Corporate R&D Investments and Risk

Corporate R&D Investments,that constitute basis for sustainable development, are influenced by external and firm-specific risks.Evidence shows that firms in Turkey have increased R&D spending during subprime crisis despite its procyclicality in most of the emerging countries.This chapter investigates if business group affiliation or corporate diversification that is predominant in Turkey stimulate R&D investments under risk.It focuses on internal capital markets of business groups or conglomerates that may enhance R&D spending by reducing financial constraints, and likelihood of distress of the affiliated firms.The results reveal that group affiliation and diversification positively affect corporate R&D spending when firm-specific risks rise.These results are significant during the global crisis period.Group-affiliated corporations increase their R&D investments as idiosyncratic risks rise.The diversified conglomerates increase R&D investments when earnings volatility and equity erosion rise.Results indicate that large firms are more inclined to reduce R&D investments under risk.

Supply Chain Management in Retailing Business

Supply chain management is receiving increased attention as means of becoming competitive in a globally challenging environment. As its use is rising in several businesses, we have focused on SCM in retailing business. The concept of ethics has become more critical for companies. In this paper, ethics and sustainability in retailing are also examined. Sustainability has received more attention in retail management. Sustainability related issues have been discussed for many years and the term sustainability has received increased attention in research since the last two decade. This paper brings an overview of past and current sustainability research in retail applications for examining retailing and sustainability relevance. The paper considers role of retailers in supply chains through an extensive analysis of sustainability examinations in different research areas relevant to retail supply chains. Ultimately, the study is exampled from retailing businesses and it is concluded by further discussions.

Directors' Role and Responsibilities under the Light of New Amendment Act of Company Law

The chapter focuses on the key changes the roles and duties of Directors and Independent Directors under the light of New Amendment Act, 2013 of the Companies Act, 1956. This chapter analyzes the role of Directors / Independent Director by comparing the two major Companies Act 1956 and Companies Act 2013. Company Act 2013, is an initiation for better corporate governance, increasing levels of transparency and enhance the corporate and auditor's accountability. New Amendment Act of 2013 is a good legislative attempt by the Government. The following points are focused for the first time in this New Act, 2013. Duties of Directors are defined and Role of Independent Directors is defined. The Board has to take the precautions to implement proper systems and to ensure that all the compliance with the provisions of all the applicable laws which were adequate and operating effectively. As per the provisions of the New Act, 2013 the maximum number of Directors can be appointed are 15 with a special resolution, can be increased more than 15. Made provision for women Director.

Sustainability Reporting and Sustainability in the Turkish Business Context

Companies have started to publish social and environmental reports, in addition to their financial reports. Disclosing non-financial information takes the form of sustainability reports due to some pressures from the environment. The reasons of why organizations publish sustainability reports and benefits that can be obtained with such disclosures can be explained from institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory perspectives. This chapter aims to broaden the understanding about sustainability reporting. Thus, after a quick introduction with the meaning and scope of sustainability and organizational sustainability, theoretical framework for sustainability reporting practices and related studies from different organizational contexts are examined. Besides, sustainability in the Turkish business context is shortly addressed.

Green Supply Chain Management Theory and Practices

Increases in environmental problems require companies to be more aware towards the environment and take precautions regarding the problems. As a result, companies have started to embrace the concept of green supply chain which includes environmental issues rather than the concept of supply chain which is based on profitability. Green supply chain (GSC) has emerged as an important component of the environmental and supply chain strategies. In order to make a supply chain green, it is necessary to consider all activities in the supply chain such as raw material procurement, inbound logistics, transformation, outbound logistics, marketing, after-sales and appropriate product disposal. This paper aims to review different GSCM dimensions in the literature by explaining green supply chain concept and address the activities/practises that can be used to ensure these dimensions are green.

Multi-Criteria Decision Making Techniques for Green Supply Chain Management

Due to increasing importance of environmental issues, green practices became an important part of supply chain management. Today, various multi-criteria decision making techniques (MCDM) have been utilized for incorporation of green efforts in supply chain practices effectively. The purpose of this paper is examining the existing application areas of MCDM techniques in green supply chain management (GSCM) literature. Three questions will be investigated in relation to this issue: 1) Which MCDM techniques were prevalently applied in GSCM literature? 2) Which MCDM techniques have been overlooked in GSCM literature? 3) What are the major application areas of MCDM techniques in GSCM practices? To this aim, literature is reviewed between the period of 2008 and the first half of 2016. In total, ninety eight journal articles were examined. Consequently, this paper represents a detailed picture of application areas of MCDM techniques in GSCM practices and can definitely give a blueprint to researches in solving multiple objective problems effectively in the area of GSCM.

Life Cycle Costing on Waste Management

Sustainability is the essential key point in every aspect of our life. It cannot be successful when it is limited to some certain issues in daily life. It is a revolutionary step for continuous development without any impact to the nature that should be adapted to the economy, manufacturing, urbanization, industrialization, etc. Increasing population and increasing wealth causes increase in the necessities of the human being. If it is considered as inevitable to give many bad impacts to the environment, this type of perspective is more dangerous and harmful to the environment and society than giving unconscious damages. This point of view might make these impacts to be accepted as legal, and this is what should be strongly discarded. There should be a new concept which enlarged our sphere of concern to include the entire physical environment including animals, plants, and landforms.

Governance of Supply Chains for Sustainability

The main objective of this chapter is to shed some light on governance and membership strategies of network organizations. Today's business environment compels firms to join forces in order to be competitive and sustainable. However, the success of the networks mainly depends on their network composition and how they are governed. In this chapter, the author proposes some strategies and the proper governance structure facilitating these strategies by taking the effects of severity of resource acquisition challenges and external legitimacy of whole network organization into consideration. The arguments are based on Resource Based Theory and Stakeholder theory. Moreover, the author of this chapter suggests a counter example for the claim propounded by Provan and Kenis (2007) that the evolution of network governance from more formalized one to the less formalized one is unlikely. From these respects, the chapter contributes to the literature since mentioned points have been rarely discussed.

The Impact of Supplier's Administrative Attributes on Production Process and Marketing Benefits

Supplier selection process is one of the daily activities of purchasing departments in the maquiladora industries, but traditionally the attributes analyzed are those that can be quantified, ignoring others because its impact on the production process or on the company's revenues is unknown. This article presents a structural equation model in which three latent variables associated with administrative attributes are integrated, the benefits obtained along production process and marketing, where three hypotheses which relate them are exposed. The information is derived from a survey of 253 managers who works in maquiladoras in Mexico, thus a descriptive analysis of the sample and the items are obtained. The hypotheses were validated according to a structural equation model and the results indicate that there is a direct and positive effect between the variables analyzed, but the most interesting due to its size, is between the profits made by the production process and the marketing benefits.

Production Planning

This chapter explains the overview of production planning; the issues of remanufacturing production planning and control; Advanced Production Planning and Scheduling (APPS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID); production planning conflict resolution and optimization models; production planning and emission constraints; production planning and quality management; production planning and Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS); production planning in the steel industry; production planning in the energy industry; and production planning in the chemical process industry. The purpose of production planning is to organize the resources in order to efficiently manage the production costs, time, and staffing in the business operations. The individual in charge of production planning adjusts the workforce and process flow to obtain the regular utilization of organizational resources with minimal downtime, minimal bottlenecks, and a level of output consistent with all the resources being put into the manufacturing processes.