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This paper aims to introduce a joint DEMATEL and NK methodology to develop a process model for introducing and implementing relational supply chain practices for low-carbon supply chains. Using this process model as a guide, insights into specific practices and how to implement these relational practices to achieve competitive advantage across organizations are introduced.

Low-carbon cooperation practices framework based on the relational view is developed. A methodology based on DEMATEL and the NK model is used to construct a sequential process model for introducing and implementing these relational practices. Empirical data from three manufacturing organizations in China are utilized to validate the model.

Initial results provide a sequence of relational practices for guiding those organizations and their suppliers for healthy and low-carbon development. Interdependencies between relational practices are analyzed and evaluated from four aspects. Insights into the broader application of the methodology and initial results from both a research and managerial perspective are presented, especially with consideration of the China, an emerging economy, context.

The methodology remains relatively abstract in nature, yet the tool can provide very useful interpretations and information for both researchers and practitioners.

This paper stipulates that in addition to internal operational practices, the relational practices between buyer and supplier may be equally important to achieve a low-carbon outcome, especially in supply chain setting. This paper also shows that not only the relational practice itself but also the implementation sequence of the relational practices can relate to performance. According to the authors’ initial results, organizations in this study should first develop product development cooperation, then exchange carbon knowledge and implement effective governance and last build a trust relationship with its suppliers for low-carbon cooperation.

This is one of the few approaches that directly evaluates and identifies the interdependencies among relational practices and to construct a process model for introducing and implementing low-carbon supply chain cooperation. It is also the first time that the NK model has been integrated with DEMATEL. Focusing on Chinese supply chain carbon emissions concerns is also a unique perspective.

Carbon reduction in the construction supply chain can critically affect the construction industry’s transition to an environmentally sustainable one. However, implementing carbon reduction in all parties is restricted because of the poor understanding of the drivers influencing the low-carbon construction supply chain (LCCSC). The purpose of this paper is to systematically identify the drivers of LCCSC, analyze their causality, and prioritize the importance of their management.

A decision-making analysis process was developed using an integrated decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)–analytical network process (ANP). First, the hierarchical drivers of the LCCSC were identified through a literature review. The DEMATEL method was subsequently applied to analyze the interactions between the drivers, including the direction and strength of impact. Finally, the ANP analysis was used to obtain the drivers’ weights; consequently, their priorities were established.

Various factors with complex interactions drive LCCSC. With respect to their influence relationships, incentive policy, regulatory policy, consumers’ low-carbon preference, market competition, supply chain performance, and managers’ low-carbon awareness have more significant center degrees and are cause drivers. Their strong correlations and influence on other drivers should be noticed. In terms of weights in the driver system, regulatory policy, consumers’ low-carbon preference, supply chain performance, and incentive policy are the key drivers of LCCSC and require primary attention. Other drivers, such as supply chain collaboration, employee motivation, and public participation, play a minor driving role with less management priority.

Despite some contributing studies with localized perspectives, the systematic analysis of LCCSC drivers is limited, especially considering their intricate interactions. This paper establishes the LCCSC driver system, explores the influence relationships among the drivers, and determines the key drivers. Hence, it contributes to the sustainable construction supply chain domain by enabling decision-makers and practitioners to systematically understand the drivers of LCCSC and gain management implications on priority issues with limited resources.

With the change in climate and increased pollution, there has been a need to reduce environmental carbon emissions. This research aims to develop a framework for reducing environmental carbon footprints to improve business performance.

This study uses Scientific Procedures and Rationales for the Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) approach. Articles are searched in the Scopus database using various keywords and their combinations. It resulted in 651 articles initially. After applying different screening criteria, 61 articles were considered for the final study.

This study provided four themes and sub-themes within each category. This research also used theories, methodologies and context (TMC) framework to provide future research questions. This study used the antecedents, decisions and outcomes (ADO) framework for synthesising the findings. The ADO framework will help to achieve carbon neutrality and improve firms' supply chain (SC) performance.

