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Sustainability
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Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age
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Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 12478

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yongjian Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
Interests: supply chain management; platform economy and operation management; system optimization and decision analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Fangchao Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
Interests: supply chain management; sustainable operations management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is seeking submissions for a Special Issue on Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age. Sustainable operations management has become an important development trend that has received a great deal of attention from both business practice and academics. Sustainable operations management is a commercial system pursuing social, economic and environmental objectives within the operations of a specific firm as well as operational linkages that extend beyond the firm to include the supply chain and communities (Walker et al., 2014).

Many exciting technological developments are transforming the ways in which businesses organizations source, manufacture, transport and sell, including but not limited to blockchains, additive manufacturing, the Internet of things, autonomy, and artificial intelligence. Each of these areas has profound implications for environmental—and especially social—dimensions of sustainability (Atasu et al., 2020). The digital age presents immense opportunities for the academic research field of sustainable operations management.

This Special Issue welcomes papers focusing on recent frontiers in sustainable operations management, with an emphasis on real-world motivated cases. The methodologies may include: (i) case studies; (ii) surveys; (iii) the use of secondary and archival data; (iv) experiments; (v) analytical modeling; and (vi) big data analytics. Papers may touch on a range of themes, including but not limited to the following:

(1) Best commercial practices and case studies in sustainable operations management;

(2) Empirical studies of business practices and performance in sustainable operations management;

(3) Literature review on emerging issues in sustainable operations management;

(4) Implementation risk and benefit of adopting digital technologies in sustainable operations management;

(5) Decisions and optimizations in sustainable operations management;

(6) Sharing economy in sustainable operations management;

(7) Information sharing in sustainable operations management;

(8) Commercial ecosystems in sustainable operations management;

(9) Investigation of how digital technologies help SMEs improve their sustainable operations management.

Prof. Dr. Yongjian Li
Dr. Fangchao Xu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable operations management
  • circular economy
  • green supply chain management
  • digital technology

