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The purpose of the article is to contribute to the body of research on digital transformation among members of the supply chain operating in an emerging economy. This paper researches the digital transformation trends happening across Vietnamese supply chains, by investigating the current adoption rates, predicted impact levels and financial investments being made in key Industry 4.0 technologies.

By using a semi-structured online survey, the experiences of 281 supply chain professionals in Vietnam were captured. Subsequently, statistical techniques examining variances in means, regression analysis and Monte Carlo simulation were applied.

The findings of this study offer a comprehensive understanding of Industry 4.0 technology in Vietnam, highlighting the prevalent technologies being prioritized. Big data analytics and the Internet of things are expected to have the most substantial impact on businesses over the next 5–10 years and have received the most financial investment. Conversely, Blockchain is perceived as having less potential for future investment. The study further identifies several technological synergies, such as combining advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and the Internet of things to build effective and flexible factories, that can lead to more comprehensive solutions. It also extends diffusion of innovation theory, encompassing investment and impact considerations.

This study offers valuable insights into the impact and financial investment in Industry 4.0 technologies by Vietnamese supply chain firms. It provides a theoretical contribution via an extension of the diffusion of innovation theory and contributes toward a better understanding of the current Industry 4.0 landscape in developing economies. The findings have significant implications for future managerial decision-making, on the impact, viability and resourcing needs when undertaking digital transformation.

Whilst the role that procurement plays in today’s organisations is becoming increasingly strategic, recruitment into the discipline in Australia remains a significant challenge, and this has led to a serious ongoing skills shortage. By combining the findings from an online survey of Australian practitioners, with a set of face-to-face interviews with procurement recruitment specialists, the purpose of this paper is to establish a set of possible reasons for the skills shortage, before making suggestions as to how this shortage may be addressed.

This empirical study combines the findings from an online practitioner survey with structured interviews with recruitment age]ncies. Mixed method approaches like this give researchers an opportunity to combine different research design elements, from individual mono-methods, in an attempt to address research questions in a more detailed manner.

The procurement professionals participating in the online survey underlined an ability to manage relationships, working effectively with individuals and teams/groups, managing risk, legal knowledge and an understanding of how procurement connects with the other disciplines within an organisation, as being the most critical skills needed by a procurement professional. With no direct pathway into this profession from higher education, the recruitment agencies intimated that finding graduates who were trained and prepared for this career was challenging, in an area where young skilled professionals are direly needed. Interestingly, whilst a number of practitioners indicated a “lack of professional experience/workplace awareness” as being a barrier to graduate employment in this profession, when asked whether the organisation they worked for had a graduate programme, internship or co-op programme that places students within the workplace, only 30 per cent of those questioned confirmed that they did.

These findings extend the existing body of literature, identify a number of gaps and underline the need for continued research into this strategically significant profession.

The results are of great significance to universities and other degree-awarding higher education institutions, highlighting a demand for skilled graduates in an area that is not currently serviced by existing educational packages, presenting a possible future market opportunity. There are additional implications for human resource managers, practitioners and policy makers, and this research raises awareness of the need for change.

The procurement discipline is attracting an increasing level of academic interest, but there are a lack of studies exploring the reasons behind the talent issues experienced by firms recruiting into this discipline. This paper directly addresses the talent shortage and is the first research to discuss that the lack of a clear career pathway between higher education, and the procurement profession, might be one of the key factors.

The purpose of this study is to apply and extend the predictors within the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand consumers' behaviour toward recycling end-of-life garments among Australian consumers. The predictors explored within this study include attitude, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms, self-identity, general recycling behaviour eco-literacy, self-efficacy, intentions to recycle and behaviour to recycle end-of-life garments.

Data were collected from a sample of consumers across all eight recognised states/territories in Australia through survey questionnaires. A total of 481 usable responses were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Results show positive relationships between the factors explored with all hypotheses supported. The findings of this study have theoretical and managerial implications. They (1) provide an insight into the significant factors that influence consumers' recycling behaviour amongst Australian fashion consumers; (2) bridge the gap in the explanatory nature of TPB by extending this theory; (3) call to develop marketing campaigns to educate consumers on the impact of fashion waste; (4) suggest the need for provision of household textile collection bins at a national level and (5) highlight the need for policy reform on garment recycling enabled by the Australian government.

