Balancing sustainability and disruption of supply chains requires organizational ambidexterity. Sustainable supply chains prioritize efficiency and economies of scale and may not have sufficient redundancy to withstand disruptive events. There is a developing body of literature that attempts to reconcile these two aspects. This study gives a data-driven literature review of sustainable supply chain management trends toward ambidexterity and disruption. The critical review reveals temporal trends and geographic distribution of literature. A hybrid of data-driven analysis approach based on content and bibliometric analyses, fuzzy Delphi method, entropy weight method, and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is used on 273 keywords and 22 indicators obtained based on the experts' evaluation. The most important indicators are identified as supply chain agility, supply chain coordination, supply chain finance, supply chain flexibility, supply chain resilience, and sustainability. The regions show different tendencies compared with others. Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the regions needs improvement, while Europe and North America show distinct apprehensions on supply chain network design. The main contribution of this review is the identification of the knowledge frontier, which then leads to a discussion of prospects for future studies and practical industry implementation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as one of the deadliest infectious diseases on the planet. Millions of people and businesses have been placed in lockdown where the main aim is to stop the spread of the virus. As an extreme phenomenon, the lockdown has triggered a global economic shock at an alarming pace, conveying sharp recessions for many countries. In the meantime, the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically changed energy consumption patterns and reduced CO2 emissions throughout the world. Recent data released by the International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency for 2020 further forecast that emissions will rebound in 2021. Still, the full impact of COVID-19 in terms of how long the crisis will be and how the consumption pattern of energy and the associated levels of CO2 emissions will be affected are unclear. This review aims to steer policymakers and governments of nations toward a better direction by providing a broad and convincing overview on the observed and likely impacts of the pandemic of COVID-19 on the world economy, world energy demand, and world energy-related CO2 emissions that may well emerge in the next few years. Indeed, given that immediate policy responses are required with equal urgency to address three things-pandemic, economic downturn, and climate crisis. This study outlines policy suggestions that can be used during these uncertain times as a guide.
Remote work (working from home) became a norm rather than an exception for the global workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, influencing every facet of life in both positive and negative ways. The stringent action of the Malaysian government in enacting the Movement Control Order (MCO) motivated the investigation of its impact on the energy consumption behaviour of working people regarding air-conditioner (AC) use. To this end, this study conducted a cross-sectional survey through an online platform. An ordinal logistic regression model (ORL) was used to analyse the collected data of 1873 respondents to determine the factors influencing the ordinal variable of interest, AC-usage behaviour during remote work. Next, the variable with unordered categories, the MCO-induced change in AC-usage behaviour, was analysed using a multinomial regression model (MLT) to identify the potential determinants. Finally, a reason analysis unveiled aspects behind the transition in AC use during remote work. This study identified stopping AC use during remote work despite using it at the office before the MCO period as the most significant change in AC-usage behaviour due to MCO. This change was frequently adopted by people with medium-level incomes and high electricity bills. By contrast, participants unfamiliar with their electricity bill were most likely to start AC use during remote work, although they did not use it before the MCO. Participants working remotely in the communal spaces of their houses preferred to stop using ACs during MCO compared to private room users. Furthermore, age group and ethnicity significantly influenced AC-usage behaviour in remote work and changes in such demeanours. These findings recommend policy interventions to expedite limited AC use for a sustainable energy sector, even during future climatic emergencies .
The amount of food being thrown away despite being in an edible condition has become alarming in countries with populations with medium and high incomes. Changes in consumer behaviour, such as overbuying, are some of the major impetuses of food waste. This study aimed to examine the relationship between food waste and social media usage, neuroticism, and impulse buying. The mediating role of impulse buying and the moderating role of neuroticism on food waste during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic were also uncovered in this study. A self-administered online survey was distributed to a total of 274 consumers who had experienced a lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak and were also regular buyers of food. Empirical findings supported the fact that social media usage, neuroticism, and impulse buying were positively related to food waste. Impulse buying mediates the relationship between social media usage and food waste, as well as between neuroticism and food waste. The study results also revealed that neuroticism positively moderates the relationship between social media usage and food waste. This paper offers new insights into efforts for sustainable food consumption to tackle the issue of food waste.