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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21 pages, 1125 KiB  
Article
Remanufacturing Operations in Different Financial Ownership Structures with Consideration of the Upwards Supplier
by Xin Lu, Fangchao Xu and Fan Qin
Sustainability 2024, 16(8), 3199; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16083199 - 11 Apr 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 925
Abstract
Under the increasing environmental pressure, remanufacturing has increasingly become a new mode of recycling economy and upgrading and transforming the equipment manufacturing industry. Some enterprises include remanufacturing businesses in the original production system by holding or controlling shares in other remanufacturing enterprises. This [...] Read more.
Under the increasing environmental pressure, remanufacturing has increasingly become a new mode of recycling economy and upgrading and transforming the equipment manufacturing industry. Some enterprises include remanufacturing businesses in the original production system by holding or controlling shares in other remanufacturing enterprises. This paper builds a two-echelon supply chain model composed of a supplier, a manufacturer, and a remanufacturer, considering the different ownership structures (i.e., shareholding and share-controlling) between them, in which the supplier sells non-remanufacturable parts to the manufacturer and the remanufacturer. At the same time, the optimal decisions of each firm are considered. The results show that for the manufacturer, a higher shareholding ratio means that it can obtain more profits. For the supplier, the impact of the shareholding ratio depends on the manufacturing cost. When the manufacturing cost is relatively low, the stock sharing relationship between the manufacturer and the remanufacturer will decrease the supplier’s profit. When the manufacturing cost is relatively high, it will depend on the shareholding ratio. In the case of shareholding between the manufacturer and the remanufacturer, a higher shareholding ratio will decrease the supplier’s profit. From the perspective of the supply chain, when the production cost is high enough, the supply chain’s profit decreases first and then increases with the shareholding ratio. Furthermore, the increase in the manufacturer’s shareholding in remanufacturing does not always improve the remanufacturing proportion of products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age)
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14 pages, 2026 KiB  
Article
A Business Strategy Framework for Patent Pooling in the Solar Cell Supply Chain
by Shuo-Min Lee, Jen-Shyang Chen, Chien-Lin Hsu and Chi-Cheng Chang
Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15573; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115573 - 2 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1328
Abstract
In the green energy sector, which includes the solar cell industry, effectively combining the patents of various manufacturers within the supply chain to collectively create sustainable patent market value is of paramount importance. This study aimed to establish a business strategy framework for [...] Read more.
In the green energy sector, which includes the solar cell industry, effectively combining the patents of various manufacturers within the supply chain to collectively create sustainable patent market value is of paramount importance. This study aimed to establish a business strategy framework for project-based licensing through the analysis of solar cell patents and the integration of supply chain manufacturers’ patents, with the goal of collectively creating market value for patents in a sustainable manner. The research methodology included analysis of the literature and focus group discussions. The study began with an analysis of solar cell industry patents from the past decade using the WIPS Global Patent database to identify projects with the highest patent count. Subsequently, through the use of focus group discussions, the feasibility of a patent pool strategy within the supply chain was explored. Finally, a strategy framework was proposed for project-based patent pool licensing, focusing on the top 15 projects with the highest count of 5579 patents. The results indicate that adopting this strategy framework for supply chain manufacturer patents can result in higher commercial patent value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age)
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24 pages, 4602 KiB  
Article
Digital Maturity Assessment Model for the Organizational and Process Dimensions
by Agnieszka A. Tubis
Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 15122; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152015122 - 21 Oct 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5302
Abstract
(1) Background: Ongoing research indicates that it is reasonable to separate a company’s digital maturity assessment by relating it to organization and process levels. The lack of such models in the literature should be considered a research gap. This article aims to present [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Ongoing research indicates that it is reasonable to separate a company’s digital maturity assessment by relating it to organization and process levels. The lack of such models in the literature should be considered a research gap. This article aims to present a model framework for assessing enterprise digital maturity that considers two dimensions—organizational and process. The organizational dimension reflects the overall level of digital transformation and refers to the implemented concepts, solutions, and management tools covering the entire enterprise structure. The process dimension focuses on the level of operational divisions. (2) Methods: Analyses were conducted according to the developed research procedure, which included five steps. The research used the following methods: a critical literature analysis, an analysis of the obtained results and their synthesis for the formulated model, and verification and validation of the developed assessment tool and procedure in a selected enterprise based on interviews with managers and direct observations. (3) Results: Based on the literature review, eleven digital maturity areas of the model were defined, and five levels of assessment were formulated for each area. A diagnostic tool for enterprise self-assessment consisting of 105 questions was also developed. (4) Conclusions: The developed model was positively reviewed by the managers of the assessment team that audited the selected enterprise based on it. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age)
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22 pages, 1024 KiB  
Article
A Study on the Mechanism of Digital Technology’s Impact on the Green Transformation of Enterprises: Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior Approach
by Yi Gao and Yinkai Tang
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11854; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511854 - 1 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2009
Abstract
With the rapid development of the digital economy and the continuous improvement of the digital capabilities of enterprises, relying on digital technology (DT) to achieve green transformation (GT) has become the future development direction of enterprises. Based on the theory of planned behavior [...] Read more.
With the rapid development of the digital economy and the continuous improvement of the digital capabilities of enterprises, relying on digital technology (DT) to achieve green transformation (GT) has become the future development direction of enterprises. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper constructs a theoretical model of DT to determine the impact mechanism of corporate GT and empirically tests the research model using a structural equation model (SEM). The analysis of microdata from 406 manufacturing firms in China shows that DT has a positive contribution to corporate GT. DT mainly affects the intention of enterprises to pursue GT indirectly by influencing the perceived behavioral control for GT and thus, ultimately, the GT of enterprises. This paper reveals the model and mechanism of corporate GT through DT, which has important implications for relevant theoretical research and policy formulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age)
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16 pages, 2063 KiB  
Article
Data-Driven Sustainable Supply Chain Decision Making in the Presence of Low Carbon Awareness
by Xiaojiao Qiao, Shimeng Xu, Dan Shi and Xiukun Zhao
Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9576; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129576 - 14 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1834
Abstract
Low-carbon production is a vital solution for many environmental problems, as is consumers’ consciousness about carbon playing a more important role and ultimately passing upstream. Supply chains are eager to seek sustainable development via appropriate decision making with data-driven methods. Consistent with this [...] Read more.
Low-carbon production is a vital solution for many environmental problems, as is consumers’ consciousness about carbon playing a more important role and ultimately passing upstream. Supply chains are eager to seek sustainable development via appropriate decision making with data-driven methods. Consistent with this aim, we investigated decisions toward lower carbon efforts and prices in a two-echelon supply chain via a game theoretical approach. The decision-making scenarios of decentralized, centralized, and cost-sharing contracts were investigated and compared. The results show that the level of improvement in environmental performance is positively correlated with the degree of cooperation between partners. Cooperation between partners would be even more significant with an increase in consumers’ low carbon awareness. Furthermore, cost-sharing contracts improve the performance of the entire supply chain compared with decentralized cases. Finally, we implemented numerical experiments to verify the modeling results. Therefore, this study provides theoretical support toward sustainable operations for supply chains concerning low carbon awareness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Operations Management in the Digital Age)
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