Digital Technologies, Circular Economy Practices and Environmental Policies in the Era 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.

The role of Fintech in circular economy practices to improve sustainability performance: a two-staged SEM-ANN approach

Coupling the practice-based view (PBV) of firms with dynamic capabilities theory (DCT), we assess the effect of Fintech adoption (FA) on organizational sustainability performance (SP) through circular economy practices (CEP). Additionally, this research examines the moderating roles of a firm's access to finance (AF) and absorptive capacity (AC) in the interplays between the constructs. Three hundred responses were collected from Bangladeshi manufacturing SMEs using a structured questionnaire. We examined our conceptual model using a two-staged structural equation modeling-artificial neural network (SEM-ANN) approach. The empirical findings unveiled that Fintech adoption significantly drives organizational CEP and SP and that CEP acts as a mediator between the FA and SP linkage. Furthermore, the findings also confirmed the moderating effect of AF on the FA and CEP association and the impact of AC on the CEP and SP association. Hence, this scholarship adds pivotal insights to the extant literature by establishing the roles of multiple mediators and moderators in the interplay of FA and firms' SP. Given the paucity of primary-data-based research, this empirical study addresses the gaps in the Fintech, CE, and sustainability literature and yields crucial implications for theory and practice.

How can environmental degradation and income disparities influence national health: an eye bird view on China's provinces

Growing socio-economic disparity is a global issue that could disturb community health. Numerous case studies have examined the health influences of income disparities as well as the patterns that implicate those disparities. Therefore, this study attempts to examine the core determinants of mortality rate, which are environmental degradation, green energy, health expenditures, and technology (ICT) for the 25 provinces of China over the period of 2005-2020. This study uses a series of estimators to investigate the preferred objectives in which CS-ARDL and common correlated effect mean group (CCE-MG). Estimated results show the significant contribution of environmental deterioration and income inequality to the mortality rate. Furthermore, health expenditures, ICT, and green energy significantly reduce the mortality rate. Similarly, the moderate effect of income inequality on health expenditure, green energy, and ICT significantly reduces the mortality rate in selected provinces of China. More interestingly, the current study suggests policy implications to reduce the rising trend of mortality rate.

Mapping and visualizing of research output on waste management and green technology: A bibliometric review of literature

The transition to a circular economy (CE) and environmental protection highly depends on waste management (WM) and green technology (GT). The purpose of this study is to examine the past two decades of WM and GT research to identify the most significant advancements and potential future research areas. Bibliometrics content analysis and text mining were utilized to resolve the subsequent issues: Has WM and GT research developed over time in the CE industry? Does WM and GT research have a clearly defined purpose? How do you foresee the future of WM and GT research in the context of CE evolving? Consequently, 1149 journal articles from the Scopus database were used to create and evaluate bibliometric networks. Therefore, five significant CE-related issues requiring additional research were identified: The first category is bio-based WM, followed by CE transition, GT, ecological impacts, municipal solid WM and lifecycle assessment, and finally, bio-based WM. Future research topics and a tool for the CE transition may be impacted by the investigation of inclusive WM systems, GT practices and their defining highlight patterns (which aim to minimalize waste generation). Future research goals include reducing waste and implementing WM into the CE framework.

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.

Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on China's tourism economy and green finance efficiency

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, production costs have grown, while human and economic resources have been reduced. COVID-19 epidemic costs can be reduced by implementing green financial policies, including carbon pricing, transferable green certificates, and green credit. In addition, China's tourist industry is a significant source of revenue for the government. Coronavirus has been found in 30 Chinese regions, and a study is being conducted to determine its influence on the tourism business and green financial efficiency. Econometric strategies that are capable of dealing with the most complex issues are employed in this study. According to the GMM system, the breakout of Covid-19 had a negative effect on the tourism business and the efficiency of green financing. Aside from that, the effects of gross capital creation, infrastructural expansion, and renewable energy consumption are all good. The influence of per capita income on the tourism industry is beneficial but detrimental to the efficiency of green finance. Due to the current pandemic condition, this report presents a number of critical recommendations for boosting tourism and green financial efficiency.

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.

