Dr Sumona Mukhuty

Industry 5.0 advocates triangulating the technology-centric emphasis of Industry 4.0 with human-centricity and sustainability (EC, 2021; Ivanov, 2023). The focus is on creating an inclusive work environment (EC, 2021) facilitating human-machine reconciliation leading to “sustainable social welfare” (Choi et al., 2022). Within this context, the advent and accessibility of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has been received with equal measures of excitement and existential dread. This is a major disruptive digital technology which has begun to shake the equilibrium and stability of business survival and job security. Yet, the potential of GenAI in enhancing efficiency is revolutionary spanning all sectors including supply chains. Organisational success within the Industry 5.0 context is heavily dependent on the appropriate skills and capabilities (Modgil et al., 2023). However, the rapid advancement and adoption of GenAI has left organisations with severe knowledge and skills gaps. In this study, we conduct a succinct review of GenAI impact on supply chains. Thereafter we draw upon strategic management theories and organisational change theories to develop an Organisational GenAI Action Model to enable supply chain organisations to transition workers from a state of ‘unconscious GenAI incompetence’ to ‘conscious GenAI competence’, working through the five stages of the model getting urgent, exploration, formulation, iteration and embedding. We will predominantly draw upon high impact peer-reviewed articles, complemented by relevant grey literature including the European Commission publications, in developing this review and conceptual model. We will close by highlighting the model applicability and future research directions.

Manufacturing entities in emerging economies face significant obstacles implementing circular economy principles due to resource-constrained environments. Arguably manufacturers need customer green pressure to propel the circular economy, alongside frugal innovative strategies. There is a dearth of research on digital platform (DP) capabilities, customer green pressure and frugal innovative strategies with circular economy. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, 889 manufacturers were surveyed in the emerging economy of India. Customer green pressure moderation was assessed on the links between frugal innovative strategies and circular economy, DP integration capabilities and frugal innovation, and DP reconfiguration capabilities and frugal innovative strategies. Structural equation modelling revealed, DP integration and reconfiguration capabilities positively influence frugal innovation strategies enabling circular economy performance. Customer green pressure positively moderated DP reconfiguration and frugal innovative strategies. Actionable insights are provided to prioritize DP capability development to satisfy customer green pressure and promote frugal innovative strategies, ultimately facilitating the circular economy.

This study investigates the combined impacts of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies and digital transformation (DT) on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), as well as on the value creation (VC). It also examines the moderating influence of digital and environmental strategies on these outcomes. Grounded in the triple-bottom-line and resource-based view theories, the study draws on survey data from 137 supply chain professionals in Malaysia’s large-scale manufacturing sector. Using Smart-PLS structural equation modeling, the results reveal that I4.0 technologies exert a substantial positive effect, explaining a considerable share of variance in both value creation and SCP outcomes. Environmental strategy further strengthens the link between DT and VC, while digital strategy shows no moderating effect between I4.0 technologies and DT. These findings provide actionable insights for industry practitioners and policymakers, highlighting how technological and environmental alignment can simultaneously advance sustainability, economic performance, and social value.

Industry 5.0 advocates triangulating the technology-centric emphasis of Industry 4.0 with human-centricity and sustainability. The focus is on creating an inclusive work environment facilitating human-machine reconciliation leading to “sustainable social welfare.” Within this context, the advent and accessibility of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have been received with equal measures of excitement and existential dread. This is a major disruptive digital technology that has begun to shake the equilibrium and stability of business survival and job security. Yet, the potential of GenAI in enhancing efficiency is revolutionary, spanning all sectors, including supply chains. Organizational success within the Industry 5.0 context is heavily dependent on the appropriate skills and capabilities. However, the rapid advancement and adoption of GenAI has left organizations with severe knowledge and skills gaps. In this study, we conduct a succinct review of GenAI’s impact on supply chains. Thereafter we draw upon strategic management theories and organizational change theories to develop an organizational GenAI action model to enable supply chain organizations to transition workers from a state of “unconscious GenAI incompetence” to “conscious GenAI competence,” working through the five stages of the model: getting urgent, exploration, formulation, iteration, and embedding. We will predominantly draw upon high-impact peer-reviewed articles, complemented by relevant gray literature, including the European Commission publications, in developing this review and conceptual model. We will close by highlighting the model’s applicability and future research directions.

