Technological Innovation and Circular Economy Practices: Business Strategies to Mitigate the Effects of COVID-19

Does circular economy affect environmental performance? The mediating role of sustainable supply chain management: the case study in China

Governments and professionals have recently tried to improve public environmental knowledge and laws in order to meet growing environmental concerns. As a result, most nations see corporate environmental initiatives like the circular economy and the green supply chain as important (GSCM) as the best ways to address environmental problems. As a result, this study tries to show how important GSCM and the circular economy are regarding the economy of China's relationship to environmental sustainability. This study uses the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) on data to obtain trustworthy results from 387 Chinese manufacturing companies. A favorable and statistically significant correlation between GSCM, environmental performance, and the circular economy was revealed using PLS-SEM analysis. To raise environmental standards, eco-friendly methods like buying and designing green items are widely regarded today. Imagine if manufacturing companies adopt green supply chain management, which would improve their economic performance and increase operational effectiveness. The secret to a successful corporation is having successful operations.

Does Psychological crisis matter for college students: Role of digitalization and employment

This paper aims to describe the psychological crisis's impact on college students in China. The present study has investigated the impact of the usage of digitalization, psychological crisis, employment and age on the college student in China. The study used annual time series data from 2005 to 2020 from provinces in China. This study adopts the Cup-FM test to estimate the long-term association between the variables. The study applied Cup-BC and by-FM estimations to calculate robust and reliable outcomes. The findings show that usage of digitalization and psychological crisis negatively impact college students, whereas employment and age positively impact the college student. Moreover, the result of the interaction term psychological crisis on the usage of digitalization, employment and age has positively impacted college students. The estimated results also provide important policy implications for the China region in designing an appropriate way forward for college students.

The digital economy and the green and high-quality development of the industry-a study on the mechanism of action and regional heterogeneity

Consistently rising carbon emissions in the global economy make it more challenging to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Knowing what factors play a role is essential to help shape strategies to reduce carbon emissions. While there is a wealth of material on how GDP expansion correlates with increases in carbon emissions, little is known about how democracy and renewable energy could improve environmental conditions in developing nations. The purpose of this article was to use fair data to assess the effect of renewable energy and green technology advances on carbon neutrality in 23 provinces across China from 2005 to 2020. The research used the dynamic ordinary least square, the fully modified ordinary least square, and the two-step GMM to determine that digitalization, industrial development, and health expenditures result in lower carbon emissions. Urbanization, tourism, and per capita income in certain Chinese provinces also drove carbon emissions. The study also showed that the impact of these factors on carbon emissions varies depending on the amount of economic growth. Environmental pollution is reduced due to the digitalization of tourist and healthcare costs, industrial development, and urbanization. According to the study's findings, we advise these nations to seek economic growth and invest in health care and renewable energy initiatives.

Circular Economy Research in the COVID-19 Era: a Review and the Road Ahead

The onset of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a major crisis that has severely impacted numerous economic, environmental, and social aspects of human life. During the pandemic, the potential of the circular economy (CE) has gained increasing attention as a prospective remedy for numerous sustainability problems. This systematic literature review charts CE research in the COVID-19 era. To this end, 160 journal articles were selected from the Scopus database. The performance indicators of the literature were determined and described through a bibliometric analysis. Moreover, the conceptual structure of CE research was identified via a keyword co-occurrence network. Based on bibliographic coupling, the focus of CE research in the COVID-19 era revolves mainly around five thematic areas, including: (1) waste management; (2) digitalization and sustainable supply chain management; (3) the impact of COVID-19 on food systems; (4) sustainable development goals, smart cities, and bioeconomy; and (5) closed-loop supply chains. Overall, this review contributes to enriching the literature by determining the main thematic areas and future research directions that can help to advance the transition to the CE and reduce the impact of COVID-19 and similar disasters in the future.

Fostering the Circular Economy with Blockchain Technology: Insights from a Bibliometric Approach

The circular economy is an emerging paradigm with important economic, environmental, and societal implications. As the world faces such paradigm shifts, new and radical technologies are urgently needed to enable it; blockchain technology can assist to accomplish the aforementioned circular economy shift given its decentralization and distributiveness principles as well as its smart contract capability. This study represents one of the first attempts to analyze those academic research domains together adopting a science mapping technique. By adopting such approach, the study envisages research challenges, highlights important research gaps, and proposes future paths in the blockchain and circular economy fields. Among the others, key findings show that blockchain technology as a tool for promoting the circular economy has been extensively researched at the micro (i.e., firm) and meso levels (i.e., supply chain) more effort on how blockchain can support the development of circular smart cites and measurement tools for providing information to stakeholders and assisting in policy creation expresses the greatest potential in terms of novel research. Moreover, the research suggests that another possible stream of research might be dealing on how blockchain together with physical technologies (e.g., 3D printing, RFID), can support the transition towards the circular economy.