This study is part of the limited studies that focus on the recycling of consumer fashion waste within the Australian context. Little research has also applied the TPB to end-of-life fashion products with a focus on recycling. In addition, no study to the authors' knowledge has, in combination, explored self-efficacy, self-identity, general recycling behaviour and eco-literacy as predictors of intentions to recycle end-of-life garments.

Advances in technology enable companies to collect and analyse data, which were previously not accessible, to either enhance existing business processes or create new ones. The purpose of this paper is to document the role and impact of Big Data Analytics (BDA), and the Internet of Things (IoT), in supporting a large logistics firm’s strategy to improve driver safety, lower operating costs, and reduce the environmental impact of their vehicles.

A single case with embedded units intrinsic case study method was adopted for this research and data were collected from a “real-life” situation, to create new knowledge about this emerging phenomenon.

Truck telematics were utilised in order to better understand, and improve, driving behaviours. Remote control centres monitor live sensor data from the company’s fleet of vehicles, capturing the likes of speed, location, braking, and engine data, to inform future training programs. A combination of truck telematics and geo-information are being used to enable proactive alerts to be sent to drivers regarding possible upcoming hazards. Camera-based technologies have been adopted to improve driver safety, and fatigue management, capturing evidence of important driving events and storing data directly to the cloud, and BDA is also being used to improve truck routing, recommend optimal fuel purchasing times/locations, and to forecast predictive and proactive maintenance schedules.

The type of data collected by Company A, and similar logistics companies, has the potential to greatly inform researchers investigating autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and the physical internet.

Eco-driving, a practice informed/improved by BDA at Company A, has been linked to reductions in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions, which bring both economic and environmental benefits. Technologies similar to Truckcam are growing in popularity in some parts of the world, to the point where it is now common practice to use dashcam assess of accidents to establish liability. This has implications for logistics firms, in other parts of the world, where such practices might not yet be so commonplace, and for drivers and society more broadly.

Improvements in utilisation and routing have the potential to reduce traffic congestion, which is responsible for losses in productivity, increases in fuel consumption, air pollution and noise, and can incite stress, aggression, anger and unsafe behaviours in drivers. Predictive analytics, which generate refuelling and maintenance schedules, have the potential to be adopted by all vehicle manufacturers, and could generate reductions in customer fuel costs, whilst improving the performance, efficiency, and life expectancy of future motor all vehicles. The high probability of occupations in the logistics industry being replaced by computer automation in the near future is also discussed.

The findings from this research serve as a valuable case example of a real-world deployment of BDA and IoT technologies in the logistics industry, and present implications for practitioners, researchers, and society more widely.

THIS was my first experience in my home country of a conference in a university campus, and an impressive experience it was too. Away from the attractions and allurements of sea and coast, I found it particularly conducive to study and reflection, for the atmosphere of learning was all around us in this red‐brick university, the prototype of a civic university, founded in 1900 and with a student population of nearly 5,000.

This was my first experience in my home country of a conference in a university campus, and an impressive experience it was too. Away from the attractions and allurements of sea and coast, I found it particularly conducive to study and reflection, for the atmosphere of learning was all around us in this red‐brick university, the prototype of a civic university, founded in 1900 and with a student population of nearly 5,000.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. The policy responses to this outbreak have caused many impacts on our daily life and economic activities around the world. Also, this outbreak has affected financial reporting practices of the firms. Thorough financial reporting in such uncertain times plays an essential role in providing qualitative financial information. It is very important for a firm to increase transparency and report on the impacts of possible risks in times of uncertainty. Furthermore, stock markets may react to COVID-19 as they have already responded to major events like disasters, news, environmental and political events. This study investigates whether and how firms’ providing information about COVID-19 pandemic in their financial reports plays a role in explaining the stock market reactions. For this, annual reports of companies included in BIST-100 index in Turkey is used to analyze the capacity for detecting risks early and determine whether there is an association between early reporting about COVID-19 and the stock risk.

One of the most important debates within the literature on the Urban Informal Economy (UIE) focuses on whether self‐employed individuals operating informally are “entrepreneurs” who should be aided by development planners or “disguised workers” who are super‐exploited by firms within the formal economy. While some authors have argued that the (UIE) may include both, there is little agreement on how to distinguish “entrepreneurs” from “disguised workers” so that the policies designed to promote the former while discouraging the latter can be developed. This article proposes a set of “scales of independence” to measure the relative dependence of self‐employed informal workers on specific suppliers and clients, and proposes several different categories of dependence/independence that should improve our understanding of the economic activity within the UIE.