International Journal of Business and Management, Issue: Vol.21, No.5

Green Supply Chain Management Practices and Competitive Advantage: Evidence from Emerging-Market Firms

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 06:53:07 +0000

The demands of competitive advantage are a growing force in the enterprises, especially in emerging markets where the expectations of industry, resources and regulations are rapidly changing. From the context of green procurement, green logistics and recyclability, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices can provide companies with opportunities to optimize operational performances, boost their brand value and realize long-term benefits. Even though there is an increasing number of people interested in adopting GSCM practices, the empirical evidence remains fragmented and underdeveloped confirming the effectiveness of GSCM in emerging market contexts. This study reviewed 50+ peer-reviewed articles that were published from 2018 to 2026 systematically, to discuss the relationship between GSCM practices and firm competitiveness. Articles were first selected through a structured literature review methodology and following that, filtered to be of interest and methodological quality and to target articles on emerging-market firms. Overall, the results show that green procurement and eco-logistics are a profitable practice that always improves competitive advantage, both through the reduction of costs, enhancement of supply chain efficiency and the indication to the stakeholders that the company is responsible. Operational effectiveness and compliance are also in part addressed by waste reduction efforts, but limited by financial, technical and/or organizational barriers. Cost reduction and brand reputation were selected as key mediators that are reinforced by the impact of the practices of GSCM to increased competitiveness. This synthesis gives useful guidance to managers needing to strategically manage sustainable supply chains and identifies opportunities to develop further research, such as cross-country comparisons, service-sector applications, and longitudinal analyses. The study adds value to both theory and practice because of its ability to synthesize the existing knowledge on GSCM in emerging markets and providing evidence-based guidance for harnessing sustainability as a competitive advantage.

Balancing Freedom of Expression and Public Morality: An Analysis of the Regulation of Entertainment Media in Public Transport in Tanzania

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 11:17:50 +0000

Audio-visual entertainment systems have become increasingly common in public transport, with buses and minibuses frequently equipped with such systems to provide passengers with entertainment during journeys. However, concerns have emerged regarding the nature of content broadcast through these platforms. In some cases, material may include indecent language, imagery, or themes that are unsuitable for a diverse audience, including children and families. This raises important ethical questions about the protection of public morality and the regulation of content in shared spaces. This paper examines the need to balance the right to freedom of expression in entertainment with the obligation to uphold public decency in public transport environments. It explores the potential effects of repeated exposure to such content on social values, behaviour, passenger dignity, and overall comfort. It also evaluates whether existing regulatory frameworks governing public transport, broadcasting, and media content adequately address this issue. The study adopts a mixedmethods approach, involving analysis of relevant legislation, guidelines, and academic literature on public morality, media regulation, and audio-visual content in shared environments, as well as consideration of passenger and transport operator perspectives. Findings suggest that while in-vehicle entertainment can enhance the passenger experience, unrestricted exposure to inappropriate content may negatively affect societal moral standards. The study therefore recommends the introduction and effective enforcement of stricter regulations governing content in public transport, supported by interagency collaboration between media content and transport regulators to ensure compliance. It further proposes clear guidelines on unacceptable material and increased awareness among transport operators regarding their responsibilities.

From Sustainability Storytelling to Verified Impact: A Case Study of Tentree

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 07:04:39 +0000

Sustainable apparel brands increasingly employ environmental claims to differentiate themselves in markets shaped by climate concern, consumer skepticism, and heightened scrutiny of greenwashing. Nature-based claims, particularly tree planting and ecosystem restoration, are attractive because they are tangible, emotionally resonant, and easy to communicate. However, the number of trees planted does not, by itself, demonstrate durable climate, biodiversity, or community outcomes. This article examines how sustainable apparel brands can move nature-based sustainability claims from activity-based storytelling to verified impact reporting. It uses a conceptual, illustrative case-based analysis of Tentree, a Canadian sustainable apparel brand, drawing on literature on sustainable fashion, greenwashing, consumer trust, nature-based solutions, and sustainability assurance. The analysis identifies five requirements for credible nature-based claims: clear claim definition, transparent evidence, independent verification and assurance, outcome-based reporting, and accountability for limitations and risks. Tentree’s 2024 Impact Report demonstrates meaningful progress through specific tree-planting figures, restoration partnerships, sustainability certifications, carbon-footprint reporting, material traceability, and emerging nature-related disclosure commitments. The case also indicates that future credibility could be strengthened through consistent project-level disclosure of survival rates, carbon and biodiversity outcomes, evidence of additionality, leakage-risk assessment, and corrective actions for restoration projects that underperform. The article contributes to sustainable marketing and corporate sustainability literature by distinguishing activity-based claims from outcome-based impact reporting and by offering practical guidance for more transparent, verified sustainability communication.