Does COVID-19 impact on financial markets of China-evidence from during and pre-COVID-19 outbreak

During the outbreak of COVID-19, concern significantly influenced our financial system. This new paper's primary assessment of the COVID-19 virus affects the world's major economies and financial markets. This paper utilizes an event analysis approach and a data model to investigate the influence of COVID-19 on the financial market system from three viewpoints: (1) supply chain finance and titles, (2) processing system, and (3) the financial system of the organization. According to data analysis, the model built in this work may properly depict the influence of COVID-19 on the financial market system. The results indicated that the low age coefficient (p-value (p 0.05)) and a higher blocking condition (p-value (p > 0.05)) impact city tourism market system with p-values of 0.002 and 0.004, respectively. Other results show the impact of the Chinese New Year vacations. Since then, the government has slowly stabilized its recovery, with many measures taken to limit the epidemic in February and a series of regulatory measures enacted to stabilize financial markets. These findings show a small but statistically significant degree of stabilization in international financial markets in response to stay-at-home government policies and social distancing measures, which is encouraging for political actors concerned about economic performance during the coronavirus 2019 pandemic response.

Innovation and organizational performance: A perspective among Chinese enterprises

The influence of innovation on the performance of Chinese enterprises still remains inconclusive in the literature of innovation management. The aim of this research therefore is to examine the link between innovation and performance of Chinese enterprises, and explore the influence of sentiment expressed by investors in this relationship. The data for our study are drawn from 3,500 Chinese listed firms, operating within the periods, 2009-2017. Panel autoregressive models (fixed and random effects) are employed in our empirical analyses. We further performed Hausman tests in order to ascertain which of the models is more suitable for our dataset. Results from the analysis show that innovation significantly influences the performance of Chinese enterprises and it is moderated by sentiment expressed by investors. Specifically, it is found that Chinese enterprises tend to be innovative as feedback to sentiment expressed by investors and this consequently results in higher performance.

Waste management and green technology: future trends in circular economy leading towards environmental sustainability

The effective treatment of waste to be used as a resource in future has a major role in achieving environmental sustainability and moving towards circular economy. The current research is aimed to provide in-depth detail regarding prominent trends and research themes, evolution, future research orientation, main characteristics, and mapping of research publications on waste management, technological innovation in circular economy domain from the year 2000 to 2021. Different analyses including text mining and bibliometric and content analyses were applied to answer the research question and provide the details on aforementioned variables. From the bibliometric analyses, a total of 1118 articles were drawn out from the Scopus database to conceptualize the core body of research. As a result, the following themes were identified: electronic waste, circular economy transition, plastic waste, bio-based waste management, lifecycle assessment, and ecological impacts, and construction and demolition waste management. The highlighted features, future research orientation, and prominent research perspective can provide guideline for future research to enrich the literature through conducting studies on provided research directions and help lead waste management and technological innovation policymakers, professionals, and practitioners in moving towards circular transition.

Was the European oil industry prepared for the current global crisis?

The paper focuses on the impact of the complex global crisis on the European oil industry. The main objective of the research is to define, implement and validate a model able to quantify the developments and risks faced by this industry at European level. In order to achieve this objective, dynamic statistical analysis takes into account specific indicators of production, demand and actual consumption over a significant period of time. Special attention is given to the impact of the pandemic on this industry. The analysis takes into consideration the latest official statistical data and is connected to the most important global trends in the oil industry. The main result of this scientific approach is the building of a pertinent instrument/model able to assist the decision-makers in calibrating the European oil industry to global market requirements and developments. By using this tool, key elements of energy policy can be identified that can bring valuable clarifications in the context of the industry's new orientations towards green energy and the reduction of polluting fuels.