Disasters have quadrupled over the last two decades leading to unprecedented loss of life. The objective of disaster-focussed humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) is to ensure saving maximum lives with limited resources; despite severe uncertainties. Therefore, significant research has investigated lean and agile in HSCs; to effectively source and speedily deploy resources, with minimum wastage; in each disaster life-cycle phase. However, the literature and research findings are currently highly disjointed regarding how lean and agile principles may be aligned with different HSC activities in the disaster management lifecycle; and do not provide a collective understanding for practitioners and researchers. This paper reviews and organises the literature on HSCs in relation to lean and agile paradigms, focussing on the pre-disaster (mitigation and preparedness) and post-disaster (response and recovery) phases. Findings reveal, all phases benefit from both lean and agile, with agile benefitting the response phase most. The phases are inter-dependent and identifying optimum decoupling points for lean and agile principles are crucial. Majority research has focussed on individual or a couple of phases. Therefore, authors recommend research on integrating the functions of the different phases by employing lean and agile principles, to generate rapid response, economies of scale and cost minimisation.

BACKGROUND: The infantry accounts for more than a quarter of the British Army but there is a lack of data about the social and educational background of its recruits. AIMS: To provide an insight into British Army infantry recruits' personal, social and educational background prior to enlistment. METHODS: The study sample consisted of infantry recruits who enlisted into the British Army School of Infantry. Each recruit completed a 95-item biographical questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample in terms of demographic, physical, personal, social and educational attributes. RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 1000 male recruits. Over half of the recruits were consuming alcohol at a hazardous or harmful level prior to enlistment and 60% of recruits had used cannabis prior to joining the Army. Academic attainment was low, with the majority of recruits achieving GCSE grade C and below in most subjects, with 15% not taking any examinations. Over half the recruits had been in trouble with the police and either been suspended or expelled from school. CONCLUSIONS: Substance misuse and poor behaviour are highly prevalent among recruits prior to enlistment. Taken alongside existing evidence that some of these problems are commonplace among personnel in regular service, the assumption that the British Army infantry is, in itself, a cause of these behaviours should be questioned.

This study focused on United Nations (UN) civilian volunteers serving in “hot spots”, and tested a model to predict their intentions to apply for a new UN assignment. These individuals have characteristics of both assigned expatriates and self-initiated expatriates. In-Role Behaviours (IRB) and Organizational Citizenship Behaviours towards the Local Population (OCB-Locals) were related to sense of personal accomplishment, that in turn was related to intentions to apply for another UN assignment. Sense of personal accomplishment played a mediating role. Both the personality trait of agreeableness and the attitudinal factor of commitment towards the local population were predictive of IRB, but only agreeableness was predictive of OCB-Locals. Moderation effects were identified, but the direction of most of them was unexpected. For example, it was low openness to experience that strengthened the link between sense of personal accomplishment and intentions to re-apply. The study’s implications for expatriation research and for practice are discussed.

Purpose Drawing on the social-cognitive and motivational literature of leadership, the present study examines the influence of young adults' self-perceptions of leadership on their leadership self-efficacy (LSE) and motivation to lead (MTL) in their future career. The authors further examine gender and socio-economic status (SES) as important moderators of the proposed relationships. Design/methodology/approach The present investigation consists of a two-study research design, based on data collected from young adult samples across two culturally different countries, namely the UK (N = 267) and Japan (N = 127). Findings The study presents evidence of self-perceptions of leadership influencing LSE and MTL. The results further support the mediating role of leader self-efficacy. Regarding the moderating role of gender, results in both samples showed that the effects of leader self-efficacy on MTL were stronger for males. SES was found to moderate the effects of leadership self-perceptions of negative implicit leadership theories (ILTs) on LSE in the UK sample and the effects of leadership self-perceptions of positive ILTs on LSE in the Japanese sample. Originality/value This study fills the gap of empirical research focused on early adulthood influences on leadership development. In particular, this study has a three-fold contribution, by, firstly, developing a conceptual model that examines the role of young adults' self-perceptions of leadership on their self-efficacy as leaders and MTL; secondly examining contingencies of the proposed relationships; and thirdly testing the conceptual model in two countries.

