scholarly journals Addressing Exploitation in Supply Chains: Is technology a game changer for worker voice?

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Berg ◽  
Bassina Farbenblum ◽  
Angela Kintominas
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Global Brands ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
Supply Chain Governance ◽  
Multinational Businesses

Multinational businesses are facing mounting pressure to identify and address risks of exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery in their supply chains. Digital worker reporting tools present unprecedented opportunities for lead firms to reach out directly to hard-to-reach workers for feedback on their working conditions via their mobile phone. These new technologies promise an efficient and cost-effective way to cut through the complexity of global production, gathering unmediated data on working conditions directly from workers at scale. As the market for these tools grows, this paper contextualises their emergence within the broader political economy of supply chain governance. It presents three sets of concerns about their use that must be addressed by businesses, investors, donors and governments that develop or utilise these tools. First, the quality of data gathered by these tools may be inadequate to reliably inform decision-making. Second, global brands may gather large quantities of worker data to identify legal, reputational and financial risks without addressing structural causes of exploitation or delivering outcomes for workers. Third, large scale collection of data from workers creates new risks for workers’ wellbeing and safety.

scholarly journals mRNA-Based Vaccines

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Frank Kowalzik ◽  
Daniel Schreiner ◽  
Christian Jensen ◽  
Daniel Teschner ◽  
Stephan Gehring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Cell Mediated Immunity ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Emerging Pathogens ◽  
Cell Genome

Increases in the world’s population and population density promote the spread of emerging pathogens. Vaccines are the most cost-effective means of preventing this spread. Traditional methods used to identify and produce new vaccines are not adequate, in most instances, to ensure global protection. New technologies are urgently needed to expedite large scale vaccine development. mRNA-based vaccines promise to meet this need. mRNA-based vaccines exhibit a number of potential advantages relative to conventional vaccines, namely they (1) involve neither infectious elements nor a risk of stable integration into the host cell genome; (2) generate humoral and cell-mediated immunity; (3) are well-tolerated by healthy individuals; and (4) are less expensive and produced more rapidly by processes that are readily standardized and scaled-up, improving responsiveness to large emerging outbreaks. Multiple mRNA vaccine platforms have demonstrated efficacy in preventing infectious diseases and treating several types of cancers in humans as well as animal models. This review describes the factors that contribute to maximizing the production of effective mRNA vaccine transcripts and delivery systems, and the clinical applications are discussed in detail.

scholarly journals Are Multinational Companies Responsible for Working Conditions in Their Supply Chains? From Intuition to Argument

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Dänzer
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Support Programs ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Promising Strategy ◽  
Supply Chain Governance ◽  
Prospective Responsibility

AbstractAlthough many people seem to share the intuition that multinational companies (MNEs) carry a responsibility for the working conditions in their supply chains, the justification offered for this assumption is usually rather unclear. This article explores a promising strategy for grounding the relevant intuition and for rendering its content more precise. It applies the criteria of David Miller's connection theory of remedial responsibility to different forms of supply chain governance as characterized by the Global Value Chains (GVC) framework. The analysis suggests that the criteria for identifying MNEs as remedially responsible for bad working conditions in their direct suppliers are fulfilled in many cases, even though differentiations are required with regard to the different supply chain governance structures. MNEs thus have a duty to make sure currently bad working conditions in their suppliers are changed for the better. Moreover, since production in supply chains for structural reasons continuously generates remedial responsibility of MNEs for bad working conditions in their suppliers, it puts the prospective responsibility on them to make sure that their suppliers offer acceptable working conditions. Further, it is suggested that the remedial responsibility of MNEs might require them to make financial compensation to victims of bad working conditions and in grave cases initiate or support programs to mitigate disastrous effects suffered by them.