The future of industry 4.0 and the circular economy in Chinese supply chain: In the Era of post-COVID-19 pandemic

The demand for new productive factors is increasingly required, exacerbated in a scenario in which a linear economy prevails. The circular economy (CE) adoption is a proposal to guarantee environmental sustainability and redirect an obsolete process such as the linear economy. Thus, one of the main factors that allow achieving sustainability is Industry 4.0 (I4.0). In addition, the research aims to evaluate the role of I4.0 during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The literature review process defines ten future projections with potential for the CE's adoption. The two-round Delphi approach was developed with 54 CE experts to evaluate the projections. In both rounds, the probability of occurrence up to 2030, its impact on the CE and its desirability were evaluated. Likewise, the qualitative criteria of the experts were coded to evaluate the projections. From the ten projections, four are those with the highest probability of occurrence (EP > 70%), with high impact (I > 3.5) and desirability of occurrence (I > 3.5). Expert evaluations make it possible to identify that Industry 4.0 and the digital skills of workers, their financing, and the efficiency of Government policies have a high probability of occurrence in the adoption of the CE in 2030. This research responds to the special call of papers providing evidence favouring the implementation of I4.0 in the CE from a holistic approach to draw a roadmap towards adopting the CE practices.

Modeling and Analyzing the Impact of the Internet of Things-Based Industry 4.0 on Circular Economy Practices for Sustainable Development: Evidence From the Food Processing Industry of China

The Industry 4.0 concept proposes that new cutting-edge technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), will grow. The acceptance of IoT in the circular economy (CE) is still in its infancy, despite its enormous potential. In the face of growing environmental affairs, IoT based Industry 4.0 technologies are altering CE practices and existing business models, according to the World Economic Forum. This research investigates the function of IoT-based Industry 4.0 in circular CE practices, as well as their impact on economic and environmental performance, which in turn influences overall organizational performance. China-based enterprises provide information for the study, which includes data from 300 companies. Utilizing a structural equation modeling framework known as partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The major findings are presented in the study: (I) the IoT significantly improves the activities of the CE; (II) the IoT significantly improves the practices of the CE; and (III) the IoT meaningfully advances the practices of CE (green manufacturing, circular design, remanufacturing, and recycling). Moreover, the findings shows that environmentally friendly business practices help enhance environmental performance of firm, while also stimulating their economic performance; and improved environmental performance has a significant positive influence on firm performance. This research lays the groundwork for contributing nations/companies to attain economic and long-term sustainability goals at the same time by incorporating IoT-based Industry 4.0 technology into CE practices.

The Effects of Health Crisis on Economic Growth, Health and Movement of Population

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which was triggered in 2019 with oscillating evolution in 2020 and 2021, was a factor that has had dramatic effects on the economic growth of countries worldwide. In the context of the pandemic crisis, population health has deteriorated; education and economic activity in all the countries around the world have been affected. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the special situations that humanity is experiencing as a result of the unprecedented effects that the COVID-19 crisis is having on the socioeconomic evolution. Specific statistical econometric methods (such as analysis of linear correlations, multiple linear regression, analysis based on dynamics indicators, and spectral analysis, comparability based on indices) were applied to highlight the evolution and future prospects of the COVID-19 virus worldwide. The COVID-19 crisis has generated another major issue for mankind, along with global warming and the energy transition, namely, population health. For this reason, in this study, we focused on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on population health in a broader context; the sustained growth of populations in developing countries and aging populations in developed economies.

Technological Revolution and Circular Economy Practices: A Mechanism of Green Economy

Rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 technologies, and circular economy (CE) practices are the prevailing business considerations of the current time, and they are transforming business models. Keeping in view the importance of these considerations, this work looks into the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in adoption of CE practices and the impact of CE practices on firms’ performance. The current study collected data from 213 automotive firms located in Eastern European countries including Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. Using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM), the current study provides some important findings. Firstly, Industry 4.0 technologies significantly enhance circular economy practices. Secondly, circular economy practices are found to be positively related with environmental and operational performance. Lastly, higher economic and operational performance boost organizational performance. Hence, the current study provides deeper understanding regarding performance implications of Industry 4.0 technologies and offers insights about ways of promoting sustainable performance in the current age of digitization.

