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The purpose of this paper is to understand communication pathways and factors that cause sustainability initiatives to become contagious from downstream to upstream members of a supply chain, which is termed sustainable supply chain contagion (SSCC).

This study takes an inductive, grounded theory approach, while utilizing established theories.

The decision to implement a sustainability initiative depends on the business case for the organization. Importantly, the findings outline several network and communication factors that overcome the weak business case and, therefore, foster SSCC. Based on these findings, a communication network model of SSCC is outlined. Network factors include the contagion pathways, the role of sustainability and top management teams and communication channels. Communication factors include the alignment of sustainability initiatives with departmental objectives, the articulation of goals and assuring the endurance of a sustainability initiative.

Managers can utilize the proposed model to create conditions that strengthen the business case of a proposed sustainability initiative, thus fostering SSCC. The presented findings reveal different tactics that can assist organizations in communicating sustainability initiatives in a persuasive manner, to permit the proliferation of sustainability across the supply chain.

This research enables a multilevel examination of the factors influencing SSCC.

This chapter forwards a justification, an explanation, and numerous examples related to an emerging integrated sustainability management theory and its connections to other management theories and key-related concepts including systems and immersion. An integrated approach to sustainability solutions presents several implications for educators, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, including the need to consider urgent and immediate responses that address sustainability crises at multiple levels and in multiple systems. This chapter is intended to promote reflection, dialogue, and a collective call to action to secure a sustainable world for present and future generations.

The purpose of this article is to show how a previously developed multi‐level model of employee engagement can be leveraged to implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy. By combining macro‐level (organization‐wide) with micro‐level (manager to employee) leadership practices, management teams can more effectively engage their entire workforce in sustainability endeavors.

A narrative synthesis approach is used to integrate extant empirical and practitioner literature spanning various disciplines in order to apply a comprehensive model for leading sustainability efforts.

The path to successful sustainability efforts hinges on both “macro” and “micro” organizational factors. Combining these factors provides management with a powerful approach that engages a workforce in sustainability endeavors, resulting in positive employee‐level and organizational‐level sustainability performance.

If research is reported on in the paper this section must be completed and should include suggestions for future research and any identified limitations in the research process. Applying the engagement model to corporate sustainability efforts is an important advancement in the theoretical sustainability literature. It is applicable to multiple sustainability efforts, and may be applied regardless of the industry or the size of the companies undertaking sustainability initiatives. The model provides guidance for researchers who are seeking to frame their inquiry from a multi‐level perspective and in relation to other disciplines. Future research should focus on the relationship between the different leadership factors identified in the model and sustainability performance.

Despite the observations into what needs to be done around sustainability, many organizations do not quite seem to know how to do it. Therefore, the model presented provides a road map that can be used to structure management's approach to their sustainability endeavors.

A gap exists in both the practitioner and academic literature regarding the development of a model that encompasses the key elements of corporate sustainability efforts from inception to implementation. Moreover, no clear leadership model exists with the expressed purpose of creating the most effective employee engagement during corporate sustainability efforts. In this paper it is demonstrated how a previously developed workforce engagement model can be leveraged to implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy. The multi‐level model provides a foundation for the formulation, implementation and successful execution of sustainability efforts.

The role of procurement managers is crucial for diffusing sustainability throughout the supply chain. Whether or not they are willing to pay for sustainability is an important and not yet fully understood question. The authors examine antecedents and consequences of their willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainability.

The authors develop a multi-level framework to examine the WTP for sustainability in a B2B context. The authors test this multi-level framework with 372 procurement managers from multiple sectors and countries using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The authors find that individual values of procurement managers and institutional pressures directly, while ethical organizational culture indirectly influence WTP for sustainability. Functional and cognitive competencies of procurement managers improve the sustainability of procurement, but not WTP for sustainability. Importantly, WTP for sustainability directly influences the performance of the procurement function which in turn is positively associated with increased organizational performance.

The study, examining the interplay between individual, organizational and contextual factors, provides empirical evidence on the pivotal role of procurement managers in diffusing sustainability throughout the supply chain. The findings of the study, on the one hand, contribute to the literature on operations management and sustainability, and on the other hand, guide policy and managerial actions.

The unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed an enormous challenge ever for health-care organisations to find strategies to deal with their survival. The health-care employees are the frontline soldiers to fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there is a lack of research regarding the conceptualisation of COVID-19 and its impact on health-care employees’ well-being and their organisational sustainability. Extending the role of responsible leadership (RL), the purpose of this paper is to develop a multi-level conceptual model to overcome the crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and promote employee (e.g. workers, nurses and professionals) well-being and organisational sustainability.

With a comprehensive literature review, this paper presents five testable propositions and highlights the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on employee well-being and organisational sustainability.

The proposed model counsels that organisations need to go beyond the simple application of strategic climate and should enable RL to protect and maintain employee well-being and organisational sustainability.

The proposed conceptual model is a step forward to not only explore future empirical research but also it will help the health-care policymakers to take responsible initiatives to increase employee well-being and uphold organisational sustainability.

There is a lack of research regarding the conceptualisation of the COVID 19 pandemic and its impact on health-care employees’ well-being and organisational sustainability. The proposed conceptual model opens and guides a novel research avenue for the alignment of strategic management (as a moderator) and RL on the relationships among the COVID-19 pandemic, employee well-being and organisational sustainability.

Driven by increasing concerns for sustainable development and digitalization, intermediaries have emerged as relevant actors who can help supply chains tackle grand societal challenges. They can also trigger significant changes in structure, shape and governance models of supply chains. The goal of this research is to advance the understanding of supply chain intermediation and digital governance as coordinating mechanisms for enabling multi-level collective action to address the world's grand challenges.

This is a conceptual research paper that uses a vignette approach, where real examples are described to help question and expand theoretical insights and provide a basis for future research. The examples are drawn from past and ongoing extensive primary and secondary data collection efforts in diverse types of supply chains.

Three contexts are proposed to illustrate how intermediaries and digital governance can play a key role in helping supply chains tackle grand challenges. The first and second context highlight the differences between material and support flow intermediaries in a triadic supply chain relationship. The third context illustrates intermediation within a multi-level network which can be industry-specific or span across industries. The three contexts are evaluated on the level of intervention, the focus on material or support flows, and traditional or digital governance. The specific Sustainable Development Goals which can be tackled through intermediary intervention are also indicated.

Intermediaries are often hidden actors in global supply chains and have received limited attention in the academic literature. The conceptual foundation provided in this manuscript serves as the basis for future research opportunities. Three main avenues for further research in this domain are proposed: (1) novel forms of intermediation beyond economic and transactional arrangements; (2) novel forms of digital governance; and (3) translating multi-level collective action into sustainable development outcomes. Research on intermediation driven by sustainable development and digitalization trends can spur empirical advances in sustainable supply chain and operations management with important societal impact.

Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that operate with modest financial investments and commodities face numerous challenges to remain in business. One major philosophy used by SMEs these days is the implementation of lean manufacturing to get solutions for various issues they encounter. But is lean getting sustained over time? The purpose of this research is to design a Sustainable Lean Performance Index (SLPI) to assess the sustainability of lean systems and to pinpoint the variables that might be present as potential lean system inhibitors which hinder the sustainability of leanness.

A multi-level sustainable lean performance model is constructed and presented based on the literature research, field investigation and survey conducted by administering a questionnaire. Fuzzy logic approach is used to analyse the multi-level model.

SLPI for the SMEs is found using fuzzy logic approach. Additionally, the ranking score system is applied to categorise attributes into weak and strong categories. The performance of the current lean system is determined to be “fair” based on the Euclidean distance approach and the SLPI for SMEs.

This work is concentrated only in South India because of the country’s vast geographical area and rich and wide diversity in industrial culture of the nation. Hence, more work can be done incorporating the other parts of the country and can analyse the lean behaviour in a comparative manner.

The generalised sustainable lean model analysed using fuzzy logic identifies the inhibitors and level of performance of SMEs in South India. This can be implemented to find out the level of performance in the SMEs after a deeper study and analysis around the SMEs of the country.

