Shashank Thanki

Purpose: Sustainability has become one of the most crucial challenges in the past few years globally. Many manufacturing organizations have suffered significant financial losses as a result of their ignorance towards sustainability issues, along with disturbing the ecological balance and human well-being. Yet, developing countries have a far lower implementation rate of sustainability. Practices based on various Rs of sustainability like reuse, remanufacture and recycle will promote the transformation of industries from a linear to a circular economy. The current study thus aims to identify and analyse factors which are critical for the successful implementation of R-based sustainable practices in the Indian textile industry. Design/methodology/approach: The research employs a novel three-step approach, combining Fuzzy Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (FTISM), Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) model and Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP). FTISM analyses the interdependencies among identified critical success factors, MICMAC categorises them based on their dependence and driving power, while IRP considers performance measures to understand how these factors influence each other. By integrating these techniques, the study prioritizes the critical success factors based on their driving power, dependence and impact on achieving sustainable performance. Findings: The results reveal “government initiatives” and “social sustainability considerations” to be the most influential and important factors in achieving the goal of implementing R-based sustainable practices in the context of the Indian textile industry. Practical implications: This research purports to enable practitioners, specifically in the Textile industry, to devise a roadmap for successful implementation of R-based sustainable practices in their strategic and operational decisions to achieve sustainable development goals. Originality/value: This study is an initial attempt at examining the factors critical to successful implementation of R-based sustainable practices in the Textile industry by integrating three MCDM tools.

The present research aims to analyse the impact of carbon emissions on the firm’s market value. Further, the study also purports to examine the moderating role of carbon management practices on the firm value effects of emissions. The study adopts the panel data regression method to analyse the data of 107 companies collected from 2014 to 2023. Further, the moderation effect has been tested using PROCESS Macro and the hierarchical regression approach. Besides, a system generalized methods of moment has been performed to control for potential endogeneity. The study found a significant negative impact of carbon emissions on the market value of the sample firms. Further, the results also indicate that carbon management practices positively moderate this relation. It signifies that companies endeavouring to mitigate CO₂ emissions experience low-intensity negative emission effects. The present research enriches the growing literature on the economic outcomes of environmental performance and sustainability practices. However, the study covers the listed firms of an emerging economy, which restricts the generalizability in the developed economy context. Corporate practitioners can base their carbon management policies on the verdicts of the present research by understanding the effects of CO₂ emission on firm value. The present study, to the best of the author’s knowledge, is the first empirical research that analyses the moderating role of carbon management practices on the emission and market value nexus.

Purpose: This study investigates the issues surrounding work-life balance (WLB) and its relationship with job satisfaction (JS) among middle-level female employees in the service sector in Ahmedabad, India. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using purposive sampling, data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The study employs hierarchical cluster analysis to classify employees into high- and low-level WLB groups. Findings: The findings of the present study align with the job demands-resources (JDR) theory. The results reveal that higher levels of WLB correlate positively with greater JS. Among factors influencing WLB, family care ranked highest, followed by personal expectations. Research Implications: This study provides actionable insights for HR practitioners to develop gender-inclusive policies that enhance retention and employee satisfaction in the service sector.

Purpose: Popularity of organic food and food products is growing across the globe due to rising awareness towards health and environment, leading to quality life. However, the multitude of challenges associated with the purchase and consumption of organic food remain insufficiently addressed within the context of developing nations, such as India. This study attempts to fill this gap by identifying the crucial barriers and analyzing them further to establish contextual relationships among them.Design/methodology/approach: In total, 18 barriers identified with a literature review are classified into 6 major barriers (constructs) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Further, fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach is employed to relegate these barriers and sub-barriers into the cause-and-effect group. Moreover, causal relationships among these barriers are also established to assist organic food producers and food processing industries in developing the strategies to overcome these barriers.Findings: The study results indicate that “acceptability,” “preferability” and “reachability” are the most prominent barriers. Moreover, “reachability’ is the leading cause group barrier, while “acceptability” is the major effect group barrier. “Usualness,” “visibility” and “readiness” of the organic food exhibit significant challenges in the organic food consumption.Practical implications: The findings of this study act as a roadmap and guiding principle for various stakeholders, such as organic food manufacturers, organic food processing industries, government policymaking bodies and food certification agencies, in organizations and government regulatory agencies for devising and implementing targeted strategies to enhance the accessibility, appeal and, in turn, adoption and consumption of organic foods. This successively contributes to broader efforts in improving public health and ensuring sustainable agricultural practices.Originality/value: The contribution of this study is two-fold. First, it investigates the interdependences among the organic food consumption barriers. Second, it provides policy-related recommendations to enhance the consumption of organic food, especially in India.

