1,720,967 research outputs found
Barriers to commercialise produce for smallholder farmers in Malawi: An interpretive structural modelling approach
Full text linkSmallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, relying on agriculture for subsistence and employment. The transition from subsistence towards commercial agriculture is a focus area to improve the living conditions of farmers in several African countries, including Malawi. However, a number of barriers still prevents the commercialisation of produce by smallholder farmers. This work aims to identify the key barriers faced by Malawian smallholder farmers to commercialise their produce and to identify their root causes in order to prioritise areas of improvement to facilitate market participation for smallholder farmers. Using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM), the opinions of experts in the field were captured to establish causal and hierarchical relationships among the thirteen identified barriers, which holistically address on-farm and off-farm elements across multiple disciplines, such as agriculture, entrepreneurship, supply chain management, micro- and macro-economy. A causal mapping method is applied for the first time in the context of smallholder farming. This work is novel in identifying in a structured manner and comprehensively analysing barriers to commercialisation of produce for smallholder farmers in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, offering a causal hierarchical mapping of the relationships between barriers in Malawi. The findings show that ‘Poor farmers’ group organisation’ and ‘Lack of market knowledge and understanding’ are the most significant barriers, having the highest driving power and aggravating the other barriers. The findings of this work can have a notable contribution to practice. Policy makers and other related actors can have more clarity on the key barriers that affect all others as well as on their impact pathway, thus being able to prioritise their efforts to effectively address them
Power in sustainable supply chain management: A systematic literature review
Full text linkSustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is becoming a strategic necessity for multiple companies. Successful
implementation of SSCM is dependent upon inter-firm relationships and inter-organisational coordination
instruments. This work aims to explore the role of power in diffusing sustainability along supply chains.
A systematic literature review covering 63 publications in peer-reviewed academic journals was conducted.
The literature is reviewed according to several perspectives, including methodologies, units of analysis and
theories adopted. The core of the literature explores power in the context of SSCM, contextualising findings
against the power matrix and the bases of power, which are adopted as theoretical lenses.
Findings reveal that: (i) power is predominantly viewed as a dyadic concept, with fewer studies exploring
power dynamics in multi-tier sustainable supply chains; (ii) buyer dominance is considered an enabler to SSCM
and supplier dominance is considered a barrier to SSCM, as a result of focal company-driven SSCM programs and
prevailing commercial logics being applied to the sustainability domain; (iii) power symmetries, particularly
independence between supply chain organisations, and related implications for SSCM are under-researched
themes; (iv) mediated bases of power, particularly coercive power, are effective to diffuse sustainability under
context-specific conditions, but limit long-term sustainability management development; (v) non-mediated bases
of power favouring a more relational approach are widely considered as an enabler to the diffusion of SSCM.
This work contributes to the sustainable supply chain management literature by providing the first contextualised
understanding of the role of power in SSCM, elaborating on the power-related circumstances that
enable or impair the diffusion of sustainability in supply chains. The theoretical anchoring of the review allows to
elaborate on what power positions and through which mediated and non-mediated bases of power, supply chain
sustainability diffusion occurs
An integrative approach to assess environmental and economic sustainability in multi-tier supply chains
Full text linkMulti-tier supply chain sustainability is paramount to achieve corporate sustainability, due to the significant impacts from organisations beyond the focal firm boundaries and its direct suppliers. However, including environmental considerations within the dominant profit-centric logic of supply chain related decisions is prone to generate sustainability tensions. This work aims to support organisations address tensions between sustainability dimensions by adopting an integrative approach for sustainable supply chain management performance assessment thanks to an innovative eco-intensity based performance assessment method, which achieves a balanced consideration of environmental and economic performance in a weak sustainability perspective. The method, using primary data sourced from actual practice and featuring an indirect multi-tier approach with decentralised responsibilities across organisations, is applied to a case study of a machinery supply chain. The proposed integrative approach can support addressing sustainability tensions in the area of sustainable supply chain management, facilitate sustainable supplier evaluation and identify supply chain hotspots for operational improvement