This study provides theoretical implications by highlighting the various theories that can be used in future research. This study also states the practical implications for the achievement of carbon neutrality by the firms.

This study contributes to the literature linking carbon neutrality with business performance.

Warehouses are large emitters of greenhouse gases and their impact on climate change is under increasing focus. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers that inhibit the adoption of low-carbon warehousing in Asia-Pacific and their links to carbon abatement performance.

An exploratory conceptual model was first developed from a literature review of the general barriers to sustainable supply chain practices and hence potentially in low-carbon warehousing. A large contract logistics services provider in the Asia-Pacific served as the subject of a case study. The perceived barriers to low-carbon warehousing were derived from an internal survey of respondents from the case company and regressed against carbon abatement outcomes at that organization’s operations across the region.

Results show that the case company reduced carbon emissions by 36 percent on a revenue-normalized basis between 2008 and 2014, but with relatively lower success in emerging markets vs mature markets. An Elastic Net regression analysis confirms that technology and government-related factors are the most important barriers in the case company’s efforts to “decarbonize” its local warehousing operations. However, results suggest that the customer-related barrier, which is highly correlated with the government barrier, is in part driven by the latter.

This case study is based on a single multinational company in Asia-Pacific, but nonetheless serves as an impetus for more cross-sectional studies to form an industry-wide view.

An extended stewardship framework based on the natural resource-based view has been proposed, in which logistics services providers take on a proactive boundary-spanning role to lower the external barriers to low-carbon warehousing.

This paper aims to discuss the low carbon supply chain practices in China’s textile industry. To curb greenhouse gas emissions, the Chinese government has launched restrict regulatory system and imposed the energy consumption constraint in the textile industry to guarantee the achievability of low carbon economy. The authors aim to examine how the energy consumption constraint affects the optimal decisions of the supply chain members and address the supply chain coordination issue.

The authors conduct two case studies from Chinese textile companies and examine the impact of energy consumption constraints on their production and operations management. Based on the real industrial practices, the authors then develop a simple analytical model for a low carbon supply chain in which it consists of one single retailer and one single manufacturer, and the manufacturer determines the choice of clean technology for energy efficiency improvement and emission reduction.

From the case studies, the authors find that the textile companies develop clean technologies to reduce carbon emission in production process under the energy consumption enforcement. In this analytical model, the authors derive the optimal decisions of the supply chain members and reveal that supply chain coordination can be achieved if the manufacturer properly sets the reservation wholesale price (WS) despite the production capacity can fulfill partial market demand under a WS (or cost sharing) contract. The authors also find that the cost-sharing contract may induce the manufacturer to increase the investment of clean technology and reduce the optimal WS.

This paper discusses low carbon supply chain practices in China’s textile industry and contributes toward green supply chain development. Managerial implications are identified, which are beneficial to the entire textile industry in the developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of low carbon product design on firm's competitiveness and economic performance. It also examines the mediating role of the proactive environmental strategy and eco-innovation on low carbon product design, competitiveness and economic performance.

Through a questionnaire-based survey, the data were collected from 69 Indian manufacturing firms and analyzed using a variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results show that the low carbon product design significantly improves firm's competitiveness and economic performance, and proactive environmental strategy significantly mediates the relationship between low carbon product design and firm's competitiveness.

This study provides a framework for the adoption of low carbon product design. It demonstrates how manufacturing firms can implement environmental friendly product design. It also analyses the contextual factors that ensure a successful low carbon product design.

This article investigates the economic benefit of low carbon product design, thus filling lacuna in existing research.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical model for low carbon supplier development. This study is focused on the level of investment and collaboration decisions pertaining to emission reduction.

The authors’ model includes a fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm and a fuzzy formal concept analysis. First, a set of suppliers were classified according to their carbon performances through the FCM clustering algorithm. Then, the fuzzy formal concepts were derived from a set of fuzzy formal contexts through an intersection-based method. These fuzzy formal concepts provide the relative level of investments and collaboration decisions for each identified supplier cluster. A case from the Indian renewable energy sector was used for illustration of the proposed analytical model.

