Guest editorial: Post-COVID-19 sustainable supply chain management in emerging markets

Since the early 2000s, emerging markets have become the heart of global supply chains hosting a large volume of industrial productions. The second article looked into the barriers to attaining sustainability in supply chain of the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical sector and developed a hierarchical structure of those barriers using interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC analysis. The eleventh article explored a new way to assess suppliers' suitability by considering pseudo-resilience factors to achieve SSC in the post-COVID-19 era using an analytical hierarchy process and R. It also provided a case study of three smartphone processor suppliers (Jessin et al., 2023).

Sustainable Assessment in Supply Chain and Infrastructure Management

Assessing sustainability in supply chain and infrastructure management is important for any organization in the competitive business environment or public domain. Public buildings such as higher education institutions are responsible for a substantial portion of energy consumption and anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Roukouni et al. (contribution twelve) developed truck platooning and multi-sided digital platforms games for barge transportation, both improving the sustainability of hinterland transportation. Besides these studies, Özdemir et al. (contribution thirteen) assessed the efficiency of the operations strategy matrix in the healthcare system amid COVID-19.

Green recovery strategies for the mining industry of India: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose>This study aims to find and evaluate the impact of COVID-19 in India’s mining activities. From the literature survey and input from experts, 14 important factors and ten green recovery strategies are identified. These 14 factors and 10 strategies are examined in a real industrial environment.Design/methodology/approach>In this research study, fuzzy-complex proportional assessment is used to compare the identified strategies with the selected factors. Based on the outcome, this study identifies the optimum strategy that could assist the mining industry in handling both COVID-19 and sustainability issues.Findings>The study’s outcome reveals that a large group of workers, collapse of demand and disruption, and suffered contractual workers are the top three factors that need to be considered regarding COVID-19 and sustainability issues. Effective strategies for eco-innovation practices, an emphasis on health and safety, and environmental awareness, education and training are the three primary strategies to be implemented for the greatest impact.Originality/value>This research study is the first of its kind to coordinate both issues of COVID-19 and sustainability. In this regard, this study sheds a timely light on the precautions that need to be taken in tackling COVID-19 and sustainability issues. This study’s outcome will enhance the managerial capability in developing robust and effective strategies for handling difficult situations.

Supply chain viability in the context of COVID-19 pandemic in small and medium-sized enterprises: implications for sustainable development goals

PurposeThe recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely disrupted the operations of global supply chains (SCs) providing an opportunity for decision-makers to rethink and tune their existing strategies. To tackle the impacts caused by such a pandemic, this study aims to examine the contextual relations among the factors influencing supply chain viability (SCV) for achieving long-term Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Design/methodology/approachA decision-aid approach by integrating Pareto analysis, grey theory and total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) has been propounded. The proposed approach examines contextual relations among the factors for SCV for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging economy. This study contributes to theory, methodology and practice by exploring a new research problem in the context of the SCV and COVID-19 pandemic and by developing a new decision-aid approach.FindingsThe findings reveal that the creation of SC digital twin and transformation of SCs to supply networks would help the policymakers to deal with the “new normal.” Also, SC crowdfunding and policy development for health protocols are critical driving factors influencing SCV.Originality/valueThis research work is perhaps one of few initial attempts to advance the theoretical and practical understanding of SCV and to achieve SDGs in industries following a pandemic risk.