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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on blockchain (BC) adoption for preventing counterfeiting by investigating BC systems where different options for BC feeding and reading complement the use of BC technology. By grounding on the situational crime prevention, this study analyses how BC systems can be designed to effectively prevent counterfeiting.

This is a multiple-case study of five Italian wine companies using BC to prevent counterfeiting.

This study finds that the desired level of upstream/downstream counterfeiting protection that a brand owner intends to guarantee to customers through BC is the key driver to consider in the design of BC systems. The study identifies which variables are relevant to the design of feeding and reading processes and explains how such variables can be modulated in accordance with the desired level of counterfeiting protection.

The cases investigated are Italian companies within the wine sector, and the BC projects analysed are in the pilot phase.

The study provides practical suggestions to address the design of BC systems by identifying a set of key variables and explaining how to properly modulate them to face upstream/downstream counterfeiting.

This research applies a new perspective based on the situational crime prevention approach in studying how companies can design BC systems to effectively prevent counterfeiting. It explains how feeding and reading process options can be configured in BC systems to assure different degrees of counterfeiting protection.

The market for counterfeit goods worldwide has continued to grow significantly over the years, attracting the curiosity of researchers in the marketing field. This study aimed to analyse the influence of price-quality inference and attitudes towards economic rewards of purchasing counterfeit products on the intentions to purchase non-deceptive counterfeit products.

The research adopted a quantitative methodology and utilised the cross-sectional survey method to collect data from a sample of 381 respondents comprising university students. The data was then analysed using the computer software Smart PLS 4.

The results established that the respondents’ price-quality inference of counterfeit products was positively associated with the attitudes towards economic rewards of purchasing counterfeit products and intention to purchase counterfeit products. Furthermore, the study revealed that attitudes towards economic rewards of purchasing counterfeit products partially mediated the influence of price-quality inference on customer intention to acquire non-deceptive counterfeit goods. A multigroup analysis of the proposed relationship did not find any statistically significant differences in the pattern of results concerning the gender groups.

The significance of the study findings is hampered by the singular focus on university students as a reference point for young people’s perceptions of counterfeit goods in South Africa. The study, however, presents verifiable evidence that marketers and brand managers of genuine products may utilise to develop intervention measures to sway young African consumers away from counterfeits and towards genuine brands.

This is one of the few studies in the literature that addresses young adults’ deliberate purchasing of non-deceptive counterfeits in South Africa, an important consumer market in Africa.

Adopting new technologies to improve supply chain activities and processes is essential due to increasingly complex and dynamic business environments. Particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, high-quality standards must be met, requiring transparency and visibility in the supply chain. This research aims at investigating the implementation of blockchain technology in the supply chain of an Egyptian pharmaceutical company.

The research applies a single case-study approach building on the theoretical underpinnings of transaction cost economics. Twenty-five semistructured interviews were conducted with pharmacies and employees of the case company to identify the blockchain technologies' potential for pharmaceutical supply in Egypt. Further analyzing the frequencies of the codes, the authors elaborate on specific relationships between the observed practices.

The research revealed the potential benefits of adopting blockchain technology. Transaction costs are indeed positively impacted by reduced contracting costs, processing costs and lead times, also ensuring the safe delivery of medications. However, the findings also highlight obstacles related to running costs, awareness and company culture. Regarding supply chain governance, blockchain technology can enhance collaboration within the supply chain as well as with important stakeholders.

Insufficient management of pharmaceutical supply chains (PSC) may affect a company's reputation but also disrupt the patient's healing process due to temperature damage and counterfeit medicines. Blockchain governance, in this vein, can ensure a safer and more reliable supply of pharmaceutical products. For intraorganizational purposes, however, cloud solutions, barcoding and generally digital platforms are rated more frequently than blockchain solutions.

The present study contributes to an advanced understanding how blockchain technology supports PSC, particularly in an emerging country context like Egypt. It thereby confirms and extends previous research as well as adds to the theoretical underpinnings of digitalized supply chains.

