Search Results (93)

Against the backdrop of China’s dual-carbon goals and the global push toward net-zero emissions, Macao faces not only an innovation deficit but also the urgent need to reconfigure its economic structure toward green and low-carbon development. This study investigates collaborative innovation mechanisms within Macao’s technological ecosystem through the lens of new qualitative productivity, a paradigm emphasizing structural optimization and systemic innovation capacity. As a micro-jurisdiction within the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), Macao faces challenges due to its tourism-dependent economy and spatial constraints. Employing a qualitative methodology grounded in collaborative governance theory, the research combines theoretical framework construction with empirical case studies of technology enterprises, notably Enterprise B, to analyze stakeholder interactions, resource integration, and institutional dynamics. This study examines how collaborative technological innovation governance in a micro-jurisdiction can underpin net-zero and green supply chain transitions by mobilizing cross-border resources and institutional synergies. Key findings reveal a polycentric governance model involving government, enterprises, academic institutions, and civil society organizations. This model leverages cross-border synergies, platformization, and adaptive recalibration to overcome structural limitations. Results highlight tripartite drivers—policy incentives, market forces, and corporate strategies—that enhance innovation throughput. Despite advancements in institutional coordination, challenges persist, including low enterprise absorption of government funding, talent attrition, and fragmented academic–industrial linkages. The study proposes strategic recalibrations, such as refining policy architectures, strengthening industry–academia–research symbiosis, and optimizing transnational collaboration through Macao’s Lusophone networks. The findings provide governance insights for micro-jurisdictions seeking to align new qualitative productivity with decarbonization, renewable energy integration, and participation in regional green supply chains. Full article

Background: Sustainable supply chain development is a global priority driven by resource depletion, socio-economic challenges, and environmental concerns. Existing biofuel supply chain studies, however, often focus on isolated upstream or downstream processes and inadequately address multi-stakeholder engagement. Achieving sustainability requires coordinated participation of stakeholders across multiple decision levels, from individuals to society. This study proposes a collaborative framework to support sustainable biofuel development. Methodology: The framework comprises three steps: (i) current-state analysis through stakeholder identification, power–interest mapping, and engagement assessment; (ii) definition of a desired future state; and (iii) development of transition strategies integrating bottom-up and top-down approaches. The framework is applied to a biofuel case study in Ethiopia. Results: Twenty-four stakeholders were identified across nano, micro, meso, and macro levels. Power–interest and engagement analyses revealed key decision-makers and categorized stakeholders as aligned, passive, or militant. The results show that transitioning stakeholders toward active collaboration requires integrated strategies, including capability development, policy alignment, knowledge sharing, and technological advancement. These interventions support coordinated decision-making, improved resource management, and sustainability outcomes such as job creation, energy security, and greenhouse gas reduction. Conclusion: The proposed multi-level interaction framework effectively aligns stakeholders by integrating bottom-up and top-down strategies. It provides a systematic approach to guiding collaborative transitions toward sustainable development. Full article

Efficient coordination within the supply chain of prefabricated construction remains a significant challenge due to the high level of interdependence among supply chain participants, the complexity of information flows, and the sensitivity of construction processes to communication delays. This study proposes an integrated methodological framework that combines fuzzy logic and social network analysis (SNA) to evaluate the structural stability and interaction dynamics of supply chain participants. First, a synthetic indicator—link stability—is introduced to quantify the robustness of relationships between supply chain actors. Link stability is defined as a function of five determinants: collaboration level, trust level, communication quality, adoption of digital tools, and effectiveness of dispute resolution. Fuzzy logic is applied to calculate this indicator for each pair of participants, reducing subjectivity in expert assessments. Second, the link stability matrix is used to compute a wide set of centrality measures, including degree, betweenness, closeness, eigenvector, PageRank, information, harmonic, and second-order centralities. These metrics reveal the structural influence of each actor within the network and allow for the identification of core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral roles. A heatmap demonstrates a highly centralized network structure dominated by managerial and design roles. The results contribute to improving supply chain resilience, enhancing communication pathways, and supporting decision-making in prefabricated construction projects. Full article