Blockchain technology is a revolutionary new protocol for sharing and updating information by linking ledgers or databases in a decentralised, peer-to-peer, open-access network. Blockchain is designed to ensure the data is stored and updated in a secure, tamper-proof and irreversible way. Despite being in its nascent stages, the blockchain research is developing rapidly in different fields, making it imperative to capture the ethical and sustainability implications of blockchain development and implementation. The circular economy also focuses on enhancing sustainability and social responsibility, alongside economic growth. In this article, we critically review blockchain technology’s current and potential contribution to the circular economy through the lens of sustainability and social responsibility. This paper contributes to the Industry 4.0 literature by identifying, collating and organising the disparate research on blockchain, with a critical focus on its positive impact and potential repercussions for the ethics agenda. Within this narrative review, we argue and highlight the extant and potential alignment of blockchain with circular economy. Our findings show that blockchain technology can contribute to the circular economy by helping to reduce transaction costs, enhance performance and communication along the supply chain, ensure human rights protection, enhance healthcare patient confidentiality and welfare, and reduce carbon footprint. We also evaluate the challenges to blockchain implementation for circular economy, in terms of trust, illegal activities, potential for hacking and the need to address these through suitable legislation and policy development. Furthermore, we acknowledge the potential upfront costs involved in implementing blockchain technology, although we observe that the benefits are likely to exceed the challenges. We conclude this article with recommendations for future research in this field.

Research on sustainable development is significantly influenced by the trade-off between the economic, social and environmental performance of businesses. Industry 4.0 development is a key business priority due to the promise of exponential increase in productivity, time efficiencies and cost reduction. However, Industry 4.0 development has been slow. Notably, human actors remain central to Industry 4.0, while the social responsibility component of sustainable development is a key prerogative for industry, championed through the UN sustainable development goals and European Commission. Therefore, we evaluate human-related impediments for Industry 4.0 and critically explore how human resource management (HRM) can overcome these barriers using a socially responsible orientation. First, we analyse the human-related challenges to Industry 4.0 through a thematic literature review. Thereafter, through an integrative literature review of different research streams (Industry 4.0, HRM and social responsibility), we critically argue novel perspectives on how human resource practices can enable sustainable development of Industry 4.0 in a socially responsible manner. Herein, we address a crucial literature gap. Our findings reveal numerous people-related barriers, including change resistance, digital skills gap, employment threats widening socio-economic inequalities, lack of industry-wide collaboration, leadership and organisational culture challenges. We show that HRM can be a crucial enabler for sustainable Industry 4.0 development through socially responsible human resource practices. These include strategic multistakeholder collaborations, holistic talent management, change leadership, inclusive knowledge sharing, sponsoring education research and codesigning curricula, smart technology for upskilling and retention and rewarding inclusive Industry 4.0 ideas. We conclude with future research directions.

This chapter explores the relationship between entrepreneurship skills and decent work (DW), and how policy can help achieve this. We review the entrepreneurship skills literature in the context of DW, highlighting the key entrepreneurship skills needed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Thereafter, we extract lessons from selected policy initiatives in countries with broad similarities (Australia, Canada, United States and England), through the lens of DW. Our review draws on peer-reviewed journals and key United Nations and global entrepreneurship platform publications. Entrepreneurship skills deficiencies have a detrimental impact on the success and sustainability of SMEs. Yet, SME's survival and growth is currently crucial, whereby organizations need to transform in response to changing environmental, political, technological and consumer needs. This is intensified by the challenges of Covid-19, severely affecting DW and productivity. To develop and retain even a semblance of ‘decent work’, entrepreneurs need to develop appropriate skills and there is a need for suitable policy addressing this. In this chapter, we present lessons learnt based on our review and provide recommendations for entrepreneurship skills development policies aligning with DW.