The nature and sources of international variation in formal institutions related to initial coin offerings: preliminary findings and a research agenda

As prior researchers have suggested, a firm's success in an international market depends on how well its strategy fits the nonmarket environment, such as formal institutions. This paper examines the determinants of formal institutions around new areas of economic activities. Specifically, we propose a framework for understanding how the quality of formal institutions in promoting entrepreneurship drives the focus of such institutions concerning initial coin offering (ICO), which is emerging as a popular fundraising method. The paper uses inductive analysis to examine how nonmarket factors-such as a jurisdiction's tax haven nature, regulators' perceptions of ICOs as threats to national or political interests, and trade and industry associations-might moderate the relationship between the quality of institutions and the focus of such institutions regarding ICOs. One of this study's key findings is that an economy's quality of entrepreneurship-related institutions, perceived threats to national/political interests, and tax haven nature lead to different policy orientations. Consequently, regulators assign different importance when promoting crypto-entrepreneurship and dealing with associated risks. Regulators focusing mainly on promoting crypto-ventures have taken measures to enrich the blockchain ecosystem and provided tax and non-tax incentives to attract such ventures. Regulators focusing mainly on dealing with crypto-venture risks rely on a regulatory sandbox and close regulatory monitoring of such ventures.

Quantitative identification of nitrate and sulfate sources of a multiple land-use area impacted by mine drainage

The rapid increase in urbanization and intensive coal mining activities have accelerated the deterioration of surface water quality. Environmental problems caused by the accumulation of nitrate and sulfate from natural, urban, and agricultural sources have attracted extensive attention. Information on nitrate and sulfate sources and their transformations is crucial for understanding the nitrogen and sulfur cycles in surface water. In this study, we monitored nitrate and sulfate in three representative rivers in mining cities in northern China. The main pollution sources and biogeochemical processes were identified by using stable isotopes (δD, δ¹⁸O_H2O, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O_NO3, δ³⁴S and δ¹⁸O_SO4) and hydrochemistry. The contribution of natural and anthropogenic sources was quantitatively estimated based on a Bayesian mixed model. The results indicated a large variation in sulfate and nitrate sources between the different rivers. Nitrate in the Tuohe River mainly derived from manure/sewage (57.9%) and soil N (26.9%), while sulfate mainly derived from manure/sewage (41.7%) and evaporite dissolution (26.8%). For the Suihe River, nitrate was primarily sourced from chemical fertilizer (37.9%) and soil nitrogen (34.8%), while sulfate was mainly sourced from manure/sewage (33.1%) and chemical fertilizer (21.4%). For the Huihe River, nitrate mainly derived from mine drainage (56.6%) and manure/sewage (30.6%), while sulfate predominantly originated from mine drainage (58.3%) and evaporite dissolution (12.9%). Microbial nitrification was the major pathway for the migration and transformation of nitrate in the surface water. However, denitrification and bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR) did not play a significant role as aerobic conditions prevailed. In this study, we elucidated the sources and transformation mechanisms of nitrate and sulfate. Additionally, we provided a reference for formulating a comprehensive strategy for effective management and remediation of surface water contaminated with nitrate and sulfate in mining cities.

Reconstruction mechanism and strategy of global maritime green supply chain against the backdrop of nuclear pollution

Owing to the nuclear accident at Fukushima, everyone involved in the supply chain began to reflect on the ongoing efforts to minimize the environmental impact. Being part of the green supply chain, it is important for maritime companies to restructure their mechanism and strategy for the future. This study analyzes the framework of the reconstruction mechanism and strategy of the global maritime green supply chain against the backdrop of nuclear pollution in four dimensions, namely, ecology, management, economy, and society. On the basis of these four dimensions, 20 suitable evaluation indicators are constructed to develop an expert questionnaire. These indicators are used to identify the importance of the maritime green supply chain through the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process so that decision makers can discover the intrinsic key competencies. According to the results of the study, the indicators of critical success factors (CSFs) are as follows: 1. "Reduction of waste discharge and pollution treatment"; 2. "Construction of environmentally friendly fleets, desulfurization retrofit, and fleet replacement to comply with the International Maritime Organization's regulations and improve energy efficiency"; 3. " Regular audit, assessment, and review of compliance with environmental laws and regulations"; 4. "Priority access to ports and increased profitability by participating in the Green Ship Incentive Program"; and 5. " Dedicated management units and departments responsible for policies related to green capabilities." The results provide a reference for the decision making of maritime companies to identify the key reconstruction mechanism and CSFs in the maritime green supply chain and explore future service models as a way to build competitive advantage and ensure sustainable operations. This study integrates the ecological theory and concept of the green supply chain management. Furthermore, the results of this study provide policy implications for stakeholders, such as maritime companies and governments, in implementing and promoting green supply chain practices.