Amid profound transformations in the global political and economic landscape and increasingly stringent resource and environmental constraints, enhancing corporate competitiveness under high uncertainty and achieving sustainable development have become core challenges for firms. Based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies during 2013–2024, this study constructs a corporate sustainable development indicator system under the triple bottom line framework and measures it using the entropy method. Meanwhile, the Supply Chain Innovation and Application Pilot policy is treated as a quasi-natural experiment, and a Staggered Difference-in-Differences (DID) model is employed to systematically examine the impact of supply chain innovation on corporate sustainable development. The results indicate that supply chain innovation significantly enhances firms’ sustainable development performance, and this finding remains robust across a series of robustness checks. Mechanism analysis shows that the policy effect primarily operates through two channels: relational effects and informational effects. On the one hand, supply chain innovation strengthens collaboration and trust between firms and their upstream and downstream partners, improving supply chain stability and overall operational efficiency. On the other hand, it promotes information sharing and digital coordination, alleviates information asymmetry, and optimizes resource allocation, thereby boosting corporate sustainability. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy effect is more pronounced in firms with higher levels of digitalization and weaker market pricing power, in upstream segments of the value chain, in industries with higher warehousing and transportation costs and lower market competition, and in regions with more advanced digital infrastructure and relatively richer resource endowments. Full article

Industrial packaging systems exert substantial environmental pressures, including material resource depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and the accumulation of post-consumer waste. As global supply chains expand and sustainability regulations intensify, demand for environmentally responsible packaging solutions continues to rise. This study evaluates the environmental footprint of industrial packaging by integrating recent developments in life cycle assessment (LCA), ecological footprint (EF) methodologies, material innovations, and circular economy models. The assessment examines the sustainability performance of conventional and alternative packaging materials, plastics, aluminum, corrugated cardboard, and polylactic acid (PLA). Findings indicate that although corrugated cardboard is renewable, it still presents a measurable environmental burden, with evidence suggesting that incorporating solar energy into production can reduce its footprint by more than 12%. PLA-based trays demonstrate promising environmental performance when sourced from renewable feedstocks and directed to appropriate composting systems. Despite these advancements, several systemic challenges persist, including ecological overshoot in industrial regions where EF may exceed local biocapacity limitations in waste management infrastructure, and significant economic trade-offs. Transportation-related emissions and scalability constraints for bio-based materials further hinder large-scale adoption. Existing research suggests that integrating sustainable packaging across supply chains could meaningfully reduce environmental impacts. Achieving this transition requires coordinated cross-sector collaboration, standardized policy frameworks, and embedding advanced environmental criteria into packaging design and decision-making processes. Full article

Digital transformation in port logistics represents a profound and systemic shift in the way maritime trade and supply chain operations are designed, coordinated, and governed through the pervasive integration of advanced digital technologies and data-driven management practices. It extends beyond the mere digitization of paper-based documents into electronic formats and beyond the digitalization of isolated processes with IT tools. Transformation involves reconfiguring organizational structures, decision-making logics, and value creation models around connectivity, automation, and predictive intelligence. In practice, it includes the adoption of smart port technologies such as the Internet of Things, 5G communication networks, digital twins, blockchain-based trade documentation, and artificial intelligence applied to vessel scheduling and cargo planning. It also encompasses collaborative platforms like port community systems that link shipping companies, terminal operators, freight forwarders, customs, and hinterland transport providers into data-driven ecosystems. The purpose of digital transformation is not only to improve efficiency and reduce operational bottlenecks, but also to enhance resilience against disruptions, ensure sustainability in line with decarbonization goals, and reposition ports as orchestrators of trade networks rather than passive providers of physical infrastructure. Full article

Remote Indigenous communities experience persistent inequities in access to fresh and nutritious foods due to the fragility of perishable food supply chains (PFSCs). Disruptions across procurement, transportation, storage, retail, and limited local production restrict access to perishable foods, contributing to food insecurity and diet-related health risks. This scoping literature review synthesizes evidence from 84 peer-reviewed, grey, and unpublished sources across fourteen countries to map PFSC management (PFSCM) challenges affecting food access in remote Indigenous communities worldwide and to synthesize reported practices implemented to address these challenges. PFSCM challenges were identified across all supply chain levels, and five categories of reported practices emerged: PFSC redesign strategies, forecasting and decision-support models, technological innovations, collaboration and coordination mechanisms, and targeted investments. These findings informed the development of a multi-scalar conceptual framework comprising seven interconnected PFSCM clusters that organize how reported practices are associated with multiple food access dimensions, including quantity, affordability, quality, safety, variety, and cultural acceptability. This review contributes an integrative, system-oriented synthesis of PFSCM research and provides a conceptual basis to support future scholarly inquiry, comparative inquiry, and policy-relevant discussion of food access and health equity in remote Indigenous communities. Full article

