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The increased focus on sustainability has led firms to incorporate a range of sustainability practices in their products, processes and supply chains. Because these practices are typically difficult to observe, firms often seek an independent verification and adopt voluntary environmental and social standards and eco-labels such as ISO 14000, FSC, USDA Organic or Fairtrade. The purpose of this paper is to study several factors linked to their adoption.

Drawing on existing theory, the authors hypothesize that environmental and social standards will be more widely adopted if they are better-governed, less stringent and more favorably covered in the media. The authors collect data on 41 eco-labels from multiple data sources.

The authors find that the better-governed labels are more widely adopted, but that more stringent labels within the sample are not less widely adopted. More favorable media coverage is not associated with wider adoption.

The study focuses on the diffusion of a sample of well-established eco-labels. To establish causal links, longitudinal data on governance, stringency, adoption and media coverage would be needed.

Managers deciding which eco-label to adopt need not be concerned that a more stringent label will inevitably yield less business value due to the label being less widely adopted. However, they should care whether a label is seen to be well-governed. Managers cannot use the way a label is portrayed in the media as a predictor for adoption.

Past research has often ignored how characteristics of environmental and social standards impact their diffusion. The work contributes to the growing literature on diffusion of voluntary standards and eco-labels by adding a quantitative and multi-sectoral perspective.

This paper discusses the essential factors in teamwork development, which has been identified through action research conducted in co‐operation with UK based industries. The authors advocate how to draw on these factors for assessment of teamwork performance of organizations. Hence, the TEaM (teamwork excellence modified) model, a self‐assessment tool based on the EFQM framework is presented and discussed. This model incorporates both tangible and intangible elements of teamwork performance and provides the framework for assessment of different teams inside and/or outside of the organization.

Audits are an essential part of supply chain management, whether they be of a single supplier's facilities or the whole supply chain. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, auditors mainly conducted supplier audits in-person and on-site. Subsequent travel restrictions have meant that auditors have had to perform these audits remotely. The purpose of this paper is to conceptually describe the emerging phenomenon of remote audits and explore the implications of this change for the future.

This exploratory research used qualitative interviews with key stakeholders (firms, auditors and regulators) to provide an empirical basis for the study. A total of 60 interviews were conducted in two rounds with 40 respondents from 26 organizations. A process perspective lens was used to explore the fundamental changes in supplier audits.

The study provides an interpretative conceptual framework of remote supplier audits grounded in key factors (audit process, use of technologies, document and record sharing) and identifies a set of contingency factors (technological sophistication, reputation for integrity, maturity of internal audit processes, and level of complexities and risk involved) that affect the effectiveness of remote audits.

Remote supplier audits have radically changed how supply chains operate. This paper presents the first empirically-grounded study on remote auditing. It provides a springboard for future research in this domain and practical implications for managers to assist them with the development of remote auditing in their firms and supply chains.

The formation of international joint ventures (IJVs) is one of the prevalent approaches for Western companies to conduct business in China. Yet, doing business in China is difficult for many firms, partially because of the institutional voids that are created by weak formal institutions. The paper aims to focus on the role of guanxi (an informal institution and a company capability that fills such institutional void) in the formation and management of IJVs.

A systematic literature review on the role of guanxi in IJV formation and management is conducted based on papers published in top international business journals between 2005 and 2020 – in total, 47 papers are included in the review.

The findings of the study are presented in four themes, namely, the role of guanxi as social capital in IJV formation, the role of trust in guanxi-based IJVs, the role of control mechanisms in balancing high reliance on trust in guanxi-based IJVs and the role of guanxi in managing inconsistencies in the regulatory environment. The analysis also reveals that guanxi has a positive effect on the development of IJVs if control between the parent firms is well balanced; otherwise, guanxi can trigger opportunism and leads to failures.

The study unravels how guanxi leads to successful outcomes in IJV formation and management, which assist managers who operate IJVs with their decision-making.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous paper has critically analysed the literature on IJVs using a guanxi perspective at micro (personal), meso (business) and (macro) governmental levels. This approach allows for providing more nuanced view of the role of guanxi in the formation and management of IJVs and aligns more closely with managerial decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to map the key challenges that quality management faces in order to meet the demands of CSR. The paper focuses on ISO 26000 – a newly emerging international standard for social responsibility – and discusses synergies (and divergences) between quality management (and ISO quality management and environmental management standards) and CSR as they emerged during the process of ISO 26000 development.

