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Lunching futures market for steel has been regard as one of the most urgent issues in steel industry and futures exchanges. It is followed after chairman of IISI executive committee‘s suggestion and the LME (London Metal Exchange)‘s announcement of lunching plan in May of last year. In this paper, I examine the rationale for and the feasibility of the futures contract, together with the positive and negative impacts of the contract on the steel industry. Though there exist many obstacles, LME would not stop the effort to lunch the contract. This is because the futures market for steel products is expected to provide the industry with the following benefits : ① increase of price transparency, ② weakening of price control power, ③ settling of strained trade issues, and ④ promoting industry restructuring by driving un-competitive companies out of the market.

This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on financial performance (FP) of Indian steel industry in terms of value-added (VAM), profitability (PM), market (MM) and growth measures (GM).

It is an empirical study using secondary data of 40 companies for 14 years collected from CSR/annual reports/official websites of the companies and Prowess database. The panel regression analysis, MANOVA and univariate ANOVA have been conducted to examine the impact of CSR on FP.

The result indicates a positive impact of CSR on FP in terms of VAM, PM and GM, thereby indicating that more investments in CSR will generate wealth for shareholders, enhance profitability and sales. Moreover, this study shows no noticeable relationship between CSR and MM.

This study contributes to the literature on the CSR–FP relationship and also has implications for managers, investors and other stakeholders. Companies with higher CSR rating create a brand image, attract proficient employees, get greater profit, loyal customers and have less possibility of bribery and corruption. This study may result in being influential to companies confined not only to this sector but also reaching to the others, thus inspiring them to contribute their share of profit for the welfare of society.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the first comprehensive study to examine the impact of CSR on FP of Indian steel industry by considering four dimensions for measuring FP. It provides evidence about the relationship between CSR and FP.

The study seeks to evaluate the extent and quality of environmental reporting following a longitudinal analysis and covering a wide spectrum of industries in a single frame. The study also attempts to identify the set of most favored environmental reporting items by firms and items which are least disclosed. Furthermore, the study attempts to test whether certain corporate attributes such as firm size, age of the firm, leverage ratio, profitability, presence of independent directors in the board and gender diversity have any influencing power over environmental disclosure practices. The whole study has been carried out from legitimacy theory setting.

The study follows longitudinal analysis to identify the extent and quality of environmental disclosures. A self-constructed checklist of 12 environmental reporting items has been developed analyzing the annual report and content analysis method is followed to measure the extent and quality of environmental disclosures and identify environmental reporting items which are mostly disclosed and which are least disclosed. The study further uses panel data regression analysis to investigate whether certain corporate attributes have any impact on environmental disclosures using multiple linear regression. Total of 345 annual reports of listed financial and nonfinancial institutions have been observed in this study ranging from 2015 to 2019.

The key finding suggests that strict enforcement of Green Banking Rules 2011 fosters country’s commercial banks to invest more to protect the environment and commercial banks encourage nonfinancial institutions for environmental performance and related disclosures through finance. Therefore, almost 50% of sample firms disclose their environmental performance through reporting in either narrative, quantitative or monetary format which was only 2.23% in the last decade. Findings also reveal that tree plantation is the most reported environment disclosure followed by investment in renewable energy and green infrastructural projects and the least reported items are fund allocation for climatic changes and carbon management policy. Further analysis shows that firm size and leverage ratio both have positive impact on environmental reporting.

An in-depth analysis may be conducted to identify why certain environmental items are least disclosed such as fund allotment for climatic changes, carbon management policy, etc. and how corporations may earn social appreciation and motivation by investing in those least preferred items in legitimacy theory setting. Future research may also take into consideration other corporate attributes which are not considered in the study.

The study conducted an in-depth analysis to understand the most favored form of environmental disclosures (narrative/quantitative/monetary) and their extent after incorporation of regulatory guidelines, which is the first of its kind in the research of environmental disclosures. The study indeed contributes to the documentation of environmental reporting in the context of a developing country where there is a lack of longitudinal analysis from the lens of legitimacy theory. Moreover, a wide spectrum of industries has been taken into consideration which facilitates the generalized findings on the environmental disclosure practices of corporations in Bangladesh.

