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We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

Several authors have examined the lean healthcare literature, but besides all efforts made, articles comparing conceptual and analytical studies were not found. Thus, a systematic review is conducted aiming to understand the state of the art of lean healthcare by investigating and comparing how conceptual and analytical articles address tools/methods, application fields, implementation barriers and facilitators and positive and negative impacts.

Articles in English about lean healthcare, published in journals in the last ten years (2009–2018) and indexed in Web of Science (WoS) or Scopus were examined and assessed by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) protocol. A qualitative content analysis on the eligible articles was conducted, and results from the conceptual and analytical studies were compared.

There is a literature gap regarding tools/methods in both conceptual and analytical approaches once they prioritize for different items. Barriers, facilitators and negative impacts are perceived differently within both categories and might require more extensive analysis. The same items prevail in both conceptual and analytical categories when analyzing healthcare fields and positive impacts.

There is a lack of articles comparing conceptual and analytical studies concerning lean healthcare. So, this study's relevance is in identifying theoretical and applied research gaps to strengthen the lean healthcare state of the art and to integrate theoretical-applied knowledge. For healthcare professionals, it might provide an overview of the key factors that can promote lean implementation.

Lean healthcare (LHC) applies lean philosophy in the healthcare sector to promote a culture of continuous improvement through the elimination of non-value-added activities. Studies on the subject can be classified as conceptual (theoretical) or analytical (applied). Therefore, this research compares bibliometric indicators between conceptual and analytical articles on LHC.

For data collection, the PRISMA Protocol was employed, and 488 articles published from 2009 to 2021, indexed in the Scopus and WoS databases, were retrieved.

This study reveals how conceptual and analytical LHC studies are organized in terms of the most relevant journals, articles, institutions, countries, the total number of citations, collaboration networks (co-authorship, international collaboration network and institutional collaboration network) and main co-words.

Only four papers conducting bibliometric analysis on LHC studies were identified in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. In addition, none of these papers compared conceptual and analytical bibliometric indicators to reveal the evolution, organization and trends of each category. Therefore, this work is not only the first to make this comparison but also the first to analyze the collaboration between authors, institutions and countries in relation to studies on LHC. The analyses performed in this work allow one new possible understanding, by researchers and health professionals, of the literature behavior in this field of study.

This paper explores Lean Six Sigma principles and the DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) methodology to propose a new Lean Six Sigma 4.0 (LSS 4.0) framework for employee occupational exams and address the real-world issue of high-variability exams that may arise.

This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection. A detailed case study assesses the impact of LSS interventions on the exam management process and tests the applicability of the proposed LSS 4.0 framework for employee occupational exams.

The results reveal that changing the health service supplier in the explored organization caused a substantial raise in occupational exams, leading to increased costs. By using syntactic interoperability, lean, six sigma and DMAIC approaches, improvements were identified, addressing process deviations and information requirements. Implementing corrective actions improved the exam process, reducing the number of exams and associated expenses.

It is important to acknowledge certain limitations, such as the specific context of the case study and the exclusion of certain exam categories.

The practical implications of this research are substantial, providing organizations with valuable managerial insights into improving efficiency, reducing costs and ensuring regulatory compliance while managing occupational exams.

This study fills a research gap by applying LSS 4.0 to occupational exam management, offering a practical framework for organizations. It contributes to the existing knowledge base by addressing a relatively novel context and providing a detailed roadmap for process optimization.

In the last few years, environmental issues have become a matter of survival. In this sense, e-waste management is among the major problems since it may be a way of mitigating mineral depletion. In this context, the literature lacks e-waste supply chain studies that systematically map supply chain challenges and risks concerning material recovery.

Given this context, the authors' paper conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to build a framework to identify the constructs of e-waste supply chain risk management.

The paper revealed the theoretical relationship between important variables to achieve e-waste supply chain risk management via a circular economy (CE) framework. These variables include reverse logistics (RL), closed-loop supply chains (CLSC), supply chain risk management, supply chain resilience and smart cities.

The literature contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) a complete list of the risks of the e-waste supply chains, (2) the techniques being used to identify, assess and mitigate e-waste supply chain risks and (3) the constructs that form the theoretical framework of e-waste supply chain risk management. In addition, the authors' results address important literature gaps identified by researchers and serve as a guide to implementation.

Healthcare supply chains (HCSCs) face severe challenges when compared to regular chains. Besides avoiding bankruptcy, they must accomplish their goal which is to save lives. Since 2019 the COVID-19 pandemic evidenced that a HCSC disruption generates disruptions to other SCs. Therefore, the objective of this paper is threefold: conduct a systematic literature review to build a HCSC operational excellence (HSCOE) definition; build a conceptual framework by mapping the antecedents of HSCOE and formulate hypotheses; test the hypotheses using a fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) combined with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques to obtain empirical validation.

Given this context, this paper conducted a systematic literature review to build a HSCOE conceptual framework and used a fsQCA combined with PLS-SEM techniques to obtain empirical validation.

The paper revealed a relationship between important variables to achieve HSCOE, such as Supply chain 4.0, SC risk management, SC integration, SC resilience (antecedents) and HSCOE (consequent).

The literature contributions of this paper are as follows: validating a new scale for each of the constructs; finding evidence of the causal relationships between the latent variables; measuring how the constructs influence the HSCOE; in addition, the results address important literature gaps identified by researchers and serve as a guide to organizations that need to implement these practices. Furthermore, this study recommends that HCSC managers consider the implementation of robust initiatives concerning the latent variables presented in this work.

The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the influence of the zein coating containing essential oils on the sensory characteristics of sodium-reduced mozzarellas.

Mozzarellas were prepared by dipping in brine containing 5, 10, 15 or 20% of NaCl (w/v) that correspond, respectively, to 25, 50, 75 and 100% of NaCl content used in industry. These salted mozzarellas and another one, unsalted, were coated by an edible zein film added with 3% of a mixture of thyme and garlic essential oils (1:1). They were subjected to sensory analysis in relation to salty taste and overall impression. The mozzarella without salt reduction (20% NaCl w/v), coated or uncoated with the edible film, was also subjected to the analysis of water loss and microbiological quality, in order to evaluate the impact of this film on product quality.

The zein coating added with oils did not compromise the sensory acceptance of the mozzarella prepared with up to 50% of salt reduction. Water loss and microbial growth were lower in zein-coated mozzarella than in uncoated mozzarella. These results showed that this film could be applied as natural additive, contributing to the microbiological and sensory characteristics of the mozzarella.

This paper contributes to reducing the lack of studies in relation to new technologies for food preservation and sodium reduction. In addition, the zein coating containing essential oils can be tested on other food categories.