This paper draws conclusions from the resolutions and working materials produced by ISO Committee on Consumer Policy, the Strategic Advisory Group on Social Responsibility and ISO/TMB/WG SR – a working group in charge of the development of ISO 26000. To add the quality management dimension to the discussion, the evidence is further expanded from the ISO documents by revealing the arguments posited by nominated experts during the development of ISO 26000.

The paper finds that the quality field can significantly contribute to the deployment and uptake of the corporate social responsibility agenda yet needs to reinvent and rejuvenate in key areas such as management systems; integration of strategy, operations, technology, CSR and quality; incorporation of corporate governance; and improvements in third‐party certification and internal auditing practices.

The research in the paper is limited to the linkages between quality management and CSR stemming from the development of ISO 26000. Other CSR standards and tools are not included. However, as ISO 26000 is a global initiative, this paper provides a view from the perspective of one of the most significant initiatives in recent years.

The paper informs quality practitioners about the recent developments in international standardization of social responsibility and draws the linkages between quality management and corporate social responsibility that will enable them to adopt the CSR agenda and ISO 26000 in the future.

This is one of the first papers that deals with the linkages and synergies between ISO 26000 and quality management. By doing so, key areas are also offered that practitioners and academics should further explore in order to demonstrate the contribution of quality management to CSR.

The paper's aims are: to scrutinize International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 international guidance standard for social responsibility; to discuss the role of this standard in the adoption of social responsibility in organisations with existing quality management systems in line with ISO 9000.

Building on academic literature and recent resolutions and working documents from ISO, the paper discusses ISO 9000 and ISO 26000 in five areas: general description; scope; approach to supply chain management; principles and content.

Provides a comparison between ISO 9000 and ISO 26000 in each area listed above. Argues for ISO 9000 to provide a structural and infrastructural platform for organisations to develop and adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) and for ISO 26000 to facilitate a shift from customer focus to stakeholder focus hence creating a business‐to‐society orientation in organisations.

A very useful source for those who work in the arena of CSR and those wanting to stay at the cutting edge of the latest developments in CSR and international standardization. Advocates an approach for managers to utilize ISO 26000 to review strategy and management systems in organisations.

Provides an analysis of future trends in CSR and ISO standards. Sets areas for future research.

This paper discusses self‐assessment and benchmarking of intangible assets in teamwork development. First examines key approaches to team‐performance measurement and present a systems perspective on teamwork, hence benchmarking of teamwork performance. In consequence, a generic model based on EFQM framework – the TEaM model, is proposed as a self‐assessment and benchmarking tool. TEaM consists of ten criteria (enablers and results) that are outlined in the paper. Also demonstrates how TEaM can be applied in organisations and how this tool reflects the emerging trends in benchmarking practice.

To investigate the influence of organisational culture on the implementation of ISO 14001:1996 environmental management system (EMS) standard in two manufacturing case study organisations (CSOs).

This research is a case study action research conducted in two manufacturing organisations in the UK.

The hassles authors identified a framework of four dimensions of organisational culture that play an important role during the ISO 14001:1996 implementation process of. These are recognised as people, process, structure and environment.

The study is limited to two case organisations, which are based in the UK.

The four dimensions of organisational culture identified through this research can help practitioners to coordinate their ISO 14000:1996 implementation projects.

This paper fulfils the need to improve the understanding of the impact of the organisational culture on ISO 14001:1996 implementation projects within the manufacturing environment.

Following the growing interest in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Committee on Consumer Policy (ISO/COPOLCO) opened the discussion about the feasibility of CSR management system standard. In this paper, we investigate the underlying issues that shape the development of CSR standard. Based on our case study research, we provide a framework for organisations to establish, manage, improve and document a CSR management system. This framework is based on process and systems thinking and analogous to ISO 9001:2000 adding significantly to existing definitive management frameworks. Finally, we outline areas for further research and indicate substantial managerial implications.

Agrees that the evidence of a vast array of research concerning teamwork is conclusive: teams are capable of outstanding performance and are the primary unit of performance for increasing numbers of organisations. Nevertheless, high performance teams (HPTs) are a rarity. Presents the results of collaborative research aimed at determining the factors affecting successful implementation of HPTs. The factors have been derived from literature on teamwork, quality management, and a review of case study literature. This research has led to the development of a model for the successful implementation of HPTs, which has been tested through a case study organisation. Furthermore, the results were used to develop an implementation program aimed at rejuvenating team performance in UK small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises.