Graça Miranda Silva

Purpose: This study investigates the drivers, organisational dynamics and management practices of food waste in a quick commerce (Q-commerce) retailer in Europe. It addresses the lack of empirical research on food waste in Q-commerce, a rapidly expanding but underexplored retail model. Design/methodology/approach: A single-case study was conducted at Company Q, a Q-commerce operator in Europe. A mixed-methods approach combined secondary data on waste from five stores over six months with seven semi-structured interviews across Supply Chain, Category Management and Operations. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, while qualitative data were thematically coded using ATLAS.ti. Findings: Food waste was primarily driven by inaccurate forecasting, inadequate storage and handling, poor promotional planning and short shelf lives of perishables. These drivers were amplified by Q-commerce's fast-paced model. Additional barriers included key performance indicator (KPI) misalignment across departments and technological limitations. Current measures, namely, discounting, donations and limited cross-departmental coordination, were largely reactive, while employees identified opportunities in AI forecasting, automated discounting, supplier collaboration and KPI integration. Research limitations/implications: Findings are based on a single case study. Future research should adopt a multi-case design to validate the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications: The study highlights how Q-commerce operators can move from reactive waste mitigation toward preventive strategies. Originality/value: This research is among the first empirical analyses of food waste in Q-commerce, extending food waste scholarship into new retail formats and bridging operational theory with managerial practice in sustainable retail management.

Supply chain resilience has become a critical objective for managers navigating an increasingly uncertain environment. This study examines how supply chain digitalization contributes to resilience through the lens of the dynamic capabilities framework. Specifically, we investigate the mediating role of triple‐A capabilities—agility, adaptability, and alignment—in this relationship. We use survey data from 408 Portuguese manufacturing firms and employ a mixed‐method approach encompassing structural equation modeling (SEM), fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), and necessary condition analysis (NCA) to test our hypotheses. The results from SEM underscore the positive effect of supply chain digitalization on enhancing triple‐A capabilities, with alignment and adaptability serving as significant mediators, while agility does not. The fsQCA identifies three alternative configurations of digitalization and triple‐A capabilities that firms use to achieve resilience, providing evidence for joint effects. Additionally, NCA identifies supply chain alignment as a necessary condition for resilience. Our findings contribute to supply chain management research by characterizing how the interplay between digitalization and triple‐A capabilities fosters resilience, offering practical insights for managers seeking to prioritize investments in digitally enabled capabilities.

Purpose: Businesses are increasingly called upon to support the improvement of society and the environment, and one way to do so is by expanding into international markets, particularly through exports. Despite the importance and recognised challenges of a global approach to sustainable value creation, sustainability research tends to focus on domestic contexts. This paper aims to identify the boundary conditions linking sustainable value creation practices with firm performance in the international context. Design/methodology/approach: The authors merge the sustainable value creation and the international marketing literature to develop two propositions that capture the emerging nature of the field and the lack of concluding evidence regarding the link between international sustainable value creation practices and firm performance. The authors test these propositions empirically by analysing 519 responses to a survey of exporting firms in Portugal, using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings: The authors identify seven configurations that support sustainable value creation in an international context. These consist of varying levels of standardised and tailored offers, management experience and competitive intensity. Practical implications: The identification of seven different configurations helps managers decide whether and how to innovate when pursuing sustainable value creation opportunities in international markets. Social implications: The authors propose that an effective way for governments to achieve national and transnational social and environmental agendas is to help businesses that pursue sustainable value creation to succeed in international markets. Given that four of the seven pathways to improve export performance that the authors identified require international management experience, the authors posit that an effective way to support the internationalisation of those businesses is through targeted training programmes and knowledge-sharing initiatives. Originality/value: The authors respond to calls for research to integrate the sustainable value creation and the international marketing literatures, to identify how and when firms can create sustainable value creation in an international context and thus support the resolution of global, social and environmental problems. The finding that there are multiple configurations that support this goal explains why empirical evidence collected thus far is inconclusive and helps identify the boundary conditions of existing theory.

Firm innovation is a characteristic of firms with a robust entrepreneurial orientation that wish to have a strong competitive position in their sector. Drawing on the theories of servant leadership and upper echelons, this study aims to highlight the mechanisms through which CEO servant leadership enhances firm innovation. This paper examines (1) knowledge absorptive capacity as a mediator in the CEO servant leadership–firm innovation relationship, and (2) the moderating role of social capital (internal and external) in this relationship. Original data from 176 large and medium-sized hotels in the Canary and Balearic Islands (Spain) were used to test the hypotheses, and a partial least squares (PLS) analysis using Smart PLS 4 revealed that CEO servant leadership was positive for firm innovation, which was, in turn, mediated by firm knowledge absorptive capacity. Furthermore, the relationship between CEO servant leadership and firm knowledge absorptive capacity was found to grow stronger as internal social capital increased, while external social capital strengthened the positive link between firm knowledge absorptive capacity and firm innovation. New light is therefore shed on how and when CEO servant leadership is most effective in fostering firm innovation. Additionally, our firm-level findings contribute to the servant leadership literature, which is dominated by individual and group-level research, and expand the mounting evidence for the positive impact of CEO servant leadership on firm-level outcomes.

The pandemic forced both organizations and consumers to make many adjustments to their daily lives. However, due the technological advances that have been seen in recent years, some tools have become much more widely used. Among them are the food delivery applications (FDAs) that experienced an exponential growth during the pandemic. This study proposes an integrated model based on the health belief model and the technology readiness and acceptance model to better understand the determinants of users’ continuance intention to use FDAs. Empirical data collected from 288 Portuguese users of FDAs during the pandemic was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that both the perceived susceptibility to and severity of COVID-19 infection positively influenced the perceived usefulness of food delivery applications. Technology readiness is also a predictor of perceived usefulness. Both self-efficacy and technology readiness predict users’ perceived ease of use. Users’ continuance intention to use food delivery applications is directly influenced by perceived usefulness and ease of use and indirectly by self-efficacy, technology readiness, perceived severity, and perceived susceptibility.