The proposed model and case illustration may help manufacturing firms to collaborate with their suppliers for improving their carbon performances.

The study contributes to the low carbon supply chain management literature by identifying the decision criteria of investments toward low carbon supplier development. It also provides an analytical model of collaboration for low carbon supplier development. Though the purpose of the study is to illustrate the proposed analytical model, it would have been better if the model was empirically validated.

Though the earlier studies on green supplier development program evaluation have considered a set of criteria to decide whether or not to invest on suppliers, these are silent on the relative level of investment required for a given set of suppliers. This study aims to fulfill this gap by providing an analytical model that will help a manufacturing firm to invest and collaborate with its suppliers for improving their carbon performance.

Underpinned by three-factor theory, this study aims to: examine the dynamics (asymmetry) of multi-quality low-carbon attributes towards the Thai tourists’ perception and prioritise carbon-tourism attributes on the basis of impact-range performance and asymmetric analysis.

The study applies a multi-method approach to derive the low-carbon tourism (LCT) items before conducting exploratory factor analysis to identify the underlying dimensions. Impact range performance analysis and impact asymmetry analysis were carried out to explore the asymmetric or symmetric relationship associated with tourists’ perception of LCT.

Findings reveal the three dimensions of the LCT attributes. Out of the 29 attributes, nine are regarded as “must-have” categories, such that tourists will be disappointed at the efforts of a low-carbon destination if these attributes are missing, but they will feel neutral if the attributes are present. Six LCT attributes fall into the “hybrid” category, such that tourists will appreciate if they perceive these attributes to be available for LCT and feel disappointed if these attributes are not or poorly offered. Fourteen attributes are considered under the “value-added” category, meaning tourists will only appreciate if they encounter these attributes at the destination, and the lack thereof will not cause any dissatisfaction or negative perception from tourists.

Through the multi-quality asymmetric analysis, the study provides deep insights into the degree of perception of the 29 LCT attributes. The study offers tangible guidelines to destination authorities and pinpoints the necessity to provide attributes, especially in the “hybrid” and “must-have” categories, to avoid tourists’ negative perceptions when they visit a low-carbon destination.

目的-本研究基于三因素理论, 旨在: 1) 探讨多质量低碳属性对泰国游客的积极认知的动态性（即非对称性）; 2) 基于影响范围性能和非对称分析确定低碳旅游属性的优先次序。

本研究在进行探索性因素分析以确定潜在维度之前, 采用了多方法途径推导出低碳旅游（LCT）项目。通过影响范围性能分析(IRPA)和影响非对称性分析(IAA) , 来探索与游客对LCT的积极认知相关的不对称或对称关系。

研究结果显示了LCT属性的三个维度。在29个属性中, 有9个被视为“必备”类别, 这意味着如果这些属性缺失, 游客就会对低碳旅游目的地的努力感到失望, 但如果这些属性存在, 则会保持中立。6个LCT属性属于"混合 “类别, 这意味着如果游客认为LCT有这些属性, 他们会很赞赏, 但如果没有这些属性或提供的属性不佳, 他们则会感到失望。14个属性被认为属于"增值 “类别, 这意味着游客只有在旅游目的地遇到这些属性时才会感到赞赏, 而缺乏这些属性则不会引起游客的不满或负面看法。

通过多质量非对称性分析, 本研究对理解29个LCT属性的认知程度提供了深刻的见解。该研究为旅游目的地管理机构提供了切实的指导, 并明确指出了提供属性的必要性, 特别是在"混合"和"必备"类别中, 以避免游客在前往低碳旅游目的地时产生负面看法。

El estudio aplica un enfoque multimétodo para obtener los elementos del turismo bajo en carbono (TBC) antes de realizar un análisis factorial exploratorio para identificar las dimensiones subyacentes. Se llevó a cabo un análisis de rendimiento del rango de impacto y un análisis de asimetría del impacto para explorar la relación asimétrica o simétrica asociada a la percepción de los turistas sobre el TBC.

