Creating a sustainable future through Industry 4.0 technologies: Untying the role of circular economy practices and supply chain visibility

Integrity Challenges in Halal Meat Supply Chain: Potential Industry 4.0 Technologies as Catalysts for Resolution

The application of Industry 4.0 technologies in the halal meat supply chain (HMSC) is an emerging but underexplored area. While technologies like 3D printing, AI, AR, metaverse, digital twins, robotics, and big data analytics are widely discussed in food production, their specific use in HMSC lacks comprehensive analysis. These technologies can address challenges such as cross-contamination, fraud, and traceability issues, but few studies have examined their practical implementation, highlighting the need for further empirical research. This review explores how Industry 4.0 technologies enhance efficiency, traceability, and transparency in HMSC and highlights the potential use of AR for real-time product verification, metaverse for virtual inspections, AI and robotics for improving efficiency, compliance, and hygiene, and digital twins for training and product quality monitoring. The review also identified research gaps, particularly the lack of focus on intelligent packaging, in vitro meat, and the 3D printing of halal meat products. The findings stress the need for greater exploration of these technologies in the HMSC, emphasizing their transformative potential in creating a transparent and efficient halal food system. Further research on emerging technologies like 3D printing and in vitro meat is essential, especially regarding their impact on halal standards and sustainability, ensuring future growth.

Green Manufacturing for a Green Environment from Manufacturing Sector in Guangdong Province: Mediating Role of Sustainable Operations and Operational Transparency

This work investigates the manufacturing operations of focal firms to manage the enhancement of environmental sustainability (EnS). To achieve this, indirect and direct effects of operational transparency (OPT) and sustainable operations (SUP) between environmental business practices (EBPr) and EnS are proposed. By leveraging the resource-based view theory, this study seeks to clarify how integrating transparency and sustainable operations can enhance a firm’s ability to manage environmental challenges effectively. Aligning environmental business practices with sustainable operations and transparency concepts appears to be an appropriate choice for environmental sustainability. A well-designed questionnaire was formed and used to collect the observations from 1214 focal firms. FsQCA and SEM approaches are employed to analyze one of the research questions of operations management: How do OPT and SUP mediate the effects of EBPr on the environmental sustainability of a firm? The final results clarify that the indirect effects of OPT and SUP significantly completely exist and are positive. The findings describe that firms with operational transparency and sustainability perform well in resolving operational and sustainable issues.

Unveiling environmental excellence: the confluence of green Industrial Internet of Things, circular economy practices and dynamic capabilities in manufacturing firms

Purpose

To meet environmental performance (EP) goals, this study aims to identify the complex interaction between green Industrial Internet of Things (GIIoT), circular economic practices (CEPs) and dynamic capabilities (DC). This study analyzes how technological, operational and cultural compatibilities enhance GIIoT adoption.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from diverse Chinese manufacturing firms (n = 339) through a quantitative survey. The research model was proposed, and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Moreover, the robustness of the structural model is further tested using Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and importance performance map analysis.

Findings

The empirical results indicate that higher organizational compatibilities boost GIIoT adoption and EP. DC was assessed as a higher-order construct to examine its mediation of GIIoT adoption and EP. DC positively mediates GIIoT adoption-EP. Similarly, CEP’s positive impact on EP, partially mediating the relationship between GIIoT adoption and EP, has also been proved.

Originality/value

This research bridges current understanding and contributes useful insights for fostering environmental sustainability inside manufacturing firms and advances the theoretical understanding of technology adoption, sustainable development and dynamic capacity theory. It illuminates the way forward to harmonize and successfully integrate technology, CEP and EP. This research advances the area and gives decision-makers practical advice for creating sustainable and technologically sophisticated organizations.