The Mechanisms of Digital Transformation in State-Owned Enterprises: An Empirical Study

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:16:40 +0000

The paper focuses on the digitalization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in two interrelated spheres, which are the systems of organization and the dynamism of change. To investigate the effect of leadership commitment, digital infrastructure, and organizational agility on the outcome of transformation, a structural equation model (SEM) is formulated. This model is built upon the responses to a survey conducted with 120 Chinese SOEs working within the manufacturing, energy and transportation sectors. The results suggest that the effectiveness of the transformation depends on the direct and indirect effects of the leadership commitment when the digital infrastructure is implemented. Organizational agility positively moderates the relationship between digital infrastructure and transformation outcomes. To capture the temporal dynamics of digital transformation, a system dynamics (SD) model is presented, in which long-term consequences of digital investment on company performance may be simulated. As the results of the simulation show, the benefits of digital investment do have the qualities of being delayed, accumulative and non-linear. Although short-term gains remain limited, the benefits become increasingly evident over time as digital capabilities accumulate. Through this combination of SEM and SD, the study reveals the internal organizational mechanisms and evolutionary logic underlying the digital transformation of SOEs.

Administrative Leadership and Organizational Change in Transitional Economies: A Conceptual Framework and Testable Propositions

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:23:33 +0000

Sequenced change management models were developed in institutional settings characterised by stable rules, reliable formal authority, and workforce continuity across the change horizon. Transitional economies satisfy none of these conditions, yet the models are widely transposed into them. This article asks what organizational capability substitutes for stage sequencing when the sequence cannot be sustained, and locates the answer in the administrative layer. It develops an Administrative Change Leadership Framework comprising structural continuity management, cross-institutional coordination, adaptive knowledge management, and strategic communication for change legitimacy. Each component is theoretically mapped to a specific institutional deficiency identified in the literature on post-socialist institutional transition, rather than presented as a general administrative virtue. Digital transformation is treated not as a separate topic but as a cross-cutting condition that intensifies each deficiency, principally by generating parallel analogue and digital operating states that regulatory lag prevents organizations from resolving. The framework’s unifying logic is decoupling: each component relocates change capability from a linear sequence carried by individuals into durable structures and artefacts that survive institutional flux and personnel displacement. The article is conceptual. It advances five propositions for empirical testing, specifies the research designs required to test them, and supplies operational instruments for recruitment screening and authority design derived from the framework.

Not My Fault: Exploring Neutralization Strategies Behind Employee Misconduct

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:34:51 +0000

This study examines the rationalization techniques employed by employees to justify workplace misconduct, revealing significant insights into their psychological processes. The findings indicate that Denial of Responsibility and Denial of Injury are the most commonly used strategies, allowing employees to distance themselves from their actions by attributing blame to external factors or minimizing the impact of their behavior. Additionally, moderate utilization of Denial of Victim and Appeal to Higher Authority suggests that some employees engage in a complex rationalization process, shifting blame onto others or framing their actions as serving a greater purpose. The reported misconduct behaviors—ranging from dishonesty to aggression—are accompanied by emotional responses like guilt and entitlement, reinforcing the use of rationalization to maintain a favorable self-image. Notably, the absence of techniques such as Condemnation of the Condemner indicates that certain rationalizations may be influenced by organizational culture. These findings highlight the interplay between individual choices, corporate environments, and cultural contexts in workplace deviance. By understanding these mechanisms, organizations can develop more effective interventions and foster a culture that promotes ethical behavior and accountability.

From Worship to Public Responsibility: Church Management, Civic Formation, and Environmental Sustainability in Ghana

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:39:52 +0000

Christianity has extensive demographic and institutional reach in Ghana, yet Christian affiliation does not automatically produce lawful, ethical, environmentally responsible, or digitally civil conduct. This conceptual article asks how church management can translate worship and discipleship into public responsibility without displacing state authority or compromising religious pluralism. It combines a critical integrative review, document analysis, and an explicit framework-building procedure. A corpus of 56 scholarly, legal, policy, and official sources was coded across theology, organisational governance, behavioural formation, civic practice, digital safety, and sustainability. Cross-source convergence, negative-case testing, mechanism mapping, and boundary testing generated six synthesised propositions concerning institutional credibility, behavioural specificity, capability, social reinforcement, public partnership, and outcome learning. These propositions are conceptual hypotheses rather than effects established from primary data. The resulting Ecclesial Civic Transformation Framework distinguishes internal formative translation, which converts doctrine into curriculum, policy, and practice, from external public justification, which expresses faith-motivated claims through evidence, rights, law, and reasons accessible in plural settings. It also incorporates capacity-adaptive role allocation and concrete controls for malicious reporting, partisan capture, resistance, confidentiality breaches, partner failure, and measurement misuse. The article reframes church management as enacted public theology and offers a testable architecture for congregational civic and environmental formation in Ghana.

