Sustainable Business Management: Operations Competitiveness, Digital Competence and Supply Chain Network

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability emphasises the three dimensions of the triple bottom line (economic, environmental and social). Today, it is recognised as one of the most relevant key factors in generating competitive advantages and better economic performances for firms.

Recently, society has increased the pressure on industries to direct more attention to the environmental and resource consequences of the products and services they offer and the processes they deploy. Across the world, institutions and countries are including in their agendas, as a priority, the need to transform the current industrial sector towards a more sustainable economy that strengthens business competitiveness by meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), incorporating information and communication technologies, while protecting the environment. This new context will require the implementation of a new, evolutionary and integrative perspective of organisations and will imply, in many cases, substantial changes in organisations to become more sustainable in their management. Sustainable Business Management (SBM) means operating in a way that recognises that resources are limited and valuable, thus managing them in a way that sustains and builds value for all stakeholders that contribute to an organisation.

Within the context of firms, operations management is considered a strategic area in achieving the sustainable development goals as it consumes most of the productive resources that are now considered as limited and valuable. Consequently, the implementation of new operations management practices has become essential for the development of environmentally friendly processes that allow for us to achieve the SDG goals, mainly those related to SDG9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) and SDG12 (responsible consumption and production).

These environmentally friendly processes cannot be achieved without digital transformations (i.e., Artificial Intelligence, Industry 4.0 technologies) and the incorporation of sustainability into the management of supply chains, as this will enable better operational efficiency, promote environmental performance and promote the sustainable development goals in the management of material, information and networks throughout the supply chain. Addressing these challenges—to be efficient and competitive, from an operational to supply chain level—is a hot topic that requires further research.

We invite high-quality empirically rigorous papers addressing sustainable practices in operations management and the supply chain. Potential contributions may include, but should not be limited to, theoretical papers and/or quantitative studies. Papers that provide new empirical evidence from case studies are also welcome. With this in mind, we are looking for theoretical and empirical research able to investigate a variety of lines of inquiry, including:

• Digitalisation for SBM in operations and the supply chain;
• New trends in SBM;
• Supply chain networks for SBM;
• R&D for responsible production and consumption;
• SDGs in operations management and the supply chain;
• Enablers, barriers and outcomes of SBM;
• Public resources for sustainable business transitions;
• Design and development of sustainable products and processes;
• SBM practices in singular contexts (i.e., specific sectors, family firms, SMEs);
• Gender diversity and SBM;
• Work practices for SBM.

Dr. Gema García-Piqueres
Dr. Marta Pérez-Pérez
Guest Editors

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• sustainable business management
• operations
• supply chain
• digital competence
• sustainable development goals
• Industry 4.0
• networks