Impact of Oil Price, Economic Growth and Urbanization on CO2 Emissions in GCC Countries: Asymmetry Analysis

Oil prices and rapidly increasing urbanization could have a long-lasting impact on the environment in oil-abundant Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Therefore, the environmental role of oil price, economic growth, and urbanization on CO2 emissions should be tested. The present study investigates the impact of oil price, economic growth, and urbanization on CO2 emissions in those countries, considering asymmetrical relationships. For this purpose, a nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag cointegration approach is applied in GCC countries during the 1980–2019 period, and cointegration is corroborated in all investigated models. Long-run results show that rising economic growth positively affects CO2 emissions in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Decreasing economic growth positively affects CO2 emissions in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Moreover, the rising oil price has a positive impact on CO2 emissions and shows a scale effect in Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it has a negative effect and corroborates technique and composition effects in Kuwait and the UAE. Further, decreasing oil prices has a positive impact on CO2 emissions in Bahrain and has a negative effect in Kuwait and the UAE. Lastly, urbanization positively affects CO2 emissions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. Economic growth is found asymmetrical in all GCC countries, and the asymmetrical effect of oil price is also observed in all GCC countries except the UAE.

Income Tax for Microenterprises in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study on Ecuador

In this work, we analyze the income tax in Ecuador in 2020, which was affected simultaneously by two factors: the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and the implementation of a new tax system. The objective is to evaluate the effects of these factors on the economic status of a group of taxpayers and the difference in tax payments compared with previous periods. A quantitative study was carried out, collecting financial data from 30 microenterprises for three fiscal periods. We also analyze the relationship between sales and the taxes paid in the same year, as well as the difference between the previous regime and the system applied in the first year of the pandemic to determine income tax. The results indicate an increase in the tax paid despite a noticeable decrease in sales due to confinement and other sanitary measures. In addition, we verified a significant difference between the two analyzed regimes, mainly because the pandemic regime calculates the tax based solely on income and does not consider expenses. We conclude that 43.33% of the microentrepreneurs we analyzed concluded the fiscal year with an accounting loss. This implies a debt for the following period and the risk of bankruptcy in the future.

Analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on environmental innovations in manufacturing firms

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the manufacturing industry, and manufacturers have responded to the crisis in different ways. This study investigates Norwegian manufacturers' response to the crisis, particularly how it has influenced their adoption of environmental innovations. More specifically, the study investigates whether firms choose "general" or "green" strategic responses to the crisis and how this influences the overall adoption of environmental innovations. In addition, the study investigates how the degree of environmental innovation adoption occurring before COVID-19 affects how the crisis impacted firms. The study adopts a quantitative research approach using survey data from 526 manufacturing firms-a representative sample of manufacturers in Norway. The findings reveal that those manufacturers the most environmentally innovative before COVID-19 were more impacted by the crisis. Moreover, firms adopted both general and green responses to the crisis, and the overall conduction of environmental innovations decreased during the pandemic. The main contribution is the empirical findings related to the overall impact of COVID-19 on sustainability-oriented manufacturing. The implications are discussed for both theory and practice.

The Fiscal and Monetary Policies and Environment in GCC Countries: Analysis of Territory and Consumption-Based CO2 Emissions

Expansionary monetary and fiscal policies are necessary for economic and environmental development. The present research studies the impact of monetary policy and fiscal policy on Territory-Based CO2 (TBC) and Consumption-Based CO2 (CBC) emissions in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies from 1990–2019. The cointegration is corroborated through various tests, and long-term relationships are found in both TBC and CBC models. Government expenditures have long-term positive effects on both TBC and CBC emissions and short-term positive effects on TBC emissions in the region. Money supply negatively affects the TBC and CBC emissions in the long run and positively affects TBC and CBC emissions in the short run. Hence, monetary policy needs a long time to have positive ecological effects in the GCC region. Moreover, fiscal policy in both the long and short run and monetary policy in the short run have scale effects in GCC economies. Therefore, we recommend reducing fiscal measures and encouraging monetary policy in the long run to have positive environmental outcomes in the region.

Assessment of challenges and problems in supply chain among retailers during COVID-19 epidemic through AHP-TOPSIS hybrid MCDM technique

Framework and objectives

COVID-19 epidemic has sparked concern and has elevated the need for therapeutic tools, health equipment's, and day-to-day necessities for healthcare workers' well-being. The goal of this study is to uncover the operational problems that suppliers encounter when it comes to offering effective services. The research also intends to offer an Industry 4.0 strategy for reducing COVID-19's effect. The problems are weighed and priority is assigned by multi-criteria decision making to identify the most essential parameter which impacts the suppliers.

