Dear Colleagues,

Operations Management (OM) is a multidisciplinary field that addresses the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations of an organization operating in both manufacturing and service industries. Sustainable Operations Management (SOM) mainly focuses on sustainability of supply chain management (SSCM), aiming to develop actions that make supply chains more sustainable, while maintaining efficacy and efficiency. SSCM can be seen as an integrated process, wherein a number of various actors (i.e., suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers) work together in a sustainable and greener way to acquire input, convert these inputs into final output, and deliver them to the market. In literature, the concept of SSCM has evolved from the standalone social responsibility perspective (Carter and Jennings, 2002; Murphy and Poist, 2002) toward the sustainability approach on the lens of the triple bottom line (Gimenez, et al., 2012). Indeed, Walker et al. (2014) posited that “OM as the pursuit of social, economic and environmental objectives – the triple bottom line – within operations of a specific firm and operational linkages that extend beyond the firm to include the supply chain and communities.” This change is probably due to the the considerable pressure from stakeholders, shareholders, and consumers to integrate the issue of sustainability into the supply chain in addition to profitability (Beske and Seuring, 2014; Tang & Zhou, 2012). Hence, SSCM is aimed at enhancing long-term environmental, social and economic values and the promotion of best practices across the whole lifecycle of goods and services for all the involved stakeholders. Furthermore, engaging sustainability represents even more a strategic requirement for companies that allow to obtain a  transparent integration and realization of a social, environmental, and business goals” (Carter and Rogers, 2008).

However, a rich stream of literature contributions have suggested that several aspects related to OM can be considered from a sustainability perspective. These aspects encompass product design, eco-design and life cycle assessment, adoption of environmental and social standards, process improvement and lean operations, green purchasing, supply chain management (SCM), logistics including recycling, packaging and closed-loop systems, performance measurement and risk management (Walker et al., 2014; Kleindorfer et al., 2005; Zhu and Sarkis, 2004).

They also demonstrated the need to further investigate the economic benefits derived from the introduction of sustainability in the supply chain management. Nowadays, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as developed by the United Nations, has been promoting Goal 12, which is related to responsible production and consumption and emphasises the need to reduce waste by optimizing the usage of resources (energy, water, etc.). It is worth emphasizing that the recent COVID-19 epidemic has been starting a debate on the future of the globalized operations in both manufacturing and service industries. The need to rethink and redesign OM practices and patterns is clear, drawing attention to the need to focus even more on business continuity and organizations resilience and concurrently incorporating sustainable managerial approaches at the core of their business.

The recent COVID-19 epidemic has started a debate on the future trends of globalized operations management in both manufacturing and service industries, emphasizing the need to realize a systematic shift toward more sustainable practices both from production and consumption patterns. Indeed, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposes to develop more responsible production and consumption (Goal 12), emphasising the necessity to reduce waste and to be more effective and efficient in the usage of natural resources (energy water etc.).
This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality research papers on the inter-disciplinary field of Sustainable Operations Management, focusing on contributions related to evolution and future trends of Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management both in manufacturing (food, medical devices, pharmaceutical, etc.) and service (healthcare, educations, transportations, tourism, etc.) industries.

Prof. Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion
Prof. Dr. Olimpia Martucci
Prof. Enrica Vesce
Asst. Prof. Dr. Vanajah Siva
Dr. Samuel Sebhatu
Guest Editors

References

1. Carter, C. R., & Jennings, M. M. (2002), Logistics social responsibility: an integrative framework. Journal of business logistics, 23(1), 145-180.
2. Carter, C. and Rogers, D. (2008), A framework for sustainable supply chain management: moving toward new theory, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 38 No. 5, pp. 360-387
3. Carter, C.R. and Easton, P.L. (2011), Sustainable supply chain management: evolution and future directions, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 46-62
4. Dubey, R., Bag, S., Ali, S. S., & Venkatesh, V. G. (2013), Green purchasing is key to superior performance: an empirical study. International Journal of Procurement Management, 6(2), 187-210.
5. Gimenez, C., Sierra, V., & Rodon, J. (2012). Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple bottom line. International Journal of Production Economics, 140(1), 149-159
6. Kleindorfer, P. R., Singhal, K., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2005), Sustainable operations management. Production and operations management, 14(4), 482-492.
7. Murphy, P. R., & Poist, R. F. (2002). Socially responsible logistics: an exploratory study. Transportation Journal, 23-35.
8. Rossi, S., Colicchia, C., Cozzolino, A., & Christopher, M. (2013), The logistics service providers in eco-efficiency innovation: an empirical study. Supply chain management: an international journal.
9. Schaltegger, S., Burritt, R., Beske, P., & Seuring, S. (2014). Putting sustainability into supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: an international journal.
10. Tang, C. S., & Zhou, S. (2012), Research advances in environmentally and socially sustainable operations. European Journal of Operational Research, 223(3), 585-594.
11. Walker, P.H., Seuring, P.S., Sarkis, P.J. and Klassen, P.R. (2014), "Sustainable operations management: recent trends and future directions", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 34 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-12-2013-0557
12. Zhu, Q., & Sarkis, J. (2004), Relationships between operational practices and performance among early adopters of green supply chain management practices in Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Journal of operations management, 22(3), 265-289.

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• operations and service operations management
• supply chain management
• sustainability
• triple bottom line
• circular economy
• Agenda 2030