Information asymmetry regarding freshness has become a critical issue in the fresh produce supply chain. This study focuses on a fresh produce e-commerce supply chain comprising suppliers, third-party logistics (TPL) providers, and e-commerce platforms. Considering consumer preferences for freshness, it employs a Stackelberg game model to examine the impact of TPL exaggerating freshness preservation efforts on the supply chain. Subsequently, contract design is employed to achieve supply chain coordination. Findings indicate that when TPL misrepresents preservation effort information, profits decline across all supply chain members. A cost-sharing-profit-sharing contract facilitates redistribution of costs and benefits between upstream and downstream entities, thereby increasing preservation effort levels. Although preservation costs increase under this arrangement, contractual terms ultimately enhance profits for all supply chain members. This study incorporates freshness preferences to enhance model realism, providing theoretical foundations for decision-making under information asymmetry regarding freshness preservation efforts. It holds significant practical value for fostering collaboration among members in fresh produce e-commerce supply chains and promoting sustainable supply chain development. Full article

Big data service providers (BDSPs) play a critical role in supporting the digital transformation of closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs). However, as the number of CLSC members increases, traditional coordination contracts become complex in the big data era, which challenges effective collaboration and contract implementation. To address this issue, this paper investigates the profit coordination problem in a CLSC with a BDSP, with the aim of lowering the contract implementation threshold and facilitating flexible adjustment of contract terms. This study applies the variational inequality method to derive the necessary conditions under which a CLSC with the participation of a BDSP achieves maximum system profit. The results indicate that these necessary conditions are as follows. First, the wholesale price is equal to the unit cost of new products. Second, the optimal payment level is positively correlated with production volume, unit cost savings, the BDSP marketing effort sensitivity coefficient, and the BDSP recycling effort sensitivity coefficient, while it is negatively correlated with the retail price sensitivity coefficient, the recycling price sensitivity coefficient, and the big data service cost coefficient. Full article

The current retired recycling system suffers from “systemic coordination failure”, primarily due to ambiguous responsibility boundaries hindering interenterprise collaboration, unequal profit distribution discouraging technological innovation investment, and low participation from both consumers and recycling enterprises undermining the efficiency of recycling channels. However, the simplified tripartite game models commonly adopted in existing research exhibit significant limitations in explaining and addressing the above practical challenges, as they fail to incorporate consumers and third-party recyclers as strategic decision-makers into the analytical framework. To address these issues, this study develops, for the first time, a five-party evolutionary game model involving governments, vehicle manufacturers, battery producers, third-party recyclers, and consumers within a reverse supply chain framework. We further employ system dynamics to simulate the dynamic evolution of stakeholder strategies. The results show that: (1) When tri-party synergistic benefits exceed 15, the system transitions from resource dissipation to circular regeneration. (2) Government subsidies reaching the threshold of 2 effectively promote low-carbon transformation across the industrial chain. (3) Bilateral synergistic benefits of 12 can stimulate green technological innovation and industrial upgrading. (4) Establishing a multi-stakeholder governance framework is key to enhancing resource circulation efficiency. This research provides quantitative evidence and policy implications for constructing an efficient and sustainable power battery recycling system. Full article

The high energy consumption characteristics across all segments of the agricultural supply chain, coupled with rural areas’ excessive reliance on traditional power grids and fossil fuel-based energy supply models, not only result in persistently high energy utilization costs and low efficiency but also inflict ongoing negative environmental impacts. This undermines sustainable development and the achievement of energy security. In response, this paper proposes a multi-timescale robust operation scheme for the coordinated operation of rural integrated energy systems and agricultural supply chains. Its core components are as follows: (1) Establish a collaborative operation framework integrating renewable energy-based rural integrated energy systems with agricultural supply chains; (2) Holistically consider energy consumption characteristics across supply chain segments, leveraging sensor-based environmental parameters for crop yield forecasting and hourly energy consumption assessment. This effectively addresses misalignments between crop growth and energy optimization scheduling, as well as inconsistent energy measurement scales across supply chain segments, thereby advancing agricultural sustainability; (3) Introducing a two-stage robust optimization model to quantify the impact of environmental uncertainty on the collaborative framework and integrated energy system, ensuring optimal operation of supply chain equipment under worst-case conditions; (4) Identifying critical energy consumption nodes in the supply chain through system performance analysis and revealing optimization potential in the collaborative mechanism, enabling flexible load shifting and cross-temporal energy allocation. Simulation results demonstrate that this coordinated operation scheme enables dynamic estimation and optimization of crop growth and energy consumption, reducing system operating costs while enhancing supply chain reliability and renewable energy integration capacity. The two-stage robust optimization mechanism effectively strengthens system robustness and adaptability, mitigates the impact of renewable energy output fluctuations, and achieves spatiotemporal optimization of energy allocation. Full article