Additive manufacturing in the apparel supply chain — impact on supply chain governance and social sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene M. Hohn ◽  
Christian F. Durach
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Supply Chain Governance

PurposeFocusing on the apparel industry, this study extends current knowledge on how additive manufacturing (AM) may impact global supply chains regarding structures of interorganizational governance and the industry's social-sustainability issues.Design/methodology/approachFollowing an exploratory research design, two consecutive Delphi studies, with three survey rounds each, were conducted to carve out future industry scenarios and assess AM's impact on supply chain governance and social sustainability.FindingsThe implementation of AM is posited to reinforce existing supply chain governance structures that are dominated by powerful apparel retailers. Retailers are expected to use the increased production speed and heightened market competition to enforce faster fashion cycles and lower purchasing prices, providing a grim outlook for future working conditions at the production stage.Social implicationsAgainst the common narrative that technological progress increases societal well-being, this study finds that new digital technologies may, in fact, amplify rather than improve existing social-sustainability issues in contemporary production systems.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the nascent research field of AM's supply chain impact as one of the first empirical studies to analyze how AM introduction may impact on interorganizational governance while specifically addressing potential social-sustainability implications. The developed propositions relate to and extend the resource dependence and stakeholder perspectives on governance and social sustainability in supply chains. For managers, our results enrich the discussion about the potential use of AM beyond operational viability to include considerations on the wider implications for supply chains and the prevailing working conditions within them.

scholarly journals Renovation of apartment buildings with prefabricated modular panels

2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 03023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalle Kuusk ◽  
Peep Pihelo ◽  
Targo Kalamees
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Apartment Buildings ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Grant Scheme ◽  
Main Barrier ◽  
The Cost

New recast of the EPBD requires that that Member States shall establish a long-term strategy facilitating the cost-effective transformation of existing buildings into nearly-zero energy buildings. Lack of fund and lack of awareness is often considered to be the main barrier for the renovation. Experiences with renovation grant scheme in Estonia showed that large scale renovation scheme is a challenge to the construction industry and increased demand creates new problems like labour shortage and increased construction costs. Current renovation rate of apartment buildings in Estonia is approximately 200 buildings (~1%) per year. Demand is higher but current renovation technologies makes it difficult to significantly increase the renovation rate. Achieving the deep renovation goals with current technologies would require expansion of the whole construction sector (designers, contactors, material industry), which is difficult to achieve. Therefore, innovation and new technologies are needed. The prefabrication would be one solution to allow automation of the renovation process and renovate the existing housing stock within a reasonable time period.

Modern Slavery as the New Moral Asset for the Production and Reproduction of State-Corporate Harm

2021 ◽  
pp. 2631309X2110209
Author(s):  
Marinella Marmo ◽  
Rhiannon Bandiera
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Modern Slavery ◽  
State Corporation

The rise of the humanitarian narrative in relation to modern slavery has enabled corporations to profit from large-scale human exploitation with public consensus. Nation-states have legislated on modern slavery on the premise of protection, which has led to the entities involved evading or being exempt from responsibility for such practices by working with their suppliers to combat such practices despite evidence that their supply chains are linked to, or create further, vulnerability for workers. Other third parties praise such mechanism as transparent, reinforcing a moral consensus that is proving difficult to critique. By using the case study of the manufacture and import to Australia of medical gloves, this article unveils the perverseness of the moral, benevolent state-corporation narrative.

scholarly journals Additive Manufacturing: Application Perspectives in Small and Medium Enterprises

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Beltrami ◽  
Guido Orzes
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Manufacturing Plants ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Changes in customer expectations, markets and organisations are creating an increasing need for customised products and calling for reactive supply chains. New technologies might help organisations to deal with these challenges in a flexible and cost-effective way. One of these technologies is Additive Manufacturing (AM). The object of this paper is to outline the potential of AM in production, to identify possible supply chain developments and to determine the role that SMEs might play in this scenario. In detail, we pose the question whether AM might lead to geographically dispersed manufacturing plants and might replace physical material flow with information flow and how SMEs can act in this development process. Based on an exploratory literature review, we highlight the market requirements addressed by AM, the supply chain characteristics for AM and the role of SMEs. Implementing AM can cause shifts in the decoupling point as well as changes in the global supply chain configuration (relocation of production closer to the final customer). We then conduct some expert interviews, which confirm some of the results of the literature review, but emphasise that AM will not replace conventional manufacturing processes on a large scale, at least in the medium term.