Risks in circular business models innovation: A cross-industrial case study for composite materials
Full text linkCircular business models (CBMs) are key enablers to implement circular economy (CE), yet they entail risks, which often discourage organisations. This work aims to explore the main risk factors perceived by the manufacturing industry in transitioning to CBMs to enable the development of appropriate risk management strategies. A cross- industrial multiple-case study research design was used to explore risk factors across seven organisations planning the transition to CBMs for composite-based products and
involving three different CBM types—‘Circular Supplies’, ‘Product Life Extension’ and ‘Hybrid’. Results evidenced that risks are multi-disciplinary but are not equally per- ceived across different CBM types. Customers' perceptions of CE products, economic cycle and take-back systems were prevalent across all CBMs. Supply and technological risks were prioritised for ‘Circular Supplies’ CBM, whereas political and regulatory risks for ‘Product Life Extension’ CBM. This research contributes to the CE field by evaluating and prioritising the perceived risk factors in transitioning to CBMs and first disaggregating such risk factors according to CBM types. Critical risk patterns identified across different industries and CBM types enable mitigating actions to be prioritised
Environmental performance measurement for green supply chains : a systematic analysis and review of quantitative methods
Full text linkPurpose – The majority of the environmental impacts in a typical supply chain can arise beyond the focal firm boundaries. However, no standardised method to quantify these impacts at the supply chain level currently exists. The aim of this work is to identify the quantitative methods developed to measure the environmental performance of supply chains and evaluate their key features. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review is conducted at the intersection of performance measurement and green supply chain management fields, covering 78 publications in peer-reviewed academic journals. The literature is reviewed according to several perspectives, including the environmental aspects considered, the main purpose of measurement, model types and the extent of supply chain covered by performance measurements. Findings – Adopted environmental metrics show a low degree of standardisation and focus on natural resources, energy and emissions to air. The visibility and traceability of environmental aspects are still limited: the assessment of environmental impacts does not span in most cases beyond the direct business partners of the focal firms. A trade-off was observed between the range of environmental aspects and the extent of the supply chain considered with no method suitable for a holistic evaluation of the environmental supply chain performance identified. Three major streams of research developing in the field are identified, based on different scope. Originality/value – This paper is the first attempt to examine in detail what tiers of the supply chain are actually involved in green performance assessment, ultimately contributing to clarify the scope of the supply chain dimension in green supply chain management performance measurement research. The work also recognises which methods are applicable to extended supply chains and explores how different methodologies perform in terms of supply chain extent covered
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Supporting Brazilian smallholder farmers decision making in supplying institutional markets
Full text linkSmallholder farmers are amongst the most vulnerable communities in developing countries, lacking a stable income due to inconsistent access to markets. Aiming to tackle rural poverty, the Brazilian government established institutional markets for smallholder farmers to supply their produce to schools through a non-competitive bidding mechanism. However, participation of farmers is still limited due to the challenging decision-making process. Aspiring to contribute towards increasing their participation, this study aims to support farmers into two key decisions they face during sequential stages of the bidding process, namely whether to bid for each available school and product combination and whether subsequently to accept the awarded bids once the bids’ outcome is known. A decision support system, based on two sequential MILP optimisation models, was developed and applied to the case study of Canudos settlement, guiding farmers on the optimal bidding and contract acceptance strategy. This study contributes to the decision support systems field by applying OR methods to a real-life problem within a new context. It is the first application of an OR-based decision support system in the non-competitive bid/no-bid literature, defining an optimal bidding strategy through the application of optimisation methods to maximise profitability while removing subjectivity from the decision-making process. Moreover, it is the first decision support system within the bid/no-bid decision-making field being applied to the agricultural and institutional market context. The proposed approach could have a significant social impact for smallholder farmers in Brazil, improving their living conditions by providing security of income and strengthening inclusive agricultural growth
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