Examining the role of soft dimensions on the implementation of ISO 14000 environmental management systems: a graph-theoretic approach

Organizations worldwide are now embracing different standards while approaching environmental management systems (EMS) to be environmentally and economically sustainable. The ISO 14001 EMS has captured much attention by offering efficient environmental practices organization-wide and throughout the supply chain. Human factors (HFs) are crucial behind implementing ISO 14001 EMS since research articles about ISO 14001 strongly emphasize different HFs. This study proposes a framework that solely focuses on those HFs. Influential HFs are extracted through content analysis of related literature and categorized into 5 main HFs. Opinions from experts in the relevant field about interrelationships and inheritances of the HFs are collected and converted into quantitative data. Incorporating the graph theoretic and matrix approach (GTMA), the data delivered permanent values corresponding to the main HFs and their best and worst possible values. Among the main HFs, EMS Training has been found to have the most scopes for improvement, followed by Employee Empowerment and EMS Teamwork. This study demonstrates a framework about how to assess the role of HFs behind internalizing ISO 14001 EMS and enables organizations to go for competitive benchmarking and to define and adjust goals for environmental management.

The effective path of green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises promoted by green merger and acquisition-qualitative comparative analysis based on fuzzy sets

Green merger and acquisition (GMA) is becoming a growing tendency for heavily polluting enterprises in recent years; however, the realization path of green transformation through GMA is still unexplored. Taking 48 Chinese heavily polluting enterprises that had GMA in 2018 as the research object, this paper constructs the "M&A attributes, Organizational characteristics, and External environment" (M-O-E) framework, by using the method of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to reveal the configurations of conditions that lead to high levels of green innovation performance. The results show that the high green technology innovation performance after GMA of heavily polluting enterprises is the outcome of multiple antecedents, and no singular antecedent is sufficient for achieving it. Besides, there are three equivalent configurations of conditions to achieve green transformation: professional buyer, internal leading, and internal-external linkage. Among them, the professional buyer configuration highlights that the combination of M&A experience and M&A scale is of great importance, the internal leading configuration emphasizes that the existence of environmental awareness and organizational resources is the core conditions, and the internal-external linkage configuration requires simultaneous efforts of M&A experience and government environmental regulations. Our research contributes to the understanding of green transformation in heavily polluting enterprises from a configurational perspective, and provides a practice-oriented guide to achieve green transformation for the government and heavily polluting enterprises.

Re-examining the nexuses of communicable diseases, environmental performance, and dynamics of sustainable Development in OECD countries

We investigate the determinants of communicable diseases (CDs) and nexus of financial development, economic development, and renewable energy consumption to address the issues of ecological footprint level, the impacts of communicable diseases (CDs), and economic growth of the OECD countries throughout 2000-2019. The results from FMOLS and DOLS reveal that the levels of financial development, energy consumption, and trade volume significantly contribute to overcoming the death toll occurring due to CDs. As regards the growth function, the level of trade in the economy is significantly associated with economic growth. The findings reveal that the improvements and developments in the financial sectors and trading activities cause a reduction in the infection cases represented by COVID-19. In contrast, economic growth does have a negative but insignificant impact upon COVID-19. We conclude that sound financial development combined with economic and environmental regulations could be strategically helpful to cope with CDs.

Relationship between the state of the country's logistics and perishable goods' output: dairy industry

Purpose

This paper seeks to assess the capabilities and maturity of supply chain planning and product quality management systems implemented by the dairy industries in three different countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, and Lithuania.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a systematic analysis of statistical information, the descriptors of the logistics supply chain efficiency were identified. Directions for dairy supply chain management improvement were also highlighted. The study uses secondary statistics from open sources as a basis for the comparative analysis across a range of indicators, including the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), the dairy products quantity, the production volume of milk and dairy products, and other indicators characterizing the dairy industry.