Methods

A comprehensive literature assessment on the rampant eruption of COVID 19 and supply chain is conducted with the aid of literatures available on SCOPUS, Science Direct, and Google Scholar using appropriate keywords. To get further insights, certain pertinent and applicable industry reports and blogs are also used. Problems were analysed with AHP method and priority was assigned by technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Weights are calculated by AHP method and assigned to each criteria attribute.

Results

We recognized eleven key problems that serve as an operational obstacle in the retail industry and proposed the use of Industry 4.0 technology to address them. The contemporary study is accomplished by using hybrid combination of two Multi Criteria Estimators methods- Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Further, the most significant problem comes out to be Maintenance of an appropriate balance among supply and demand followed by Lack of Viability.

Key findings

Prioritization of supply chain problems are arranged in descending order Maintenance of an appropriate balance among supply and demand ​> ​Lack of Viability ​> ​Absence of government funding ​> ​Lack of access ​> ​Absence of Confidence ​> ​Scarcity of work force ​> ​Lack of security and safety ​> ​Deficiency of surplus medical amenities ​> ​Consumer attitude ​> Absence of Supply Chain flexibility ​> ​Communication problems.

Conclusion

In order to combat the pandemic, Industry 4.0 can play a key role in lowering the effect of identified issues on retailers. For the successful administration of healthcare basics, trust and openness are required. To enhance services, suppliers, distributors and policy makers should make informed decisions during COVID-19 and other comparable events. Therefore, suggested guidelines and framework will offer upcoming directions for research in fields of pandemic check, business logistics management, and catastrophe administration. Balance in supply and demand is the most significant attribute as its percentage contribution is the maximum (27.52%) followed by Safety of employees (26.51%). Furthermore, the research then ranks these models on the basis of their attributes with the aid of TOPSIS. Among all these problems, Maintenance of an appropriate balance among supply and demand and lack of viability are identified as the prime most and common concern for retailers in supply chain management during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investigating the effects of the outbreak of COVID-19 on perishable food supply chains: an empirical study using PLS-SEM

Purpose

At the end of 2019, the first case of the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan city of China. The disease was declared a pandemic without imagining the magnitude of damage currently caused in all branches of the economy. One of the most affected sectors was food and mostly perishable food (PF), which are more susceptible to environmental conditions. Thus, the research examines the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on Ecuador's perishable food supply chains (PFSCs) during the pandemic. It contributes to new results on the special issue (SI) PFSC response to event risk and uncertainty, such as those that generated the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The data used are from primary information sources, which were collected through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied to 298 companies belonging to the sector, and later the information was processed through partial least squares structural equation model. The convergent validity, discriminate and robustness tests provide arguments for the suitability of the model. Therefore, the findings are reliable and valid for the adequate measures to improve the PFSC due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

Findings

The results show that the perception of personal risk (PPR) produced by COVID-19 has caused the companies of the PFSC to adopt preventive policies (PO) to avoid contagion and guarantee the operation of the companies. In addition, the PPR has been responsible for the alterations in the demand and price (DP) of PF. Next, PO and DP have a significant effect on PFSC, which shows the evidence favouring the malfunction of PFSC operations due to anti-contagion PO, the mismatch of DP. On the contrary, circular economy practices contribute to the excellent performance of the PFSC. Finally, the research suggests some policy implications to consider in improving the PFSC.

Originality/value

This study is the first to be carried out in Ecuador's country on the PFSC; its contribution is unprecedented and makes it a road-map to be considered to guarantee the correct functioning of the PFSCs, and it will provide policymakers with valid elements to design efficient PFSCs that better respond to unforeseen events and uncertainties. Future research will focus on analysing the management of PF consumption in Ecuador during the pandemic.

Digital Technologies, Circular Economy Practices and Environmental Policies in the Era of COVID-19

The degradation of the environment is associated with economic activity, particularly with the linear way in which the economy does not make efficient use of resources. However, the circular economy is opposed to this linear paradigm, since it makes the most of the resources in trying to achieve zero waste. In this context, this study investigates the relationship between industry 4.0 technologies, COVID-19 outbreak, environmental regulation policies and circular economy practices. A questionnaire is designed to collect information from 214 big and private manufacturing firms in Ecuador, and subsequently, through CB-SEM, the information is processed, and the study paths are validated. The results suggest that industry 4.0 technologies and environmental regulation policies are driving circular economy practices during the pandemic. The study finds no evidence favoring COVID-19 being a determining factor in the adoption of the circular economy. The results provide a policy framework for the adoption of a circular economy.