This study aims to focus on building a conceptual closed-loop vaccine supply chain (CLVSC) to decrease vaccine wastage and counterfeit/fake vaccines.

Through a focused literature review, the framework for the CLVSC is described, and the system dynamics (SD) research methodology is used to build a causal loop diagram (CLD) of the proposed model.

In the battle against COVID-19, waste management systems have become overwhelmed, which has created negative environmental and extremely hazardous societal impacts. A key contributing factor is unused vaccine doses, shown as a source for counterfeit/fake vaccines. The findings identify a CLVSC design and transshipment operations to decrease vaccine wastage and the potential for vaccine theft.

This study contributes to establishing a pandemic-specific VSC structure. The proposed model informs the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as potential future pandemics.

A large part of the negative impact of counterfeit/fake vaccines is on human well-being, and this can be avoided with proper CLVSC.

This study develops a novel overarching SD CLD by integrating the epidemic model of disease transmission, VSC and closed-loop structure. This study enhances the policymakers’ understanding of the importance of vaccine waste collection, proper handling and threats to the public, which are born through illicit activities that rely on stolen vaccine doses.

As focal firms in supply networks reflect on their experiences of the pandemic and begin to rethink their operations and supply chains, there is a significant opportunity to leverage digital technological advances to enhance socially responsible operations performance (SROP). This paper develops a novel framework for exploring the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies for improving SROP. It highlights current best-practice examples and presents future research pathways.

This viewpoint paper argues how Industry 4.0 technology adoption can enable effective SROP in the post-COVID-19 era. Academic articles, relevant grey literature, and insights from industry experts are used to support the development of the framework.

Seven technologies are identified that bring transformational capabilities to SROP, i.e. big data analytics, digital twins, augmented reality, blockchain, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. It is demonstrated how these technologies can help to improve three sub-themes of organisational social performance (employment practices, health and safety, and business practices) and three sub-themes of community social performance (quality of life and social welfare, social governance, and economic welfare and growth).

A research agenda is outlined at the intersection of Industry 4.0 and SROP through the six sub-themes of organisational and community social performance. Further, these are connected through three overarching research agendas: “Trust through Technology”, “Responsible Relationships” and “Freedom through Flexibility”.

Organisational agendas for Industry 4.0 and social responsibility can be complementary. The framework provides insights into how Industry 4.0 technologies can help firms achieve long-term post-COVID-19 recovery, with an emphasis on SROP. This can offer firms competitive advantage in the “new normal” by helping them build back better.

People and communities should be at the heart of decisions about rethinking operations and supply chains. This paper expresses a view on what it entails for organisations to be responsible for the supply chain-wide social wellbeing of employees and the wider community they operate in, and how they can use technology to embed social responsibility in their operations and supply chains.

Contributes to the limited understanding of how Industry 4.0 technologies can lead to socially responsible transformations. A novel framework integrating SROP and Industry 4.0 is presented.

This research investigates the top five pharmaceutical companies in India to determine whether their financial structures are sound and if they face the risk of bankruptcy, highlighting the potential contribution of intellectual capital (IC) to financial stability.

The analysis outlines operating ratios, profitability ratios, possibility of bankruptcy (through Z-scores) and attractiveness of the financial structure (through the F-score), with consequent focus on (IC).

The financial structure of the selected companies seems stable. Changes in the Indian pharmaceutical scenario, above all, regarding the patent system, will force the companies to consider the impact of IC carefully.

Indian pharmaceutical companies need sustainability and development, with increasing focus on patent issues. To enhance innovation capabilities and overcome international competition, they should redesign their business orientation towards IC, mainly when impacting patents.

Using established approaches for predicting potential bankruptcy, this study focuses on the financial performance of top Indian pharmaceutical companies. IC can support financial stability, and this study provides further perspectives for managing their financial structure, both statically and dynamically.

The paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) showing the benefits, challenges and future research of blockchain technology (BT) for the supply chain (SC), also suggesting how the features of BT can change the organizational aspects of the SC.

