Critical success factors and green supply chain management proactivity: shedding light on the human aspects of this relationship based on cases from the Brazilian industry

Abstract

By applying the resources-based view (RBV) theory to green management, this study aims to analyse the relationship between critical success factors (CSFs) and the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices for some Brazil-based manufacturers of automotive batteries considered focal in their supply chains. It also analyses how human issues, known as green human resource management (GHRM) aspects, can help to increase the effectiveness of CSFs for GSCM strategies that are still not totally well-managed, justifying a RBV perspective. This research assumes that firms tend to be in different stages of GSCM development (more strategic or less strategic) and tests four research propositions to determine whether more proactive GSCM is related to higher levels of effectively managed CSFs. Three focal companies that operate in the Brazilian automotive battery industry were studied. Research results suggest that more proactive GSCM practices correlate to more effectively managed CSFs and to a greater support from GHRM. We argue that managers with a clear GHRM strategy will have more success in GSCM adoption, using more green training, green recruitment and selection, green performance evaluation and employee rewards.     

Does Centrality Moderate the Relation Between Skin Tone Satisfaction and Psychological Adjustment for Latinx Blacks and Non-Latinx Blacks?

Few studies have examined the similarities and differences between individuals from across the African diaspora in terms of racial identity and skin tone a     

Recent and Past Governance Reforms in Latin America: What Can We Learn?

By doing a parallel between old and new reforms on governance issues applied in Latin America, this paper seeks to identify learnings as well as to understand what is new and what is not from this type of policy endeavor. The article focuses on the analysis of the State reforms implemented in Latin America during the 1920s and those of the 1990s. It shows that modernization of public administration follows the State reform; that needs calling for modernization are permanent; and that while ends pursued by the State change in the long run, modernization has to be a permanent activity.

     

Public primary health care and children’s health in Brazil: evidence from siblings

The Family Health Program (Programa Saúde da Família) is an initiative of the Brazilian Ministry of Health designed to deliver free primary health care services within communities and households. The program was implemented by municipalities in different periods of time, creating variation in its availability among siblings of different ages. The empirical approach uses this variation to estimate the effect of the program on children’s health in Brazil, in an attempt to control for family and municipality unobserved factors possibly related to the program’s adoption. The results indicate that children for whom the Family Health Program was available in their municipalities during the prenatal period are healthier than children for whom the program was not available during the same period of their lives.     

Anticipatory Guidance: A Hospital-Based Intervention for Adolescents with Perinatal Loss

There are well documented complexities and challenges of pregnancy in the adolescent years. Social workers are usually the front line workers with the adolescent population and are often called to provide bereavement services in a hospital setting. This article describes a pathway for short term intervention in working with adolescents experiencing a perinatal loss and focuses on brief intense anticipatory guidance as the optimal way to provide care under these circumstances. This described approach includes: the developmental level of the adolescent, the receptive posture of the social worker, the adolescent’s stage of acceptance of the pregnancy; the meaning of the loss; her emotional strengths; environmental resources and risk factors.     

World Health Organization Regional Assessments of the Risks of Poliovirus Outbreaks

While global polio eradication requires tremendous efforts in countries where wild polioviruses (WPVs) circulate, numerous outbreaks have occurred following WPV importation into previously polio‐free countries. Countries that have interrupted endemic WPV transmission should continue to conduct routine risk assessments and implement mitigation activities to maintain their polio‐free status as long as wild poliovirus circulates anywhere in the world. This article reviews the methods used by World Health Organization (WHO) regional offices to qualitatively assess risk of WPV outbreaks following an importation. We describe the strengths and weaknesses of various risk assessment approaches, and opportunities to harmonize approaches. These qualitative assessments broadly categorize risk as high, medium, or low using available national information related to susceptibility, the ability to rapidly detect WPV, and other population or program factors that influence transmission, which the regions characterize using polio vaccination coverage, surveillance data, and other indicators (e.g., sanitation), respectively. Data quality and adequacy represent a challenge in all regions. WHO regions differ with respect to the methods, processes, cut‐off values, and weighting used, which limits comparisons of risk assessment results among regions. Ongoing evaluation of indicators within regions and further harmonization of methods between regions are needed to effectively plan risk mitigation activities in a setting of finite resources for funding and continued WPV circulation.     