Findings

The results of this study suggest the inconsistency and narrowness of single indexes and ranking, which are traditionally used to evaluate the logistics system. LPI values confirmed that the internal efficiency of the Lithuanian logistics system exceeds similar systems in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Social implications

In this paper, ways to improve supply chain management of dairy products in the context of globalization have been determined, the prerequisites for the formation of the perishable goods market according to the balance of supply and demand and the institutional mechanism of this process, which represents important information for all interested economic agents, have been analyzed.

Originality/value

The proposed approach points to the importance of having detailed information on the supply chain infrastructure and the need to introduce a single information space based on modern information and communication technologies.

Sustainable supply chain management and green technologies: a bibliometric review of literature

To attain ecological sustainability and transition to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), effective technological innovation (TI) and solid waste management (SWM), as likely impending resources, are essential components. From 2000 through 2021, a detailed map of SSCMs in the context of TI and systematic history will be created, highlighting the most significant research themes and trends, primary features, development, and possibly relevant areas for future study. Due to utilizing bibliometric analysis, text mining, and content analytics methodologies, the following concerns were addressed: (1) How has SSCM research progressed over time in the TI domain? (2) Which SSCM research areas and trends receive the most attention in the TI domain? Additionally, (3) what are the research directions for SSCM in the context of TI? As a result, bibliometric networks were developed and examined using 983 journal articles from the Scopus database to highlight the substantial body of literature. As a result, SSCM has been divided into five crucial study themes: (i) transition to TI, (ii) SSCM in closed-loop supply chains, (iii) municipal solid waste management (MSWM), (iv) environmental consequences and life-cycle evaluation, and (v) policymakers and practitioners in SSCM can use the SSCM research landscape and its primary highlight patterns to guide and add in the TI. Considering SSCM research as a way to reduce waste, future study directions are also suggested.

Impact Mechanism of New Urbanization on Environmental Pollution: Empirical Analysis Based on Spatial Panel Model

Traditional urbanization has stimulated economic growth. Meanwhile, it has damaged the natural environment. China has initiated new urbanization to resolve this dilemma. This paper aims to clarify the relationship between new urbanization and environmental pollution and prove new urbanization's superiority in containing environmental pollution. Thus, this paper adopts the static and dynamic spatial Durbin and mediating effect models to estimate the environmental pollution control mechanism of the new urbanization, using the panel data collected from 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2018. Findings show that: (1) Environmental pollution has time inertia and spatial spillover effect. The degree of pollution in an area is related to the environmental quality in the earlier stage and the surrounding areas. (2) The role of new urbanization in containing environmental pollution can take effect in the long run. In the short term, population urbanization can restrain the environmental pollution of both local and surrounding cities. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the higher the level of environmental pollution, the greater the impact of new urbanization on environmental pollution. (4) Mediating effect test shows that technological effect and industrial structure upgrading are two important channels for new urbanization to reduce environmental pollution. (5) Threshold effect test shows that the inhibition effect of new urbanization on environmental pollution is gradually enhanced after crossing the threshold.

A Bibliometric Analysis of End-of-Life Vehicles Related Research: Exploring a Path to Environmental Sustainability

Considering rapid economic development and continuously increasing environmental concerns, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) have significant socioeconomic value as a crucial waste stream. The research relating to ELVs has rapidly evolved over the last few years. However, existing review studies focus on specific research themes, and thus, fail to present a complete picture. Hence, this research intends to explain the current research scenario relating to ELVs by reviewing the critical published studies of the last 22 years. A total of 1405 research publications were extracted from the Scopus database covering the period from 2000 to 2021. Mainly employing bibliometric analysis techniques, this research analyzes the quantity of literature, researchers, institutions, countries, and research themes to understand the current status and future trends in ELV recycling and management. The results revealed a considerable rise in the number of articles published in the last five years. The key producers of influential ELV research are listed as the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. Globally, Chinese universities have the most ELV-related articles published. Similarly, Serbian researcher Vladimir Simic authored the most ELV-related articles during the research period. This article also identifies various research themes: management and recycling, resource recovery and components, life cycle evaluation, and socioeconomic effects. The results also reveal a strong association between distinct ELV research clusters.