Data, as a key production factor in modern logistics systems, plays a crucial role in enhancing industry efficiency and promoting supply chain coordination. To address challenges in data sharing among logistics enterprises—such as conflicts of interest, unequal risk allocation, and insufficient security governance—this study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving logistics enterprises, data partners, and supervisory institutions. The payoff matrix incorporates prospect theory to account for risk attitudes, loss–gain perceptions, and subjective judgments. Stable equilibrium points are derived using the Jacobian matrix, and numerical simulations examine strategic evolution under varying parameters. Results indicate that increased returns for data partners reduce their motivation to provide truthful data, while higher enterprise profits suppress logistics enterprises’ willingness to share. Compensation levels have limited impact, whereas excessively high supervision subsidies weaken participation and oversight across all parties. Stronger penalties and higher-level enforcement significantly promote compliance and positive system evolution. Enterprise investment positively correlates with data-sharing behavior, and risk preferences of all parties accelerate convergence to stable equilibria. Conversely, excessively low risk preference in supervisory institutions may lead to an unstable “sharing–false data–non-regulation” pattern. These findings provide theoretical support and policy guidance for designing a dynamic governance mechanism that balances incentives, constraints, and collaboration, thereby facilitating secure and effective logistics data sharing and informing the development of the data factor market. Full article

Deposit Refund Systems (DRS) are widely adopted in many European countries as effective mechanisms for increasing recycling rates and promoting circular-economy practices. Greece is currently preparing for the introduction of a national DRS for beverage containers, a transition expected to reshape existing waste-management structures. This study investigates the systemic challenges that may hinder the successful implementation of the upcoming Greek DRS. Focusing exclusively on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), aluminum, and glass beverage containers, this study adopts a multi-stakeholder qualitative approach involving 28 semi-structured interviews with beverage producers, retailers, recyclers, logistics actors, consumer representatives, and regulatory authorities. Thematic analysis reveals four interdependent barriers: restricted consumer accessibility due to uneven distribution of return infrastructure; fragmented governance and unclear institutional responsibilities; weak coordination and operational misalignment among supply-chain actors; and low consumer participation shaped by behavioral and cultural factors. These findings underscore that Greece’s DRS readiness is constrained not by technological limitations but by systemic gaps in governance, infrastructure planning, and stakeholder collaboration. This study contributes to the DRS literature by providing one of the first pre-implementation, multi-actor assessments in a Southern European context and offers policy-relevant insights to support an effective, equitable, and transparent rollout of the national DRS. Full article

Digital transformation (DT) has become a strategic priority for global ports; however, many in developing countries, including Indonesia, face challenges in translating digital initiatives into measurable business performance (BP). This study examines the impact of DT on BP through the mediating roles of supply chain integration (SCI) and operational performance (OP) within Indonesian ports, using the Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT) framework. A quantitative survey of 128 operational managers from state-owned ports was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that DT significantly improves SCI and OP, both of which positively influence BP. Moreover, SCI and OP jointly mediate the DT–BP relationship, highlighting that digital technologies create value only when integrated into coordinated processes and operational routines. The study underscores that DT should be managed as a strategic transformation aligning technology, operations, and interorganizational collaboration. For port managers, strengthening digital connectivity across internal and external networks, supported by governance and incentive mechanisms, is essential to enhance visibility, responsiveness, and resilience. Theoretically, this research advances DCT by demonstrating how DT functions as a reconfiguring capability realized through SCI and OP, providing empirical insights from developing-country port contexts. Full article

Ensuring product quality and safety is fundamental to sustainable production and consumption. With the rapid advancement of digital technologies such as blockchain and big data, quality and safety traceability systems have become essential tools to enhance transparency, accountability, and governance efficiency across supply chains. The sustainable functioning of these systems, however, depends on the coordinated actions of multiple stakeholders—including governments, enterprises, consumers, and industry associations—making the study of technological and institutional interactions particularly significant. This paper extends evolutionary game theory to the context of technology-enabled sustainable governance by constructing a tripartite game model involving government regulators, traceability enterprises, and consumers from both technological and institutional perspectives. Unlike existing studies, which focused solely on government regulation, this research explicitly incorporates the role of industry associations in shaping stakeholder behavior and integrates consumer rights protection mechanisms as well as the adoption of emerging technologies such as blockchain into the model. Analytical derivations and MATLAB-based simulations reveal that strengthening reward–penalty mechanisms and improving digital maturity significantly enhance enterprises’ incentives for truthful information disclosure; consumers’ verification and reporting behaviors generate bottom-up pressure that encourages stricter governmental supervision; and active participation of industry associations helps share regulatory costs and stabilize cooperative equilibria. These findings suggest that combining technological innovation with institutional collaboration not only improves transparency and strengthens consumer trust but also reshapes the incentive structures underlying traceability governance. The study provides new insights into how multi-stakeholder coordination and technological adoption jointly foster transparent, credible, and resilient traceability systems, offering practical implications for advancing digital transformation and co-governance in sustainable supply chains. Full article