The Effect of Sustainability on New Product Development in Manufacturing—Internal and External Practices

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the link between the adoption of sustainability practices and new product development (NPD) in manufacturing companies. From a triple bottom line (TBL) perspective and considering different theoretical approaches, this study hypothesises on the effect of both internal and external sustainability practices, distinguishing between collaborative and controlling initiatives, on the success of new products. Using a unique database of 281 companies across three industries taken from the fourth round of the High-Performance Manufacturing project, the findings shows that both monitoring and collaborative actions with suppliers demonstrate positive impacts on NPD success. Internal sustainability practices do not have a direct effect on NPD success but are determinant in supporting external sustainability practices.

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM OF EXTERNAL SUSTAINABILITY OF AN ECONOMY: CASE OF UKRAINE

The paper deals with the early warning system that allows monitoring the external sustainability of an economy due to external economic shocks. For this purpose, the analysis of the external sustainability indicators system of an economy (example of Ukraine) was implemented. It consisted of statistical analysis of the system of indicators of external sustainability of an economy, probabilistic assessment of their dynamics due to external economic shocks. The analysis of external sustainability indicators includes verifying their volatility, stability and variability relative to GDP. It means calculation of standard deviation for testing the volatility, autocorrelation to check the stability of the indicator and correlation between its value and GDP growth rate to measure the variability relative to the economy’s performance. The calculations of threshold percentiles for indicators of external sustainability of Ukraine’s economy, noise-signal ratios and probabilities of the occurrence of unsustainable external perturbationsare based on signal approach. The analysis of indicators of external sustainability of Ukraine’s economy shows that most indicators are volatile relative to their average values.It is shown that most indicators of the external sustainability of Ukraine’s economy are acyclic as they are weakly correlated with the growth rate of GDP, although their turning points coincide in many cases. Procyclical indicators are the ratio of reserve assets to «broad money», the ratio of net foreign assets to GDP, the average interest rate on external government liabilities, countercyclical indicators are the ratio of reserve assets to short-term external debt, the share of external public debt denominated in foreign currency to the total amount of external government obligations (except for SDR). Keywords: external sustainability, early warning system of external sustainability, external economic shocks, commodity prices, debt sustainability, social and market efficiency. JEL Classification F30, F40, F62 Formulas: 0; fig.: 1;tabl.: 0; bibl.: 24.

Triggering sustainability communication in a B2B context: combining action research and sensemaking

PurposeThe paper explores processes associated with the adoption of corporate sustainability communication in a B2B context. It employs a combined action research and sensemaking approach to document moments that precede the initiation of external sustainability communication.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is the outcome of an action research project, where we examine the case of one industrial company that was silent on its multiple sustainability-related practices, but recently decided to become more transparent to the outside world. A processual approach to sensemaking is adopted to show how organisational and non-organisational members actively participated in meaning co-construction.FindingsCorporate silence can be disrupted by triggering events that cause moments of sudden realisation for organisational members, eventually leading to the initiation of sensemaking processes inside the organisation. Once this occurs, the possibility of externally communicating sustainability appears a feasible and strategic approach to pursue. We document how different actors are involved in meaning co-construction and how the entire process of sensemaking unfolds.Practical implicationsA sensemaking approach sheds light on the complexity of sustainability communication, where multiple actors are involved. This is a useful approach to consider in order to couple sustainability with other organisational practices. Moreover, sensemaking opens a window of opportunity for various societal actors' interventions to shape the role and content of sustainability communication.Originality/valueThe paper offers an original, theoretically informed methodological contribution to the literature on sustainability communication by coupling a sensemaking approach with action research. The approach is employed to examine the role of internal organisational actors in sustainability reporting processes, an area that has received scant attention.