Purpose. This study investigated human resource (HR) practices on Sri Lankan tea plantations regarding the degree to which these fit into the extant notion of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS). The Sri Lankan tea plantations meet the criteria for sustainable organizational long-term performance. Methodology. Interviews, thematically analysed, were conducted with the management, the workers and the unions. Findings. Both the nature of practices within each HPWS sub-system (people flow, performance and rewards, and opportunities for employee involvement), and partly the sub-systems themselves, are substantially different in the plantations from those presumed in the HPWS literature. To illustrate, the following key ingredients of HPWS as seen in the literature were in essence absent: sophisticated recruitment and selection, systematic training and development, internal promotion opportunities and broad career paths, formal appraisal mechanisms, job design to allow worker autonomy, open communication and information sharing. Teamwork, though utilized, was seen as problematic by all parties. Nonetheless, these HR systems have enabled bottom-line performance along with employee well-being and stability to the local communities over many decades. The data also suggested that company paternalism served as an overarching mentality in the way employees were managed. Originality/Practical and Social Implications. The study contributes by demonstrating that the way high-performance HRM is typically considered may not be the single alternative available, especially if we aim to achieve a balance between performance in the long-term, the well-being of employees and serving the community.

This chapter explores how portable charging solutions for electric vehicles (EVs) can bridge important infrastructure gaps in the transition toward sustainable mobility. Widespread EV adoption is accelerating nowadays due to environmental concerns and government policies, but there are challenges such as range anxiety, unequal infrastructure distribution, and high costs, which act as a barrier to widespread adoption. The chapter introduces the different portable charging technologies, such as mobile charging stations, battery swap systems, solar-powered kits, and EV-to-EV chargers, as an alternative to fixed charging stations. These solutions provide flexibility, accessibility, and emergency support, especially in underserved areas or during public events. A detailed technical and comparative analysis is conducted on five prominent portable chargers available in the market: FreeWire Mobi Charger, Kempower Movable Charger, EVgo Portable Charger, SparkCharge Roadie, and Blink Mobile Charger. Using a multi-criteria sensitivity analysis, FreeWire’s Mobi Charger ranks highest overall due to its high-power output, internal battery backup, and urban flexibility. The analysis highlights the importance of mobile chargers to meet the real-world deployment needs in terms of being grid independent, modular, and second-life battery reuse, which contributes to the sustainability of the environment. However, there are some challenges like cost, infrastructure gap, and regional regulatory fragmentation. Policy standardization, investment in renewable integration, and public awareness are key elements to scale these solutions. The chapter concludes that portable chargers are not just temporary fixes but are crucial in achieving net-zero goals. They have the capability of supporting logistics, rural accessibility, and smart energy grids, as well as facilitating the practice of circular economy. Portable EV charging will form part of future urban mobility and climate action plans as it will continue to become more innovative, regulatory aligned, and invested in.

Through a combination of systematic and narrative review of academic literature and relevant grey literature, particularly United Nations and European Commission publications, this chapter explores the barriers and challenges to the circular economy of electric vehicle supply chains (EVSCs), followed by the different ways in which circular economy principles can be enhanced in EVSCs. This chapter also examines the barriers, including battery design issues, infrastructural challenges, critical raw material needs, data collection and traceability issues, economic and commercial challenges, consumer and market behaviour, and policy and regulatory gaps. Potential solutions and pathways to address and overcome these barriers have also been evaluated in this review, including recycling of EV battery designs, sustainable critical material production, stakeholder and data co-ordination drawing on artificial intelligence, particularly Internet of Things capabilities, and harmonising policy and governance gaps and discord. This chapter concludes by identifying and advocating pertinent future directions of research and development to enhance circularity in EVSCs.