This paper analyzes the joint coordination of green investment and inventory decisions in a two-echelon supply chain operating under demand uncertainty. The supply chain consists of a manufacturer with imperfect production and a retailer exposed to stockout risk. The manufacturer invests in Industry 4.0 technologies to enhance product greenness, which drives market demand and generates cost spillovers for the retailer. Using an EOQ-based framework, we analyze centralized and decentralized decision-making under deterministic demand and then extend the model to a stochastic setting by incorporating probabilistic lead-time demand. The results show that decentralized decision-making leads to systematic underinvestment in green technologies and lower supply chain profitability compared to the centralized benchmark. These inefficiencies are amplified under demand uncertainty. To address this coordination failure, the paper proposes a cost-sharing contract that align incentives across supply chain members. Numerical analysis shows that the proposed contract increases green investment and improves service performance. Under varying backorder rates, total supply chain profit increases by an average of 10.72%, achieving Pareto efficiency. This study contributes to the EOQ and stochastic inventory literature by integrating green investment decisions, imperfect production, and digital spillover effects into a unified coordination framework, offering actionable insights for sustainable supply chain management in the context of Industry 4.0.
In recent years, the literature has concentrated on consumers' sustainable attitudes and purchases, and the underlying mechanisms behind consumers' sustainable buying decisions. Yet, to the best of our knowledge, studies that examine the impact of culture on attitudes and purchase behaviors towards sustainable fashion, through the prism of consumption values, and moderated by gender, are fragmented and limited. Elaborating on the dynamics of culture, gender, and consumption values, this study applies an online survey with 171 U.S. and 157 Greek participants to delve into sustainable fashion consumption. Notably, it reveals the effect of country on purchase behavior via consumption values and attitudes toward sustainable fashion, in the moderating presence of gender. U.S. (vs. Greek) men demonstrate higher attitudes and purchase behaviors towards sustainable fashion, driven by enhanced emotional and social value. U.S. (vs. Greek) women exert enhanced purchase behavior and social consumption value, while Greek women demonstrate higher levels of emotional value. These findings provide fruitful evidence with respect to the impact of cultural and demographic dynamics on sustainable fashion consumption, through the prism of consumption values. The study also highlights potential paths for future research that could help marketers delve into understanding sustainable fashion consumption.
This study assesses the effectiveness of social media advertising campaigns in the supermarket sector by combining managerial insights with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to support informed, sustainable decision-making. Considering the ever-increasing complexity of digital communication and the growing need for sustainable marketing resources, supermarkets require effective methods to evaluate social media platforms beyond isolated metrics. The study employs the Visual PROMETHEE program, an MCDA that incorporates qualitative insights from 27 supermarket managers in Northern Greece, along with the PROMETHEE II multi-criteria decision analysis method. At the outset, managers evaluated the importance of thirty-four social media performance factors with a five-point scale. Seven core evaluation criteria are identified by aggregating importance ratings and qualitative analysis: return on investment, revenue contribution, lead generation, engagement, cost efficiency, feedback, electronic word of mouth (eWoM), and reach. The use of these criteria later led to the evaluation of seven major social media platforms. A transparent ranking of platforms is presented, based on the results. The ranking highlights significant performance differences across financial, engagement, and reputational dimensions. The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating managerial guidance with multi-criteria analysis to inform long-lasting and evidence-based marketing decisions in retail.
As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) reshapes educational priorities, governance and pedagogical norms, global citizenship education (GCE) in higher education (HE) faces intensifying tensions between ethical imperatives and algorithmic rationalities. This article offers a human-centred, critical-decolonial reframing of GCE in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). It argues that the dominant approaches to GCE risk reinforcing neoliberal, technocratic and universalist assumptions. Drawing on the work of Vanessa Andreotti, Sharon Stein, Emiliano Bosio and Paulo Freire, the article advocates for an alternative grounded in relational ethics, epistemic plurality and institutional reflexivity. Employing critical interpretive synthesis and guided by the performative tool of social cartography, the authors developed a ten-dimension framework for institutional self-reflection. Rather than framing GCE as a fixed set of global competencies, this framework reimagines it as a dynamic pedagogical project grounded in care, shared responsibility and ethical dialogue. It responds to the structural inequities amplified by AI integration, foregrounds the risks of AI-mediated depersonalisation and invites HE institutions to implement GCE as a dynamic space for justice-oriented learning and collective flourishing.
The UN 2030 Agenda sets an ambitious framework for all countries and actors, state and non-state, and calls for them to align their development perspectives with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Higher education institutions (HEIs) have an important role to play in fulfilling SDG 4 'Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all'. Target 4.7 requires mainstreaming of sustainable development in national policies, curricula, and assessment tools. This paper analyses the development and implementation of appropriate mechanisms and tools in HEIs sustainability benchmarking and identifies best practices for institutional sustainability self-assessment tools under the lens of the whole-institution approach. It presents most prominent self-assessment tools for sustainability benchmarking applied by HEIs, which could lead to sustainable and energy-efficient universities. Finally, it explores future trends in higher education sustainability benchmarking. The analysis and results may offer a new perspective to academic research in this field.
