As artificial intelligence (AI) evolves rapidly, Generative AI (GAI) has become a transformative force in business operations and strategic decision-making. While its potential to influence gains in sustainability performance is attracting growing attention, the impact outcomes and underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. To address this gap, grounded in the stage-based Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory, this study uses a long-horizon event study to trace changes in sustainability performance around GAI adoption events. Drawing on 150 identified events from 2020 to 2023 among Chinese A-share-listed entities, our analysis reveals a U-shaped trajectory in sustainability performance (measured by ESG scores) during assimilation: performance initially dips in the initiation stage (pre-adoption) but recovers and improves significantly in the implementation stage (post-adoption). Furthermore, using cross-sectional regression within the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, we identify technological intensity and executive background as key contingent factors that strengthen the positive effect of GAI assimilation on sustainability performance. The study extends current AI-sustainability research by focusing on the performance benefits and contingencies of GAI assimilation. It provides practical guidance for firms to bridge assimilation gaps and aid tech-sustainability synergies.

ABSTRACT Although the institutional environment is recognized as crucial for firms' low‐carbon development, how configurations of institutional pressures collectively shape firms' low‐carbon behaviors remains underexplored. Drawing on institutional theory, configuration theory, and resource‐based view, this study investigated the impact of institutional pressure configurations on firms' low‐carbon behaviors and the moderating role of artificial intelligence (AI) capability. The study used cluster analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and OLS regressions with panel data from Chinese A‐share listed firms (2007–2022) to verify our research propositions. The results reveal three distinct firm clusters based on institutional pressure profiles. These configurations exert varying effects on both hard and soft low‐carbon behaviors. Generally, more intense pressures promote greater hard low‐carbon behaviors; conversely, high‐pressure firms are associated with significantly fewer soft low‐carbon behaviors compared to low‐pressure firms. Furthermore, a firm's AI capability enhances the positive influence of more intense institutional pressure on the adoption of hard low‐carbon behaviors and mitigates the negative influence of high institutional pressure on the adoption of soft low‐carbon behaviors. This study extends institutional perspectives on firms' environmental behaviors and provides actionable guidance for low‐carbon management.

Firms increasingly rely on ESG materiality assessments to prioritise sustainability issues under heightened stakeholder scrutiny. Yet the strategic consequences of materiality beyond firm-level disclosure remain underexplored. This study examines how materiality assessments shape ESG prioritisation at the industry level using sustainability disclosures from 44 Hong Kong-listed fashion and textile firms. Applying a standardised ESG taxonomy and percentile-based normalisation, we aggregate firm-level materiality matrices into a comparable sector benchmark. The findings reveal systematic convergence around a narrow set of social issues, particularly supply chain and labour-related topics, alongside weaker and more dispersed prioritisation of environmental and governance concerns. Although internal and stakeholder assessments are moderately aligned, environmental challenges occupy less prominent positions in the aggregated matrix. These results suggest that materiality assessments function as sector-level attention-structuring mechanisms that stabilise governable risks while constraining the strategic visibility of diffuse environmental impacts.

The Red Sea crisis, a major maritime disruption event, has attracted widespread attention. This crisis disrupted global shipping networks, increased voyage distances, and caused delayed cargo deliveries. As critical nodes in maritime transport, ports may experience operational disruptions from typical maritime events. While anecdotal evidence suggests substantial port-level effects, rigorous empirical evidence remains limited. To address this gap, this study utilises global Automatic Identification System (AIS) data to calculate port turnaround time (PTT) for the top 100 container ports. Then, we apply Difference-in-Differences (DID) and Regression Discontinuity Design-Difference-in-Differences (RDD-DID) models to capture the sustained average effect and immediate impact of the crisis on PTT. Both methods isolate seasonal and cyclical influences during the observation period. Our analysis shows that the crisis increased ports’ PTT in both models, with results that satisfy the parallel trends assumption as validated through event study methodology. Employing the same testing procedures combining DID, RDD-DID, and event study approaches, we further identify the route-based regions affected by the Red Sea crisis. The results indicate that the impacts varied across regions. For the affected regions, we also conduct heterogeneity analyses which reveal significant immediate and sustained PTT escalations across large ports and ports with automated terminal. Further analysis of the PTT sub-metrics reveals that berthing operation time (BOT) experienced both immediate and sustained increases, whereas waiting for berth time (WBT) exhibited only a significant sustained increase following the Red Sea crisis. This study provides evidence that crises at critical maritime chokepoints can propagate to the port sector. These findings provide valuable insights for shipping companies and ports, enabling them to proactively mitigate the negative impacts of such disruptions and to enhance their responsiveness and flexibility when confronting similar crises in the future.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure is acknowledged as a compelling initiative to facilitate sustainable business practices. However, greenwashing undermines the credibility of this initiative, presenting a decision dilemma for stakeholders. Involving principal stakeholders (enterprises, investors, rating agencies) in ESG disclosure, this study conducts an evolutionary game analysis to explore the strategic evolution mechanisms. The equilibrium results suggest the potential market dilemma stemming from deceptive enterprises and unreliable rating agencies. Meanwhile, the system can converge to an ideal state without greenwashing. Reaching this state necessitates a market-based approach combined with government regulations, such as the ongoing monitoring of rating agencies to provide truthful and stringent ESG evaluation. Additionally, mandatory enterprise ESG disclosure is a robust measure to curb greenwashing. Investment-returns-based solutions can be considered for investors to augment the rigorous ESG ratings. Managers should understand the impact factors and evolution paths in ESG disclosure and how to deal effectively with greenwashing.

