL and operational performance.

The results of this study provide a novel framework to recognize linkages between socio-technical systems, SCL and operational performance.

The purpose of this study is to discern the role of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) – a dynamic capability – in increasing supply chain performance (SCP), through building supply chain resilience (SCR). The study further suggests that the presence of supply chain orientation (SCO) within a firm will enhance the relationship between EL and SCR.

Dynamic capabilities view is used to develop the hypotheses and a survey method is used to collect data from manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The hypothesized model is tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results in general confirm the hypothesized model. The findings suggest that SCR mediates the relationship between EL and SCP. The results also confirm that SCO moderates the relationship between EL and SCR.

This paper contributes by studying the pivotal role of EL in building SCR and sustaining a competitive advantage in an uncertain environment.

This study examined the effect of brand modernity on brand love. In addition, this study investigated how brand love affects behavioral intentions including intentions to use, word-of-mouth and willingness to pay more. Lastly, this study explored the differences between robot servers and human servers in the five concepts mentioned above.

Data were collected from 300 people who experienced robot servers and from 318 people who experienced human servers.

The results of data analysis revealed that brand modernity has a positive influence on brand love, which in turn positively affects intentions to use, word-of-mouth and willingness to pay more. Additionally, it was found that there were statistical differences with the mean value of the five concepts based on the type of employee, such as robot servers and human servers.

Unlike prior research, the difference between robot servers and human servers was investigated by focusing more on the brand in this study, and such findings can be considered as important theoretical implications of this study.

Despite the importance, no study exists which investigates the role of human resource (HR) in supply chain (SC) learning. This study aims to investigate the effects of high-performance human resource management (HRM) practices on different types of the SC learning (i.e. supplier, customer and internal learning) and innovation performance.

This study applies structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model based on data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China.

The findings indicate that empowerment improves all three dimensions of SC learning, whereas training improves supplier and internal learning and teamwork is not related to any dimension of SC learning. These HRM practices also interactively influence SC learning dimensions. Moreover, customer and internal learning are directly related to innovation performance, while supplier leaning has a complementary effect with internal leaning but a substitutional effect with customer learning to innovation performance.

This study only selects training, teamwork and empowerment to manifest high-performance HRM practices. The impacts of high-performance HRM practices on different dimensions of SC learning and innovation performance are tested empirically with cross sectional-data collected only from manufacturing firms in China.

The findings suggest that managers can promote SC learning through the empowerment and training of their employees. Moreover, managers should place more emphasis on customer and internal learning to improve innovation performance.

Combining HRM and supply chain management (SCM) fields, this study offers a new framework to understand linkages between high-performance HRM practices, SC learning and innovation performance by using an empirical method.

Despite the recognition that supply chain (SC) learning is important for competitive advantage, little is known how to enable such learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of information technology (IT) application on different types of SC learning (i.e. internal, customer and supplier learning) and service performance.

This study applies structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model based on data collected from 213 manufacturing firms in China.

Although strategic application has a direct and negative relationship with all three dimensions of SC learning, it indirectly and positively improves SC learning through tactical and operational application. The authors observe that tactical application is positively related to all three dimensions of SC learning, while operational application improves internal and customer learning only. The authors also notice that internal and customer learning are positively related to service performance.

This study classifies IT application into strategic, tactical and operational dimensions, which may not adequately cover the entire set of IT application portfolio.

The findings suggest managers to use corresponding IT application to improve SC learning and service performance.

This study provides a new framework to understand the relationships between IT application, SC learning and service performance.

Amid rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 and blockchain technology (BCT) are transforming circular economy practices and prevailing business models. Recognizing the same, the current study examines the role of advanced technology in circular practices and their impact on eco-environmental performance, which influences organizational performance. The study collects data from 185 food processing enterprises that are located in Malaysian territories. By employing CB-SEM modeling, the study provides three key findings. First, Industry 4.0 significantly improves the circular economy practices. Second, circular economy practices help to improve firms' environmental performance but did not stimulate operational performance. Third, higher eco-environmental performance significantly boosts organizational performance. This study set out the foundations for participating countries/firms that help to achieve sustainable goals through the integration of blockchain technology in circular economy practices.

After the electoral victory in 2018, the newly formed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government presented its National Education Policy Framework, chalking out its priorities of bringing more than 22 million out-of-school children to schools, improving educational quality, and introducing a uniform education system in the country. However, the government’s grand ambitions, transpired quickly, only to produce a draft of a new unified curriculum in 2020. This chapter investigates the newly formulated Single National Curriculum (SNC) in Pakistan by using the lens of Critical Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE). To understand the endogenous and exogenous factors shaping the SNC, the chapter argues that securitization and neoliberalization are the significant factors informing the development and the production of the new curriculum.