本研究擬評估公司報告環境方面的程度和質量, 以及對就環境報告披露而言、最受青睞和最不受歡迎的項目加以處理。研究亦擬測試企業屬性對實踐環境信息披露的影響。

研究使用內容分析法、去測量環境信息披露的程度和質量。研究使用多元回歸分析、去探討企業屬性對環境信息披露的影響。研究涵蓋孟加拉國上市公司共345個年度報告, 涵蓋的年期為2015年至 2019年。

研究結果似乎顯示綠色金融規則 - 2011 、成功鼓勵機構為保護環境而投放更多資源; 機構最樂於匯報的項目為植樹, 而披露最少的則為氣候變化和碳管理政策。進一步的研究分析顯示, 公司的規模和杠杆比率均會對環境匯報帶來正面的影響。

本研究豐富了關於發展中國家環境匯報的官方文件記錄, 而在這類國家, 透過合法化理論而進行的縱貫性分析研究頗為缺乏。本研究以深度分析法、去瞭解環境信息披露方面最受青睞的信息披露方式 (故事形式的敘述/定量形式/金融形式), 也去瞭解納入強制的規管指引後環境信息披露的程度; 就此而言, 本研究為這類環境信息披露研究的首個研究。

This paper aims to identify the impacts of wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) technology on the green supply chain management (GSCM) performance. Also, it intends to identify the most essential WAAM capabilities.

An exploratory case study related to a metallurgical company using WAAM technology to repair metallic components was developed. A research framework to identify WAAM production capabilities and the different GSCM performance criteria was proposed based on the current state of the art. Primary qualitative data provided evidence for developing seven propositions relating WAAM capabilities to GSCM performance.

The paper provides empirical evidence relating to how WAAM production capabilities impact the different performance criteria of the GSCM performance. The results show that “relative advantage” and “supply-side benefits” are critical capabilities developed through WAAM. Furthermore, most of the capabilities regarding “relative advantage” and “supply-side benefits” promote a higher GSCM performance.

This research was carried out using a single case study research design and using qualitative data. Thus, future works are encouraged to test the propositions empirically using quantitative methodologies.

The case study findings support that most WAAM production capabilities promote a higher GSCM performance. Managers could use this research to understand the capabilities developed by this fusion-based additive manufacturing (AM), become aware of the implications of new technology adoption on the supply chain environmental externalities, and develop new business models based on the WAAM capabilities.

This research contributes to expanding the state-of-the art related to WAAM technology by evidencing the relationship between adopting this fusion-based AM technology and green supply chain practices. Also, it provides a set of seven propositions that could be used to theorise the impacts of WAAM adoption on the GSCM performance.

Nowadays businesses tend to compete with rivals by improving capability to meet customer demands. One of the key to improve logistics efficiency of a firm is to select appropriate supplier. In the past, to select the most suitable supplier, most people evaluated performance by using average performance or variance from historical data but did not mentioned skewness. In other words, skewness impact on supplier performance is ignored by researchers and buyers. In fact, supplier with greatest average performance does not confirm to be the most suitable one because of uncertainties which make its performance skew either to the left or right, i.e., lower or higher than expectation. Therefore, this empirical study aims to discover and determine the important role of skewness on supplier selection problem. After identifying influential criteria on supplier selection, we analyze skewness effect on suppliers’ performance in each criterion by surveying real data of suppliers’ performances. Skewness effect can be rated in 3 levels; no effect, moderately effect, and highly effect. The results show that, there is only one criterion with no skewness effect, which is price. Criteria which have high skewed performance, for both of medium-sized and large-sized buyers, are lead time, product quality and reliability, and on-time delivery. Also, skewness has higher effect on suppliers’ performance of medium-sized buyers than large-sized buyers. The conclusion surprisingly shows that, skewness is the best index to distinguish between good and bad suppliers, while mean is the worst index.

This study aims to examine the metal pollution in coastal sediment in the Peninsular Malaysia.

Approximately 141 published studies were screened from 1,285 documents and reviewed to determine the existing pollution status in the coastal areas of Peninsular Malaysia and the metals under review were Pb, Hg, Cd, Ar, Cu, Zn, Cr and Ni. Sources of pollutants and their effect on biological systems, marine organisms and human health were addressed in this review as well as recommendation of heavy metal removal or remedies in short. Emphasis is placed on marine pollution, particularly on the toxic metal accumulation in biota.

This study has revealed the different concentrations of pollutants, low, moderately, and chronically contaminated areas from heavy metals and the consequences to aquatic ecosystem and indirectly to human health, since an increasing in the coastal developments in Peninsular Malaysia.

This study has revealed the different concentrations of pollutants, low, moderately, and chronically contaminated areas from heavy metals and the consequences to aquatic ecosystem and indirectly to human health, since an increasing in the coastal developments in Peninsular Malaysia.

The purpose of the present study is to determine how the cash conversion cycle (CCC) affects the financial performance of manufacturing companies in Bangladesh.

The authors have collected data of 61 Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE)-listed firms from the 10 distinct manufacturing industries of Bangladesh for 18 years, from 2003 to 2020. The data have been analyzed through the two-steps system generalized method of moment (GMM) regression model, using profitability indicators return on asset (ROA) and earnings per share (EPS) as dependent variables, while CCC has been used as the independent variable, whereas asset turnover (ATO) and financial leverage (LEV) were used as control variables to assess the relationship between the CCC and financial performance.