The global energy landscape is evolving rapidly, with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) playing an increasingly important role due to its clean combustion characteristics and flexible transportation modes. However, the structural changes and vulnerabilities of LNG shipping network during major geopolitical events, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Red Sea crisis, remain understudied. This research constructs and analyses the evolution of the LNG shipping network using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from January 2020 to June 2024, focusing on changes before and after these two geopolitical events. By tracking key network metrics, we find that the network steadily expanded during this period, with almost all metrics reaching their peak performance in the second half of 2022 following the Russia-Ukraine conflict outbreak. However, the Red Sea crisis, which erupted in late 2023, did not significantly impact network performance. Community detection using the Infomap algorithm reveals the emergence of a large port community after the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which later fragmented into smaller communities during the Red Sea crisis. Adaptive intentional attack simulations indicate that the network vulnerability varied over time, and unexpectedly, the network became less vulnerable following the Red Sea crisis. Port criticality rankings differed across periods, reflecting shifts in global LNG trade dynamics. These findings provide valuable insights into the structural dynamics and the vulnerability of LNG shipping network in a changing global context, offering guidance for stakeholders in managing vulnerabilities and enhancing LNG supply chain reliability.

Despite growing public and regulatory pressures, heavy polluting firms remain reluctant to engage in corporate environmental responsibility (CER). While prior research has examined government–firm relations largely under the implicit assumption of government dominance, few studies have investigated how corporate dominance influences managerial cognition and behavior. Integrating insights from the resource-based view on power advantage and managerial myopia theory, we propose that a firm’s power increases with the Government’s Greater Dependence on the Firm, fostering opportunistic tendencies and reducing CER. Furthermore, we argue that Managerial Myopia mediates the relationship between Government’s Greater Dependence on the Firm and CER. These hypotheses were empirically validated through an analysis of Chinese heavily polluting firms with a time span from 2013 to 2019. Drawing on the strategic tripod framework, we also identify two boundary conditions: higher Peer CER and lower Government Administrative Hierarchy amplify the negative effect of Government’s Greater Dependence on the Firm takes on CER. Our study contributes to the CER literature by introducing a corporate power perspective, extends cognitive theory by underscoring the role of Government’s Greater Dependence on the Firm in exacerbating managerial myopia, and illuminates the interplay among resource-based, industry-level, and institutional antecedents of CER.

Sustainability reporting (SR) is an important source of voluntary disclosure of sustainability information. SR can play a critical role in manufacturing firms' disclosure of their practices and strategies concerning their impacts on the natural environment and wider society, as well as how they run their business beyond mandatory disclosure. With a focus on market performance, previous studies demonstrate that SR can enhance market and financial outcomes, where a company's superiority is signaled to external stakeholders such as investors and customers. However, there is limited understanding of its broader impact on production and operations considering both internal and external stakeholders. This research conducts five event studies and regression analyses on the market and efficiency reactions to SR, using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting data from 1999 to 2020 that comprises 1254 firm-year observations of U.S. manufacturing firms. Our event study results indicate that SR leads to a time-lagged positive effect on performance metrics such as return on assets (ROA), labor productivity, manufacturing cost efficiency, Tobin's q, and market value, attributed to the costly signaling effect. Our regression analyses suggest that signal observability factors can amplify the effect of SR on certain performance. The findings suggest that executives should prioritize internal stakeholders, such as employees, and sustainable operations when investing in SR. While SR is originally a voluntary disclosure directed toward external stakeholders, it may also signal internal stakeholders and drive responses related to operations and productivity, constituting a reverse signaling process. This research addresses a gap in understanding the role of SR in driving financial performance and productivity within the integrated framework of stakeholder theory and signaling theory and provides managerial implications for firms' operations and production.