An SLR has been conducted to detect papers that contained the word “Blockchain” in their titles, keywords or abstracts. Consequently, a second filter to analyze BT papers for the SC was applied.

This paper shows through 31 variables classified into positive, negative and future directions of technology for the SC. For instance, BT will reduce time consuming of operations management and payments using smart contracts. In addition, integrating BT with other technologies will allow product tracking and sustainable production management.

The selection of papers is limited to Scopus database and specifically to the Management Journal.

BT creates collaborative peer-to-peer and business-to-business markets. The technology automates several tasks such as order management, payment for goods, waste reduction and process control. Therefore, its use within the SCs will improve the productivity and profits of the participants.

This paper is focused on BT for the SC area with 60 articles analyzed. In addition, 13 variables on benefits, eight variables on challenges and 12 points on future research directions were analyzed. This work will help researchers and entrepreneurs to deepen about the changes that BT offers in SC.

This study investigated how organizations can maintain their supply chain (SC) resilience in situations where high-impact shocks cannot be absorbed and what capabilities are needed. The article is an empirical exploration of a socio-ecological view of resilience in the SC context.

The case under study in this article is that of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and MSF's reconfiguration of its supply management processes in response to the supply shocks during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In total, 503 internal documents and ERP extractions from six databases from late 2019 to September 2020, 43 semi-structured interviews and a 3-round policy Delphi process were used to investigate this phenomenon.

The authors' results show that throughout the pandemic, MSF adapted its procurement and supply processes to cope with supply shortages at both the international and local levels of the SC. This was possible due to the organization's capacity to use its exploitation and exploration capabilities of the organization at the same time.

This research is based on the single in-depth case study of a medical aid organization. Further research should investigate this phenomenon in commercial companies with similar or different organizational structures.

This study constitutes a first attempt to empirically demonstrate that the four phases of the adaptive cycle put forth in the panarchy theory constitute a suitable representation of the reconfigurations that SCs follow in response to a high-impact shock. The study also adds to the growing body of knowledge on resilience by including ambidexterity as a mechanism to achieve resilience.

This paper aims to present reflections and points of interest on the performance of Brazil and highlight the advances and challenges in relation to the intellectual property (IP) system; the authors highlight some scientific, economic and technological indicators on the main IP objects registered in the National Industrial Property of Brazil (INPI).

A structured literature reviews the main indicators of IP of Brazil (2013-2017), related to the scientific and economic factors more evidenced in the global scenario, with emphasis on the investment of national GDP in R&D activities, the allocation of resources from the government sector and private initiative, as in other emerging economies, such as the BRICS.

Despite Brazil’s progressive efforts to achieve greater efficiency in the public IP management system, GDP investment in R&D activities for 2019 is still below the OECD average of 2.3 per cent, and the IP indicators in the areas of patent registration, industrial designs and technology contracts have been declining.

Because of the difference between the laws of the countries on IP rights, the more incisive comparison could not be established among the emerging economies, highlighting the need for a standardization between the different international legislations.

In the scientific field, this paper allows understanding the performance of the Brazilian IP system, and the categories that require greater investments, strengthen the IP culture and stimulate integration between the international IP systems, as it is a recurrent discussion in different research studies. Originally, the paper brought together economic and scientific indicators going beyond the traditional approach that deals with IP only restricting to the quantitative of patents.

Vietnam has been actively integrated into a multilateral trading system based on its accession to the WTO and the implementation of a series of ASEAN+1 FTAs. Now Vietnam is negotiating to be a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which is a region-wide FTA in the Asia-Pacific region, and a total of 21 working groups have been negotiating 29 chapters of the TPP. This paper tries to assess major issues of Vietnam’s joining the TPP, and to draw policy implications such as initiatives for Vietnam’s acceleration of its renovation and economic restructuring programs; and domestic measures for facilitating FTA implementation by firms and enhancing the country's implementation capacity.