The findings indicated that CCC has a negative connection with profitability – ROA and EPS, with the connection between CCC and EPS being highly significant. This indicates that reducing the inventory conversion time, reducing the period of receivable collection and making payments to creditors with potential delays might help Bangladeshi manufacturing firms boost their profitability. In addition, the firm-specific characteristics, namely ATO and LEV significantly affect the firm's profitability.

The research was based only on secondary sources and information was scarce. This research was conducted to determine the impact of the CCC on the corporate profitability of the manufacturing sector solely. There might be many other working capital variables that are still unexplored through this study.

The current study's findings are consistent with the traditional rule that minimizing the firm's days of the cash cycle may optimize financial performance. The results of this research have added to the existing body of knowledge on the topic of working capital management (WCM). Future research endeavors can be initiated for assessing the impact of the CCC on the firm's profitability in other industrial sectors or to identify other working capital variables that have much impact on corporate profitability.

This study is an original work of the researchers and adds value to the current literature in the domain of WCM and corporate profitability. The present study is the first one that covers firms in all the manufacturing industries in Bangladesh. The corporate managers, creditors, investors and other concerned stakeholders will be benefited from the findings of the present study.

Existing research evidence shows a fragmented understanding of the roles of first-line employees (FLEs) as essential factors for successful lean implementation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), provoking recent calls for additional research on the identification of enablers and barriers for lean acceptance among workers. Therefore, this paper aims to identify related enablers and barriers to lean implementation among FLEs and determine future research avenues for improving the understanding of lean methodology implementation in SMEs.

Relying on a systematic literature review methodology, the authors aimed to synthesize and evaluate available peer-reviewed papers on the role of FLEs in lean implementation in SMEs. General descriptive and thematic analysis comprehensively depicted the selected research topic and identified the main themes within collected papers and potential future research questions.

The authors identified four main themes related to FLEs’ role in lean implementation: cultural change factors, employee characteristics, management involvement and lean job design. Within each theme, the authors present a comprehensive overview of FLE-related factors and associated enablers and barriers that should be considered for a successful lean implementation in SMEs.

The research outcomes are important to practicing managers in SMEs, helping them facilitate lean acceptance and enhance the likelihood of successful lean implementation.

The insights from this study present building blocks in developing a lean implementation model for SMEs that considers the FLEs’ role more comprehensively.

There are certain differences in the production products of enterprises. What are the impacts of product differentiation on the iron and steel industry? Based on the macro background of CO₂ emission reduction, this paper aims to analyze the economic benefits and environmental changes of the iron and steel industry under the dual influence of CO₂ emission reduction policy and product differentiation policy.

Taking the basic data of iron and steel industry in six regions of China as an example, this paper constructed an extended two-stage dynamic game model to analyze the impact of product differentiation and carbon tax policy on the production, economic indicators and CO₂ emission levels for the overall industry and regional enterprises.

As the CO₂ emission reduction target increased, the unit carbon tax and total tax increased, whereas the macro-environmental losses, social welfare, consumer surplus and outputs decrease. Emission reduction pressures and other economic indicators showed obvious regional differences. Differentiated products promoted various indicators of enterprises and industries; higher degrees of product differentiation resulted in greater promoting effects on economic indicators.

This paper constructed multiple emission reduction and production backgrounds, and discusses the impact of the comprehensive implementation of these policies, which has been practically absent in previous studies. The results of this study are consistent with the current industrial policy for stable production and environmental protection, and also provides a reference for the formulation of detailed policies in the future.

Environmental problems such as CO₂ (Carbon Dioxide) emissions have seriously affected the development of the steel industry, which has urged the industry to adopt a more effective emission reduction policy. This paper aims to analyze the impact of various CO₂ emission reduction policies combinations on the economic benefits and environmental changes of the steel industry and to determine the scope of application.

To compare the impact and applicable implementation conditions, a production decision game model that incorporates these two policies has been constructed. Short-, medium- and long-term constraints are set on the emission reduction indicators and the indicators’ changes under various scenarios are compared.

In the case of a single emission reduction policy, the carbon trading (CT) mechanism is better than the carbon tax mechanism. The mixed carbon trading mechanism is superior to the mixed carbon tax mechanism in terms of total output and subsidies, but worse in terms of overall social welfare, producer surplus and macro losses.

This paper constructs multiple emission reduction and production backgrounds and discusses the impact of the comprehensive implementation of these policies, which is practically absent in previous studies. It is in line with the current industrial policy for stable production and environmental protection and also provides a reference for the formulation of detailed policies in the future.