Logistics service providers (LSPs), serving as intermediaries in facilitating economic transactions through cargo movements within the supply chain, support society's economic and sustainable development. Sustainability engagement is an emerging initiative for LSPs to improve sustainability performance so cargo movements can be handled efficiently with less pollution and resource consumption. This study examines the sustainability engagement of LSPs, focusing on their drivers and practices to align with the sustainable development trend. We collect industry practitioners' opinions with case-based evidence to explain sustainability engagement by LSPs and identify its key drivers and practices with propositions. The study finds that sustainability engagement in LSPs is driven by institutional pressures and internal leadership, with larger LSPs adopting proactive, resource-intensive innovations. Unlike larger LSPs, smaller LSPs focus on incremental, resource-efficient practices, emphasising technology adoption, process innovation, and stakeholder collaboration. This research enhances the understanding of sustainability engagement for LSPs and policymakers.

The transitory metaverse shows promise for retail and marketing, but further academic research is needed to fully understand its dynamics. Despite previous exploration, empirical insights from consumer perspectives on the three core elements of the transitory metaverse (online shared 3D space, digital avatar, and digital object) and their influence on its adoption are lacking, with much of the previous work remaining conceptual. This gap limits our understanding of the nuanced factors driving consumers' participation in the transitory metaverse, their avatar personalization, and the adoption of branded digital fashion within the platform. To address this, our study employed a qualitative research approach, gathering textual narrative responses from 81 U.S. consumers through an online survey that included open-ended questions. We focused on their perceptions and experiences of transitory metaverse engagement, avatar personalization, and branded digital fashion within a representative transitory metaverse platform, Animal Crossing. Through inductive analysis of the qualitative data, we identified three main themes for consumer motivations in the transitory metaverse: serene escape, virtual ownership and empowerment, and liminal interaction. Similarly, three key themes emerged for avatar customization: mooddriven self-expression, liberation from societal norms, and social recognition. Users perceived their avatars as virtual doppelgangers, idealized selves, or virtual dolls. Regarding branded digital fashion adoption, four themes emerged: aesthetic appeal, affordability, connection to the real world, and support for favorite real-life brands. Based on these findings, we propose a conceptual framework and discuss their implications for both theory and practice.

Grounded in institutional theory, this study delves into the heterogeneous responses of politically connected top executives (PCTEs) to uniform institutional requirements for corporate environmental responsibility (CER). Specifically, we scrutinized the moderating role of organizational visibility in shaping the association between PCTEs and both environmentally responsible and irresponsible practices. Analyzing data from listed Chinese firms in heavily polluting industries spanning from 2010 to 2018, the findings indicate that PCTEs contribute to an increase in firms’ environmentally responsible activities and a decrease in their environmentally irresponsible activities. Notably, the impact on environmentally responsible activities is significant only for privately controlled PCTEs. Furthermore, the moderating influence of organizational visibility is validated. The implications of these findings for the broader research on political connections and CER are thoroughly discussed.

This paper investigates the rational and emotional functions of symbols in organizational change and how collective sensemaking and acceptance of organizational changes are facilitated by the emotional functioning of executive symbolism. Evidence from archived data, news reports, reviews, and case studies are used to support our theoretical analysis. Our opinion is that the CEO can incorporate symbols into not only the rational calculation process to convey the benefits and losses of organizational changes but also the emotional identification process to create new emotional connections and reduce the resistance of the members to organizational changes. We describe why and when the implementation of symbolism will gain the acceptance of members toward organizational change and explain the scenarios that apply for the two functions.

The development of smart ports is digitally transforming shipping and logistics operations, paving the way for a more sustainable shipping paradigm. Research has begun exploring this burgeoning field from diverse perspectives, from technological advancements to evaluation methodologies. Nevertheless, more research on the smart port concept is needed to gain insights into practices and evaluation. We fill the knowledge gap by applying population ecology theory to revisit the smart port concept. The “Tianjin port” is used as an illustration. By leveraging policy documents, industry research, company annual reports, and corporate social responsibility reports, we analyze the key stakeholders in the smart port ecosystem, their relationships, the system’s evolution, and the cargo and information flows within smart ports, drawing analogies to the ecological concepts of components, relationships, evolution, and flows. Based on these findings, we revisit the smart port concept from an ecological perspective. We also introduce the ecological concept of “health” into evaluating smart ports. “Health” in this paper concerns the evaluation of progress in smart port implementation (i.e., the varied pace of smart port development), overall stability (i.e., ability to maintain stable operations amid external uncertainties), and readiness for fully-fledged operations. This concept is operationalized through a novel evaluation framework comprising 4 first-level indicators (Vitality, Coordination, Development, and Growth) and 12 second-level indicators, enabling managers to identify their smart port’s development status and areas for improvement.