Sustainability Prerequisites and Practices in Textile and Apparel Supply Chains

The proposed study deals with sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the textile and apparel (T&A) industry. We analyze prerequisites and practices of supply chain (SC) sustainability in a multiple case study of the German and Ethiopian T&A industry. Our analysis is based on ten semi-structured interviews conducted with the managers of seven companies in the Ethiopian T&A production and the German fair fashion retail industries. The contribution of expert knowledge helps in identifying SC sustainability prerequisites and practices. The chosen cases of production in Ethiopia and retail in Germany highlight the complexity of T&A SCs while representing both the suppliers’ and retailers’ perspectives, which is rare in the related literature. As a major research contribution, the study adapts a framework for SC sustainability in the chemical industry and transfers it to T&A SCs. Moreover, practitioners from the T&A industry find useful insights into relevant practices and their prerequisites, which helps in improving SC sustainability in this sector. The study reveals that management orientation and interest groups such as customers represent the most important prerequisites for sustainability. Manufacturers rely more on internal practices such as monitoring, while retailers focus on external sustainability practices, such as supplier development. In a comparative approach, similarities and differences between T&A SCs and the chemical industry are identified.

Formalizing Objectives and Criteria for Urban Agriculture Sustainability with a Participatory Approach

The last few years have seen an exponential development of urban agriculture projects within global North countries, especially professional intra-urban farms which are professional forms of agriculture located within densely settled areas of city. Such projects aim to cope with the challenge of sustainable urban development and today the sustainability of the projects is questioned. To date, no set of criteria has been designed to specifically assess the environmental, social and economic sustainability of these farms at the farm scale. Our study aims to identify sustainability objectives and criteria applicable to professional intra-urban farms. It relies on a participatory approach involving various stakeholders of the French urban agriculture sector comprising an initial focus group, online surveys and interviews. We obtained a set of six objectives related to environmental impacts, link to the city, economic and ethical meaning, food and environmental education, consumer/producer connection and socio-territorial services. In addition, 21 criteria split between agro-environmental, socio-territorial and economic dimensions were identified to reach these objectives. Overall, agro-environmental and socio-territorial criteria were assessed as more important than economic criteria, whereas food production was not mentioned. Differences were identified between urban farmers and decision makers, highlighting that decision makers were more focused on projects’ external sustainability. They also pay attention to the urban farmer agricultural background, suggesting that they rely on urban farmers to ensure the internal sustainability of the farm. Based on our results, indicators could be designed to measure the sustainability criteria identified, and to allow the sustainability assessment of intra-urban farms.

Republic of Madagascar

After a smooth transition of power completed with the Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and the installation of a new government, economic developments have remained favorable despite some slowdown in the first half of 2019, in the context of significant budget under-execution. Medium-term fiscal and external sustainability has been preserved.

Green Information Technology Readiness Model Using Factor Analysis Method In Indonesia

Green information technology has been increasingly becoming a strategic consideration for developing sustainable business practices through balancing economic and environmental performance of an organization. To help individual organizations better pursue green information technology, this paper presents a factor analysis based decision model for evaluating the green information technology readiness of an organization. The decision model effectively considers the multi-dimensional nature of the evaluation problem and appropriately handle the subjectivity and imprecision of the human evaluation process. An example is given for demonstrating the applicability of the model for evaluating the green information technology readiness of organization. Green information technology readiness is considered to be an organization’s capability to embed sustainability in the beliefs and attitudes in the development, deployment and disposal of information technology technical assets and in their information technology processes, practices and policies and in the governance systems to ensure compliance with internal and external sustainability expectations.

Federated States of Micronesia

This Climate Change Policy Assessment (CCPA) takes stock of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)’s climate response plans, from the perspective of their macroeconomic and fiscal implications. The CCPA is a joint initiative by the IMF and World Bank to assist small states to understand and manage the expected economic impact of climate change, while safeguarding longrun fiscal and external sustainability. It explores the possible impact of climate change and natural disasters and the cost of FSM’s planned response. It suggests macroeconomically relevant reforms that could strengthen the national strategy and identifies policy gaps and resource needs.