The Role of Leadership and Organizational Factors in Driving Digital Transformation Success in the Public Sector of Lesotho

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 05:42:05 +0000

Digital transformation has become a strategic priority for public sector institutions seeking to enhance service delivery, operational efficiency, transparency, and citizen engagement. However, empirical evidence on the organizational and leadership determinants of digital transformation success in a developing country’s context remains quite limited. This study therefore examines the relationship among organizational openness, collaboration, employee engagement, leadership support, leadership communication, employee involvement, training, and digital transformation success within Lesotho’s public sector. A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected through a structured survey administered to Lesotho’s public sector employees. The study utilized Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze both the measurement and structural models. The results indicate that leadership support, employee involvement, and training are positively and significantly associated with digital transformation success. However, employee engagement and leadership communication also demonstrate significant associations, but in a negative direction. Organizational openness and collaboration do not show statistically significant relationships. The model explains 19% of the variance in digital transformation success, indicating weak to moderate explanatory power, with all predictors demonstrating small effect sizes. The findings suggest that digital transformation in Lesotho’s public sector is primarily leadership-driven and capability-based, while engagement and communication dynamics require careful management to avoid unintended negative outcomes. The study contributes to digital transformation and change management literature by providing empirical evidence from a developing-country’s public sector context and offers practical recommendations for policymakers and institutional leaders.

Tracking Transparency: Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance Reporting in Canada’s Leading Food Chains

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:48:28 +0000

The food industry in Canada faces many challenges, ranging from labor shortages to fluctuating prices and food safety, compounded by pressures related to climate change, market volatility, and growing sustainability requirements. In this constantly changing environment, companies in this industry must adapt their practices to ensure rigorous performance management and monitoring. This includes consideration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) regarding the economic, environmental, and social impacts of their actions. In that sense, this study examines how Canada's three largest food grocery chains - Sobeys, Metro, and Loblaw - measure and disclose their performance by analyzing the indicators presented in their various reports during the period of historic high inflation in food products for 2022 and 2023. Drawing on the neo-institutional and stakeholder theories, the study employs a qualitative content analysis of performance indicators disclosed in reports. The findings reveal both convergence and divergence in disclosure practices among the three chains. They use a variety of indicators covering several dimensions of performance and place particular emphasis on CSR issues, revealing a certain mimetic behavior in their performance measurement practices. One of the food chains differs from the other two in that it publishes no indicators on cybersecurity and food safety, and more indicators on sustainable sourcing. This study contributes to the literature on performance measurement and CSR disclosure in the food retail sector by providing insights into the indicators prioritized by the three major Canadian grocery chains and highlighting how they disclose performance to various stakeholders, including customers, during a period of economic uncertainty.

From Access to Absorption: Institutional Learning Capacity and the Uneven Green-Technology Transition of Small-Firm Economies in Emerging and Peripheral European Markets

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 03:02:06 +0000

Why do national and regional economies dominated by small firms differ so sharply in their capacity to absorb clean and energy-efficient technologies, even when subsidies, equipment prices, and decarbonization targets are broadly harmonized across borders? This paper shifts the level of analysis from the individual enterprise to the institutional learning system in which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are embedded. It argues that the green-technology transition of a small-firm economy is not the arithmetic sum of individual investment decisions but an emergent property of institutional learning capacity-the mutually reinforcing fit among certification and standards regimes, applied-skills formation, patient and blended finance, and the administrative quality of environmental regulation. Drawing on the varieties-of-capitalism tradition, evolutionary and institutional economics, and the absorptive-capacity view of the firm, the paper develops a learning-absorption framework and applies it comparatively to emerging and peripheral European economies (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, and the Western Balkans). It contends that where learning-supporting institutions co-evolve, individual firm-level absorptive constraints are relaxed at the population level; where they do not, public subsidy of any single instrument yields disappointing returns because the binding constraint lies elsewhere. The paper contributes to sustainability and development studies by reframing the "green divide" between peripheral economies as an absorptive-capacity gap, and it closes with implications for sequencing transition policy and an agenda for comparative empirical research.