Purpose: India’s manufacturing sector employs about 12% of the labour force and contributes to about 17% of the nation’s GDP. The Indian government intends to implement several initiatives under the “Make in India” and Atma Nirbhar Bharat banners to increase the manufacturing sector’s share of the nation’s GDP to 25% by 2025. Applying lean manufacturing, green manufacturing and Six Sigma is crucial to ensure that India’s manufacturing sectors grow sustainably in international markets. This study aims to identify sustainability indicators and ascertain their respective weights to evaluate the sustainability performance of the Indian manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approach: This research identifies 25 sustainability indicators and classifies them into the triple bottom line of sustainability based on an evaluative literature review and expert opinion. The Best Worst Method was utilised to determine the weights of the sustainability indicators. The sustainability index was developed to evaluate economic, social and environmental sustainability.Findings: The sustainability performance of a foundry in a significant Western Indian State city was assessed by applying the developed sustainability index. After the adoption of integrated lean, green and Six Sigma (LG&SS) strategies and related practices in the foundry, there has been a notable improvement of 68.03% in the economic index, 61.62% in the social index and 13.24% in the environmental index.Research limitations/implications: The proposed sustainability index is applied and evaluated specifically for assessing the sustainability performance of Indian manufacturing SMEs. It can be used to substantiate firm’s sustainability performance and also to assess the improvement in firm’s performance in economic, environmental and social dimensions after implementing various operational excellence practices. However, it cannot serve as a benchmark tool across similar companies or organisations.Practical implications: The developed sustainable index can be used to analyse the company or organisation’s sustainability performance and see how various strategies have improved things. Practitioners can use this index to assess social, economic and environmental performance and focus on areas that need improvement.Social implications: The proposed sustainability index serves as a vital tool for monitoring a firm’s progress in triple bottom line (TBL) dimensions of sustainability, tracking a diverse range of indicators and encouraging sustainable organisational practices.Originality/value: This study attempts to assess the economic, social and environmental performance of Indian Manufacturing SMEs by proposing a sustainability index.

Personal health, food safety and environmental concerns significantly contribute to the purchase and consumption of organic food. Several countries, including India, are turning their attention to encouraging organic food farming and purchasing to comply with sustainable development goals. This research identifies and analyses the motivational factors critical to the purchase and consumption of organic food and also extends a roadmap to the food industries for sustainable growth. A list of factors driving the purchase and consumption of organic food was extracted from the literature. Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS), Fuzzy Simple Additive Weighting (Fuzzy SAW) and Borda method are used to prioritize the identified motivational factors followed by the sensitivity analysis to simulate dynamic various market requirements and challenges. The findings substantiate that chemical free, no artificial ingredients, good for body, healthy and awareness about health significantly influence the purchase and consumption of organic food products. To ensure sustainable production and consumption of organic food, it is vital for government policymakers, organizations involved in production, marketing and distribution of the organic food to understand and critically evaluate various factors affecting the purchase and consumption intensions of the consumers.

Continuous fiber–reinforced thermoplastic composites are gaining acceptance in the manufacturing sector. However, the production constraints of intricate designs, the difficulty of using unique fiber alignment, and the expensive moldings make their usage inadequate. This investigation attempts to produce composites using continuous glass fiber as filler material and three distinct polymers, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polylactic acid, and polyethylene terephthalate glycol, utilizing an indigenously built nozzle attachment with the fused filament fabrication (FFF) process. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were used to elucidate the interface performance. The experimental results showed that the tensile strength of glass fiber–reinforced composites was 218 to 241 % greater than that of just thermoplastic specimens when the printing raster direction was 0° and 35 to 45 % lower when the printing raster orientation was 90°. Furthermore, SEM findings revealed that the tensile stress was very low and had bad interface behavior when the printing raster orientation was 90°. FFF has more adaptability for fiber reinforcement because of its meticulous orientation and good dispersal capabilities for the additively manufactured part, which may be directly used as the final product. The fiber content and its interfacing with base material are critical technical specifications for the composites.

Growing concerns of climate change have necessitated a re-examination of business activities and their viability, not only from a financial viewpoint but also social as well as environmental dimension, popularly known as the ‘Triple Bottom Line approach’. The paper is an attempt to bring around the focus on Clean Development projects that deal with carbon credit in India. The sector is a niche in its numbers but huge in potential. This study mainly examines the CDM project risk associated with carbon credit in the organizations from energy sector that had registered and implemented CDM projects in Gujarat. The analysis is based on purposive data collected for larg-scale CDM projects. Statistical analysis was done through non-parametric tests named descriptive analysis, Spearman correlation analysis, and Mann-Whitney U test applied. Analysis of the result reveals that all the enlisted risk has a high degree of association with large scale projects. Correlation results indicated that all kinds of carbon risks have a meaningful positive relationship with each other irrespective of the phase of the CDM project. Type of organizations (public/private sector) also creates differences in CDM project risks. The findings of the research will assist managers in decision-making about carbon emission project risks.