The sustainable assessment of lean parameters in the SMEs of India is found to be very less in literature, and it lacks profundity. The model established in this study assesses the sustainability of the lean methodology adopted in SMEs by considering the lean and sustainability attributes along with enablers like technology, ethics, customer satisfaction and innovation with the aid of fuzzy logic.

This study aims to explore the complex, multi-level institutional dynamics of smart city reforms and projects and their potential sustainability pressures on the implementation of a management accounting system in an Egyptian state-owned enterprise (SOE), which has a politically sensitive institutional character.

This study adds to institutional management accounting research using a multi-level perspective of institutional dynamics in the smart city context. Data were collected from an interpretive case study of an Egyptian SOE that was under socio-political sustainability pressures to implement a smart electricity network project in New Minya city.

Smart city projects have formed social and political sustainability pressures, which introduced the enterprise resource planning (ERP) network as a new management accounting system. A new (complex and multi-level) management accounting system was invented to reinvent the sustainable city as an “accounting city” (which appeared rhetorically as a “smart city”). “Smart” being the visibility and measurability of the sustainability performance of the collective body, which calls the city and its connectivity to different institutional levels brought out in a city network project for the ERP-enabled electricity distribution.

This study examines a single case study from a single smart city and identifies the accounting community’s need for multiple and comparative case studies to further analyse the potential impact of smart city reforms and projects on the sustainable implementation of management accounting systems.

City policymakers and managers may benefit from the practical findings of this interpretive field-based case study in planning, implementing and monitoring smart city projects and objectives.

Individual and collective well-being may be enhanced through new management accounting forms of multi-level local governance and increased political, field and organisational sustainability.

This study provides important insights into the sustainability dynamics of management accounting in achieving smart city reforms. The achievement of sustainability management accounting systems has connected to multiple ERP roles at different institutional levels, which resulted in accommodating the socio-political objectives of smart city projects.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors that enable or inhibit the contribution of product service systems (PSS) to circularity. It is informed by the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and the multi-level perspective as theoretical lenses.

A theory elaboration approach is used through three in-depth case studies of UK and German manufacturers. Case studies provide use- and result-oriented PSS for personal computers, power tools and wind turbines. Multiple sources of evidence, including 20 semi-structured interviews, company documents and quantitative data, are triangulated to improve the validity of the results.

Empirical evidence for relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors show significant barriers to the extending and cycling of resource loops, primarily through maintenance, repairs and refurbishment. A firm’s environmental awareness has a determining role in the contribution of PSS to circularity. The evidence from two use-oriented PSS reveals different circularity maturity levels.

This research makes three key contributions. Firstly, it elaborates on NRBV by showing that a firm’s environmental awareness determines product stewardship. The type of product stewardship practices depends on the enabling and inhibiting effects of macro- and meso-level factors. Secondly, it shows that use-oriented PSS have different circularity profiles and proposes three circularity maturity levels. Finally, it provides an empirically validated framework of macro-, meso- and micro-level enablers and barriers and how they interact to enable or inhibit circularity in PSS.

The purpose of this research is to focus on the evaluation of heritage buildings' sustainability. BIM modeling was necessary for the design of the sustainability assessment model for Heritage Buildings (SAHB). Using ArchiCAD®, energy simulations were performed for two case studies (Murabba Palace, Saudi Arabia, and Grey Nuns Building, Canada), and the developed model was validated through sensitivity analysis.

Heritage buildings (HBs) are unique and must be preserved for future generations. This article focuses on a sustainability assessment model and rating scale for heritage buildings in light of the need for their conservation. Regional variations were considered in the model development to identify critical attributes whose corresponding weights were then determined by fuzzy logic. Data was collected via questionnaires completed by Saudi Arabian and Canadian experts, and Fuzzy TOPSIS was also applied to eliminate the uncertainties present when human opinions are involved.

Results showed that regional variations were sufficiently addressed through the multi-level weight consideration in the proposed model. Comparing the nine identified factors that affect the sustainability of HBs, energy and indoor environmental quality were of equal weight in both case studies.

This study will be helpful for the design of a globally applicable sustainability assessment model for HBs. It will also enable decision-makers to prepare maintenance plans for HBs.