Linking Environmental Scanning to Service Delivery: The Mediating Role of Operational Effectiveness in Selected Private Hospitals in Kisumu County, Kenya

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 04:46:37 +0000

Environmental scanning enables organizations to monitor and interpret internal and external environmental changes to support strategic decision-making and enhance service delivery. Operational effectiveness translates strategic decisions into improved service delivery through efficient resource utilization, continuous process improvement, innovation, and high-quality healthcare services. Despite evidence linking environmental scanning, operational performance, and service delivery, limited empirical research has examined the mediating role of operational effectiveness in private healthcare settings in Kenya. This study determined the mediating role of operational effectiveness in the relationship between environmental scanning and service delivery among selected private hospitals in Kisumu County, Kenya. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 449 respondents selected through consecutive sampling from two private hospitals. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 30. Descriptive statistics, simple linear regression, multiple regression, and Hayes PROCESS Macro mediation analysis with 5,000 bootstrap samples were performed. Respondents reported high levels of environmental scanning (mean = 4.09, SD = 0.72), operational effectiveness (mean = 4.17, SD = 0.64), and service delivery (mean = 4.26, SD = 0.62). Environmental scanning significantly predicted service delivery (β = 0.548, p < 0.001) and operational effectiveness (β = 0.72, p < 0.001), while operational effectiveness significantly predicted service delivery (β = 0.61, p < 0.001). The indirect effect of environmental scanning on service delivery through operational effectiveness was significant (β = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.35-0.53), confirming partial mediation. In conclusion, operational effectiveness significantly and partially mediates the relationship between environmental scanning and service delivery among private hospitals.

Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Influence ESG Performance? Evidence from European Banking Sector

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 05:01:42 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the European banking sector and then to investigate the moderating influence of board gender diversity (BGD) on this relationship. We analyzed a sample of 113 European Union banks for the period 2016-2024 and we developed an econometric model applying a dynamic panel data regression analysis (generalized Method of Moments – GMM System) on 1,017 bank-year observations. To test research hypotheses, we considered BGD in terms of female participation on the board of directors and we measured ESG dimensions by using the ESG score provided by LSEG Refinitiv. The results highlight that EPU affects the ESG performance of European banks and specifically, demonstrate that EPU reduces the overall ESG score. EPU also declines governance and environmental engagements but enhances the social activities to dampen uncertainty during periods of high EPU. This study also suggests that the presence of women on board mitigate these negative effects since the influence of EPU on overall ESG performance is positive in this circumstance. The investigation is highly relevant for regulators, policymakers, potential investors, managers and other stakeholders who are interested in improving the ESG performance of banks under different uncertainties. In this regard, the study represents a significant avenue for future research, with relevant implications for both theory and practice. Our study significantly contributes to the existing literature on the relationship between EPU and ESG in developed countries such as the European context. In this regard, our research is the first that offers insights about the influence of the EPU on ESG performance in the European banking sector.

Temporal Entrainment of Leadership and Cultural Emergence in Healthcare Complex Adaptive Systems: A Study Protocol

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 23:32:35 +0000

Problem Statement: Organisational change research has largely treated time as linear and homogeneous, ignoring the rhythmic, socially constructed nature of temporal processes. In healthcare, multiple overlapping rhythms (shift cycles, patient flows, reporting deadlines) create complex temporal landscapes. The degree to which leadership behaviours align with existing cultural rhythms may determine the success or failure of transformation, yet this mechanism remains unexplored. This protocol describes a planned longitudinal investigation designed to address this gap.

Aims: This study protocol aims to examine whether leadership-cultural entrainment, the degree of temporal coordination between leadership behaviours and culture emergence, predicts transformation outcomes in a healthcare Complex Adaptive System (CAS). The study tests five hypotheses about entrainment measurement, entrainment-outcome relationships, mis-entrainment consequences, critical windows for intervention timing, and entrainment evolution over time.

Methods: We will implement a 24-month longitudinal time-series design in a Malaysian private healthcare organisation (n = 200 staff). We will administer the MLQ-5X and OCAI every 8 months (4 waves). We will collect temporal rhythm diaries during two-week periods preceding each wave. Semi-structured interviews (n = 30 per wave, approximately 120 total) will capture perceived changes in rhythm. Spectral analysis, wavelet transform, and phase synchronisation analysis will identify entrainment patterns, with cross-correlation and Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPM) serving as primary analytical techniques for the four-wave data.

Anticipated Findings: Higher leadership-cultural entrainment (phase synchronisation, periodicity matching) is expected to predict greater cultural adaptability. The 8-month measurement cadence is designed to align with natural entrainment points (e.g., strategic planning cycles), enabling the detection of critical windows when interventions produce amplified effects. Miss-entrainment is expected to generate resistance and change fatigue.

Conclusion: This protocol proposes temporal entrainment as a CAS mechanism linking leadership to cultural emergence. If the hypothesised relationships are supported, developing temporal leadership competencies may improve transformation outcomes in complex healthcare environments. The planned empirical investigation will provide the longitudinal test of these propositions.