324 research outputs found
Development of a behavioural test in the terrestrial oligochaetes Eisenia spp. Exposed to per and polifluoro allylic substances PFAS.
No full textSupply risk management and competitive advantage: a misfit model
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of congruence for the management of supply risk that is easy to apply, but also accurate. The authors also aim at providing empirical evidence about the relationship between misfit – i.e. the incongruence between a firm’s preparedness in (supply) risk management and the potential riskiness characterising the context – and competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach – In line with the purpose, literature and field interviews were used to develop a model of congruence in the context of supply risk management (SRM) and operationalise it within a questionnaire. Then, the authors collected survey data to validate the model.
Findings – Results show that competitive advantage decreases when the firm’s preparedness in SRM does not match to the pattern of risk conditions (i.e. environmental vulnerabilities).
Research limitations/implications – The model of congruence here developed is simple to apply but offer effective decisions support. This study, thus, stimulates future research on the assessment and management of supply chain risk. This study, also, fosters the attention to the non-linear relationship between risk management and business performance.
Practical implications – This study develops a model that can be used by practitioners to configure an optimal adoption of SRM practices. Also, the analysis allows to draw some specific recommendations for supply chain managers aiming at improving their preparedness in SRM.
Originality/value – By relying on SRM literature, the balanced-resilience logic and the theoretical framework of contingency theory, this study develops and test a model of congruence that shows how companies can gain competitive advantage through the management of supply risk
A model to evaluate upstream vulnerability
No full textThe current body of literature with regard to supply chain vulnerability pays limited attention to how companies actually evaluate and manage risk. A second limitation is the scarce use of empirical evidence. Aiming at reducing these gaps, this work proposes a new conceptual model by which companies can assess their upstream vulnerability. The development process for the model involved two steps. First, based on a literature review, a draft of the assessment model was designed and operationalised via a questionnaire. Then, to refine the model and to verify its discriminant ability, case studies were conducted. The model is able to effectively compare the riskiness of the context in which a company operates with the firm’s preparedness in risk management, providing guidance in evaluating and reducing upstream vulnerability
The path towards environmental and social sustainability: the case of manufacturing companies and their suppliers
No full textIn 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported that two-thirds of the world’s ecosystems were being exploited well beyond sustainable levels. Given that manufacturing firms rely strongly on natural resources to conduct business, it is surprising that many have failed to make their supply chains more sustainable. I believe this occurs not because companies are acting in their own self-interests, but because understanding is still lacking on how to become sustainable. The Key is that good environmental and social performance are not simple to achieve, since ‘new’ practices have to be developed in a coordinated fashion. That is, most companies do not choose to ignore environmental and social harm, but the complexity is such that their knowledge is often insufficient.
The goal of this dissertation is to offer practical guidelines which help companies to coordinate the complex bundle of practices which have to be adopted along the pathway that lead to high environmental and social performance in the supply chain. To do so, I develop three distinct but compatible papers. The first looks at the role of a company’s willingness/ability to change, i.e. its innovativeness, as a distinguished factor whose absence may hinder, retard or even constrain the development of sustainable practices. The second paper acknowledges the globalization process that supply chains are undergoing, which creates the need for differentiated approaches to the management of sustainability. Third, the last paper looks at the inter-relationship between internal and external practices (i.e., activities without direct supplier involvement vs. activities that include transactions with suppliers) and at their specific impacts on sustainability performance.
Taken as a whole, this dissertation sheds some light on the pathway companies should undertake to boost their environmental and social sustainability while helping suppliers to develop their own capacity to deal with this matter
Cytotoxicity of Ether Perfluoro Carboxylic Acid PFAS Congeners in Earthworm Granulocytes.
No full textMitigating the effect of risk conditions on supply disruptions: the role of manufacturing postponement enablers
No full textWhile previous published studies have evaluated the drivers of supply disruptions, only a few have empirically investigated the role of manufacturing postponement enablers as mitigating practices. This work explores the complex interaction between supply disruptions (i.e. supplier failure, purchase unavailability), risk conditions (i.e. antecedents that positively influence the probability and severity of supply disruptions) and manufacturing postponement enablers (i.e. product and process modularity). Specifically, we aim at understanding ‘when’ manufacturing postponement enablers should be adopted the most and ‘if’ their adoption can fully mitigate the effect risk conditions exert on supply disruptions’ probability and severity. To achieve our objective, we developed a conceptual model, and we tested it using survey data from 54 Italian manufacturing companies. The results show that supply market difficulty and technological uncertainty imply a higher probability and severity of disruptions associated with supplier failure and purchase unavailability. Most importantly, we provide evidence of the role played by product and process modularity in fully mitigating the effect of technological uncertainty on supply disruptions
Developing environmental and social performance: the role of suppliers’ sustainability and buyer–supplier trust
No full textWe explore how environmental and social performance of manufacturing firms can be improved as sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) develops and evolves within a firm from internal to external practices. Importantly, this study considers how key suppliers’ sustainability performance and buyer–supplier trust mediate and moderate such a development. A conceptual framework is developed which relies on resource-based theories and emerging empirical evidence. Then, partial least square methodology is applied on survey data from a sample of Italian manufacturing firms. Results show that manufacturing firms’ sustainability performance improves as SSCM develops; however, while internal practices have a direct impact on performance, the effect of external practices on a manufacturing firm’s sustainability performance is fully mediated by key suppliers’ sustainability performance. Yet, buyer–supplier trust significantly influences the scope of such gains. Since evidence suggests that manufacturing firms are still struggling with how to leverage sup- ply chain innovation potential for sustainable development, this study provides a timely and valuable contribution
Enzymatic responses in Eisenia fetida exposed to perFluoroEther Carboxylic Acids (PFECA) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) via OECD Contact Test n°207: Insights into Oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, and immune response.
No full textA cosmological view of extreme mass-ratio inspirals in nuclear star clusters
No full textThere is increasing evidence that many galaxies host both a nuclear star cluster (NC) and a super-massive black hole (SMBH). Their coexistence is particularly prevalent in spheroids with stellar mass 108–1010 M⊙. We study the possibility that a stellar-mass black hole (BH) hosted by a NC inspirals and merges with the central SMBH. Due to the high stellar density in NCs, extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) of BHs onto SMBHs in NCs may be important sources of gravitational waves (GWs). We consider sensitivity curves for three different space-based GW laser interferometric mission concepts: the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), the New Gravitational wave Observatory (NGO) and the DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (DECIGO). We predict that, under the most optimistic assumptions, LISA and DECIGO will detect up to thousands of EMRIs in NCs per year, while NGO will observe up to tens of EMRIs per year. We explore how a number of factors may affect the predicted rates. In particular, if we assume that the mass of the SMBH scales with the square of the host spheroid mass in galaxies with NCs, rather than a linear scaling, then the event rates are more than a factor of 10 lower for both LISA and NGO, while they are almost unaffected in the case of DECIGO
Neurotoxicity of Novel Peruoroalkyl Ether Carboxylic Acids (PFECAs) in Earthworms (Eisenia foetida)
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