scholarly journals A new tool in the toolbox for large-scale, high-throughput fisheries mark-recapture studies using genetic identification

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 1081
Author(s):  
Russell W. Bradford ◽  
Peta Hill ◽  
Campbell Davies ◽  
Peter Grewe
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Stock Assessment ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Genetic Identification ◽  
Sampling Techniques ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Iuu Fishing ◽  
Southern Bluefin Tuna

The lack of independently verifiable estimates of catches and fisheries independent estimates of abundance and fishing mortality are major sources of uncertainty in the management of many fisheries. DNA profiling provides the potential to substantially improve the quality of data for assessments and act as an additional deterrent to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Barriers to the implementation of this technology include cost of sample collection and processing, forensic grade quality control, and the ability to apply undetectable tags. We present the results of a comparison of two current and one new (gene tag tool, GTT) sampling techniques, using the highly valued southern bluefin tuna as an example. We demonstrate that fish sampled with two techniques are highly unlikely to be recognised as ‘tagged’, whereas one technique was easily recognisable after 73 days. The GTT reduced handling before DNA extraction, whereas both other techniques require additional labour, adding to cost and potential contamination of the evidentiary chain. Evidence of cross-contamination in the Whatman FTA Elute samples suggests they may not be as suitable for at-sea field applications. Two of the three sampling techniques are capable of obtaining high quality tissue samples for stock assessment and chain of custody purposes in a cost-effective and unidentifiable manner.

Eco-Efficiency and Vulnerability of Agro-Ecosystems to Environmental Threats

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Amalia-Gianina Străteanu ◽  
Simona Nicoleta Stan
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Crop Protection ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Plant Protection Products ◽  
Efficient Production ◽  
Beneficial Effects

Abstract Eco-efficiency is based on environmental, social and economic principles, focusing not only on the use of fewer natural resources (raw materials) and energy but also on the cost-effective use of new technologies (eco-innovation) for the same volume of production and generation of low waste (efficient production). Agro-ecosystems globally, once with the development of the pesticide industry (plant protection products) and under the influence of aggressive marketing, have been based on the large-scale application of big amounts (perhaps too high) of pesticides. Many of the pesticides used in agriculture have a high persistence and degrade very slowly, which leads to the soil, water and even air pollution, with negative effects on plants, animals and, implicitly, humans. If these are used in short term and at low concentrations, pesticides can have beneficial effects (crop protection and their conservation and prevention of vector-borne disease) but in large quantities and applied over a long period of time can be toxic to humans and with a negative impact on the environment and ecosystems (degrading essential ecosystem services).

Financial and Economic Support of Innovation Processes in the Russian Fuel and Energy Complex

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
L. D. Kapranova ◽  
T. V. Pogodina
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Energy Complex ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Substantial Investment ◽  
The Government

The subject of the research is the current state of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) that ensures generation of a significant part of the budget and the innovative development of the economy.The purpose of the research was to establish priority directions for the development of the FEC sectors based on a comprehensive analysis of their innovative and investment activities. The dynamics of investment in the fuel and energy sector are considered. It is noted that large-scale modernization of the fuel and energy complex requires substantial investment and support from the government. The results of the government programs of corporate innovative development are analyzed. The results of the research identified innovative development priorities in the power, oil, gas and coal sectors of the fuel and energy complex. The most promising areas of innovative development in the oil and gas sector are the technologies of enhanced oil recovery; the development of hard-to-recover oil reserves; the production of liquefied natural gas and its transportation. In the power sector, the prospective areas are activities aimed at improving the performance reliability of the national energy systems and the introduction of digital technologies. Based on the research findings, it is concluded that the innovation activities in the fuel and energy complex primarily include the development of new technologies, modernization of the FEC technical base; adoption of state-of-the-art methods of coal mining and oil recovery; creating favorable economic conditions for industrial extraction of hard-to-recover reserves; transition to carbon-free fuel sources and energy carriers that can reduce energy consumption and cost as well as reducing the negative FEC impact on the environment.

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