This article explores the diverse response strategies concerning environmental information disclosure (EID) among firms affiliated to different political hierarchies. Drawing on resource dependence theory (RDT), we hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between a firm's administration hierarchical distance (AHD) and its EID. The relationship is also contingent on the scope of dependence, as reflected in two resource-based components: (i) firms with or without political connections, and (ii) varying levels of corporate innovation capability. Using data from Chinese listed companies in polluting industries, we document that firms with medium AHD have the weakest EID, while firms with shorter or longer AHD exhibit higher EID to maintain institutional or gain competitive resource, respectively. This pattern is stronger for non-politically connected and low-innovation firms. Our research not only enriches RDT on corporate political strategies by unpacking firm political dependency, but also contributes to the emerging work on the pluralistic perspective on government.

Climate change, primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), is a pressing environmental and societal concern. Carbon neutrality, or net zero, involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the most common GHG, and then balancing residual emissions through removing or offsetting. Particularly difficult challenges have emerged for firms seeking to reduce emissions from Scope 1 (internal operations) and Scope 3 (supply chain). Incremental changes are very unlikely to meet the objective of carbon neutrality. Synthesizing a framework that draws together both the means of achieving carbon neutrality and the scope of change helps to clarify opportunities for research by operations management scholars. Companies must assess and apply promising technologies, form new strategic relationships, and adopt novel practices while taking into account costs, risks, implications for stakeholders, and, most importantly, business sustainability. Research on carbon neutrality is encouraged to move beyond isolated discussions focused on specific tactics and embrace a more, though not fully, holistic examination. Research opportunities abound in both theoretical and empirical domains, such as exploring tradeoffs between different tactics, balancing portfolios, and investigating the strategic deployment of initiatives over time. As a research community, we are critically positioned to develop integrative insights at multiple levels, from individual processes to horizontal and vertical partnerships and ultimately to large‐scale systemic realignment and change.

Sustainable packaging is a pivotal aspect of sustainable development, involving multi-faceted issues such as stakeholder management and environmental policy compliance. Despite the efforts to find packaging solutions, the extant literature is largely fragmented, featuring a high level of heterogeneity among studies that spread across different disciplines, with the majority examining important packaging issues in isolation. A study that systematically consolidates findings of different important areas of sustainable packaging implementation is lacking. This challenges companies' adoption of research findings in business strategy development. Thus, this paper conducts a systematic literature review combining keyword co-occurrence analysis, thematic analysis and qualitative content analysis to uncover major research domains, consolidate important findings and reveal unsolved research gaps, which are crucial to advancing sustainable packaging management. The findings reveal four major research domains: (1) sustainable packaging materials and properties, (2) management practices of sustainable packaging, (3) consumer behaviours towards sustainable packaging and (4) packaging waste management. Drawing on the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) theory and the review findings, this study proposes four future research directions: (1) identifying ways to enhance the commercialisation of sustainable packaging technological innovations, (2) uncovering reasons for insufficient social aspect investigation in sustainable packaging research, (3) exploring strategies to enhance stakeholder integration in sustainable packaging management and (4) examining contingency factors of packaging waste management effectiveness. The research agenda is important to provide practical and managerial insights for business strategy development in sustainable packaging to achieve pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development capabilities to gain future growth and competitive advantage.

Purpose Following counterarguments from previous studies, overwhelming evidence from meta-analyses shows that supply-chain integration (SCI) is not universally associated with improved performance. This study aims to clarify all the mechanisms purported to reach the combined effects of SCI dimensions. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors first conducted a literature review and identified the effects of different individual SCI dimensions and their interactions and mediation, or arcs of integration, as reported by past studies. Data from a survey of 348 firms were analyzed using multiple regressions, structural equation modeling and latent class analysis. Findings The results showed that the positive independent associations between SCI dimensions and operational performance change as they interact. Larger combinational effects were found in a second-order SCI construct and a mediation model. Smaller effects and fewer significant paths (and even negative signs) were also found. This shows that more SCI is not always better. Finally, configurational effects varied: the latent class analysis showed that a more inward (internal integration) gestalt performed better for some firms. Research limitations/implications Some variables that could affect operations performance were missing from the models, and this paper did not specify the directions of relationships among the five performance dimensions. The authors are aware of cumulative models, but they are not within the scope of this paper. In addition, this study did not consider other sociocultural factors that may influence different dimensions of SCI. Originality/value This study shows SCI dimensions play different roles. Therefore, it is needed to theorize the distinct roles of internal and external integration and how they somehow compensate or substitute for each other. The results suggest that future studies need to reexamine the universal predictions especially from resource-based, resource-advantage and relational views. SCIs are not inimitable and rare resources for all firms. Furthermore, implementing SCI does not guarantee resource and relational advantages for all firms.