An Ecological Approach to Racial Environments and Their Relationship to Mental Health

Although research has demonstrated that aspects of racial environments such as racial experiences and racial diversity can relate to psychological health and well-being, few studies have examined what specifically happens when individuals move from one racial environment to another. The present study asked 179 African Americans transitioning to a predominantly white institution (freshmen or junior transfers) about racial diversity (percentage of African Americans) at their prior institution, racial experiences at their prior institution, and racial experiences at the current institution and examined how these characteristics related to self-reported depression. Overall, we found that more negative previous racial experiences predicted greater depressive symptoms in college. Results also revealed a significant three-way interaction such that more positive current racial experiences predicted less depressive symptoms, but only for those students coming from predominantly negative racial environments—low racial diversity and more negative racial experiences. Our findings highlight the complex role of past and present racial environmental factors in influencing psychological health. Implications for African American college students’ success and well-being are discussed.     

Socioeconomic and ecological perceptions and barriers to urban tree distribution and reforestation programs

Tree planting and reforestation initiatives in urban and peri-urban areas often use tree distribution or “giveaway” programs as a strategy to increase tree cover and subsequent benefits. However, the effectiveness of these programs in terms of increasing overall tree cover and providing benefits to low-income and disadvantaged communities has been little studied. We assess these programs by exploring community participation in, and barriers to, an urban tree distribution program in Fort Lauderdale, United States and the role socioeconomic background and tree functional types have on participation. We use a mixed-methods approach, panel data, choice experiments, and econometrics to quantitatively analyze respondent’s ranking of program options. High income, White respondents had the highest level of awareness and participation while low income, African Americans (AA) had the lowest level. Monetary rebates were perceived as positive and significant as the compensation value increased to US$8.00 - $12.00. Fruit-bearing and native tree functional types were more preferred than flowering or shade trees. Latinos, AA, and high income respondents preferred fruit trees, while White, high income preferred native trees. Overall, low income respondents perceived the greatest barriers towards participation. 20% of Broward County residents who participated in the survey were aware of the tree giveaway programs and 13% had previously participated. Findings indicate an adaptive governance mismatch between program objectives to equitably increase city tree cover via planting shade trees versus individual’s knowledge and preference for other tree types and functions. Results can be used for developing and evaluating reforestation initiatives to equitably increase tree cover and improve the governance of urban ecosystems.     

Important Risk Factors in Home-Removal Decisions: Social Caseworker Perceptions

The current study identified factors that played a significant role in decisions to separate a child from his/her primary caretakers for 51 social service caseworkers. Participants rated and ranked the importance of 35 child risk/well-being factors used in recent child separation dispositions. Results indicated that boundary setting with a perpetrator of abuse and parental motivation played a significant role in decision-making. These preliminary findings suggest the need to prioritize services aimed at the promotion of the non-maltreating parent’s limit setting with the perpetrator of abuse, as well as caretaker motivation/cooperation.Virginia M. DeRoma is affiliated with The Citadel, Psychology Department, Capers Hall, 171 Moultrie, 29409, Charleston, SC, USA. Maria Lynn Kessler is affiliated with Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, OR, USA. Ryan McDaniel is affiliated with New Hope for Children, Charleston, SC, USA. Cesar M. Soto is affiliated with Municipal Defense of Children and Adolescents, Chorrillos, Peru.Address correspondence to Virginia M. DeRoma, The Citadel, Psychology Department, Capers Hall, 171 Moultrie, Charleston, SC, 29409.     

A Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure for the Feedback Vertex Set Problem

A Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) is a randomized heuristic that has produced high quality solutions for a wide range of combinatorial optimization problems. The NP-complete Feedback Vertex Set (FVS) Problem is to find the minimum number of vertices that need to be removed from a directed graph so that the resulting graph has no directed cycle. The FVS problem has found applications in many fields, including VLSI design, program verification, and statistical inference. In this paper, we develop a GRASP for the FVS problem. We describe GRASP construction mechanisms and local search, as well as some efficient problem reduction techniques. We report computational experience on a set of test problems using three variants of GRASP.