Private Firm Support for Circular Economy Regulation in the EU Policy Context

As an empirical investigation of firm support for circular economy regulation in the European Union (EU) context, this paper is the first to connect the research field on corporate political activity with the growing research field on the circular economy. The paper presents these two research streams, draws on theories such as the resource-based view, and employs a hierarchical regression framework to formulate and test six hypotheses on what drives firms to support circular economy regulation. We find that smaller firms show more support for circular economy regulation than larger firms do and identify two moderating effects: the stock listing seems to moderate the relationship between firm size and a firm’s support for circular economy regulation; and a firm’s supply chain position has a counterintuitive negative moderating effect on the relationship between slack resources and a firm’s support for circular economy regulation. We discuss null findings and suggest avenues for future research at this under-researched intersection of policies and firms in the circular economy context.

What Is the Mechanism of Government Green Development Behavior Considering Multi-Agent Interaction? A Meta-Analysis

Worsening environmental problems have created more and more challenges for green development, and the government is often seen as an important guide in turning this situation around. A government generally enacts green development through green development behavior, but previous research has not revealed the mechanism of this behavior. In addition, the multi-agent interaction between the government and green development behavior also needs to be explored. Based on an integrated theoretical model, the authors of this study adopted a meta-analysis method to analyze 18 high-quality published pieces from 6 mainstream databases and described the mechanism of government green development behavior in exploring and thinking about multi-agent interactions. In addition, the authors of this study explored differences in the roles of central and local government green development behaviors and the moderating role of regional heterogeneity. The research results showed that: (1) Enterprise economic behavior, enterprise environmental behavior, enterprise social behavior, and public participation are all significantly positively affected by government green development behavior; (2) local government green development actions have stronger effects than central government actions; (3) regional heterogeneity moderates the effect of government green development behavior. Furthermore, the authors of this study propose relevant countermeasures and suggestions from the government’s point of view. This research provides a theoretical and practical reference for governments to better improve their environmental systems and environmental supervision.

Construction and Optimization of Green Infrastructure Network Based on Space Syntax: A Case Study of Suining County, Jiangsu Province

The construction of green infrastructure (GI) plays an important role in improving the rural ecological functions and building a green livable environment. In this paper, the methods of morpho spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and space syntax analysis are used to study the GI network construction in Suining County, Jiangsu Province. The results show that: (1) In 2018, the area of ecological patches increased by 110% compared with 1998, and the utilization rate of the GI network was significantly improved. (2) A total of 66 ecological corridors were analyzed in the county, and the main corridors were distributed in the central and western regions. The correlation analysis of core ecological patches in 1998, 2008, and 2018 proved that location factors had the greatest impact on the results of function and connectivity. (3) According to the optimization results, ecological benefits can be improved through engineering measures to realize the revitalization and development of regional rural areas.

Public Expenses and Investment in Environmental Protection and Its Impact on Waste Management

The growing environmental problems with a global impact on the quality of the environment require increasing attention from all countries and the urgent adoption and implementation of established measures to protect the environment. The presented contribution points to the necessity of financial resources in the process of improving the environment. It aims to analyze public expenditures and investments spent on the environment in the European Union and the Slovak Republic, and to identify the main environmental areas to which funds flow. The aim is to assess the effectiveness of the funds spent in relation to selected indicators focused on waste management. After the analysis of the state and development of public expenditures and investments and the analysis of the methods of municipal waste management, the contribution results in the search for dependence between public expenditures and the materially and energetically recovered amount of municipal waste.

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.

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.

Environmental sustainability in digitalized SMEs: Comparative study from Poland and Serbia

Pandemic times and an increasing pace of sustainable development have accelerated the process of Industry 4.0 implementation. Digitalization is one of the key issues of Industry 4.0 development. The paper investigates an identified research gap on the perception of digitalization in terms of environmental goals and sustainability in the SME sector. The study features a comparative research design and examines the perception of digitalization in small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland and Serbia. The study gathered 235 responses on the impact of Industry 4.0 and digitalization in SMEs on environmental issues and sustainable development. Findings revealed that digitalizing the company has a positive effect on reducing carbon emissions. However, statistically significant discrimination in reducing harmful emissions was found between Poland and Serbia. Provided research procedure further adds to the practical implication in finding carbon emissions as the most important issue in sustainable development in the SME sector.