Apoyándose en la teoría de los tres factores, el estudio pretende 1) examinar la dinámica (asimetría) de los atributos de baja emisión de carbono de múltiples calidades con respecto a la percepción de los turistas tailandeses y 2) priorizar los atributos del turismo de carbono sobre la base del rendimiento del rango de impacto y el análisis asimétrico.

Los resultados revelan las tres dimensiones de los atributos del turismo de carbono. De los 29 atributos, nueve se consideran categorías “imprescindibles”, de modo que los turistas se sentirán decepcionados por los esfuerzos de un destino con bajas emisiones de carbono si estos atributos faltan, pero se sentirán neutrales si los atributos están presentes. Seis atributos de los TBC entran en la categoría “híbrida”, de manera que los turistas apreciarán si perciben que estos atributos están disponibles para los TBC y se sentirán decepcionados si estos atributos no se ofrecen o se ofrecen de manera deficiente. Catorce atributos se consideran en la categoría de “valor añadido”, lo que significa que los turistas sólo apreciarán si encuentran estos atributos en el destino, y la falta de ellos no causará ninguna insatisfacción o percepción negativa por parte de los turistas.

A través del análisis asimétrico de la calidad múltiple, el estudio proporciona una visión profunda del grado de percepción de los 29 atributos del TBC. El estudio ofrece directrices tangibles a las autoridades de los destinos y señala la necesidad de proporcionar atributos, especialmente en las categorías “híbrida” e “imprescindible”, para evitar la percepción negativa de los turistas cuando visitan un destino con bajas emisiones de carbono.

The UK aims to reduce the carbon emissions in the building sector so as to achieve nearly zero-carbon new buildings by 2020. In 2010, a 25 per cent reduction of carbon emissions was mandated in England and Wales. The aim of this paper is to reveal how the design teams were coping with the energy regulation changes in 2010 in England and Wales.

An ethnographic methodology was selected to investigate in-depth the real-time design process in four architecture practices. The study was analysed in detail and compared the design process of six non-domestic buildings in England and Wales. The data collection methods included interviews, non-participant observation and document analysis and were conducted for a period of 12-21 months per case study.

The field findings suggest the disconnections between the project driver and the policy agenda and reveal what the design teams do to embed energy performance in routine project design.

Due to the in-depth nature of the data, no claims for generalisation or representativeness are made. However, the detailed analysis of the real-time design process reveals the designers’ enactment of the policy agenda, which is in essence a timeless phenomenon about policy intervention and performance-based regulations.

The designers’ enactment of and responses to the policy changes become an analytical tool to infer lessons that can be learned from the process and lead to the achievement of expected carbon reductions and the success of the policy intentions.

To explore how the blockchain affects the pricing and financing decisions in a low-carbon platform supply chain.

Considering the dual roles of the e-commerce platform as a seller and an initiator, a typical game-theoretical method is applied to analyze the behavior of supply chain decision-makers and the impact of key variables on equilibriums.

When loan interest rates are symmetric, whether blockchain is used or not, the e-commerce platform financing mode will always produce higher wholesale price and unit carbon emission reduction, while the retail price is the opposite. Higher unit additional income brought by the blockchain can bring higher economic and environmental performances, and the e-commerce platform financing mode is superior to bank financing mode. The application of blockchain may cause the manufacturer to change his/her financing choice. For bank financing, with the increase of loan interest rates, the advantages brought by blockchain will gradually disappear, but this situation will not occur under e-commerce platform financing.

Blockchain is known for its information transparency properties and its ability to enhance user trust. However, the impacts of applying blockchain in a low-carbon platform supply chain with different financing options are not clear. The authors examine the manufacturer's strategic choices for platform financing and bank financing, whether to adopt blockchain, and the impact of these decisions on carbon emissions reduction, consumer surplus and social welfare. The research conclusion can provide reference for the operation and financing decisions of platform supply chain under the carbon reduction target in the digital economy era.