Surviving disruption: nature inspired solutions

Purpose Decision-makers in companies increasingly face unprecedented natural disasters. When business continuity is at risk, managers need a framework to imminently react. Design/methodology/approach A literature review and analysis of survival responses in nature and business case examples of company responses to the Covid-19 pandemic was the approach used. Findings There are direct parallels between the physiological stress response when a living individual perceives a threat to its survival, and the immediate reactions that occur when companies are faced with a disruptive event. Practical implications This article is meant to be used by decision-makers in companies to better react to disruptive events. Originality/value While nature-inspired methods have inspired inventions and algorithms, Hans Selye's general adaptation theory has not been used in parallel with business scenarios. We correlate fundamental organism survival mechanisms with a risk response framework to improve the probability of business survival during external threats.

Advancing Circular Economy: Research Roadmap for Circular Integrated Production Systems

The coronavirus crisis had a critical impact on supply chains and production worldwide. In particular, closed borders often prevented companies from obtaining the components required for their production. Such disruptions are the results of globalization, with suppliers spreading all over the world. The circular economy is an opportunity to overcome this challenge since components from end-of-life items may substitute supplies from afar. However, many barriers exist in the implementation of circular processes, as manufacturers perceive it as a radical change to their procedures. Therefore, we propose not to use completely new lines for the circular economy, but to use already existing systems. This paper presents the definition of circular integrated production systems (CIPS) and suggests a research roadmap for such to investigate what challenges and potentials arise, and what future research will be needed. © 2021, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.