In recent years, Circular Economy (CE) has come to prominence as an alternative to the classic approach of "make-use-dispose". How companies can exploit the opportunities of CE to position themselves better are not well articulated in literature. This paper therefore aims to identify the barriers and opportunities of CE in the manufacturing sector through a socio-political, economic, legal and environmental perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a positivist approach, which is deductive in nature. A survey questionnaire was designed and distributed to manufacturing companies operating in the UK and EU. The study used FAME database and social networking platform LinkedIn to identify manufacturing companies. More than 200+ companies were approached for this study and data collection lasted over two months. Findings: The study provides a comprehensive review of the CE literature and identifies a number of barriers and opportunities to CE implementation from socio-political, economic, legal and environmental perspective. The findings highlight key barriers, opportunities and benefits of CE for the manufacturing industries operating in the UK and EU. Research limitations/implications: The findings are limited to 63 responses from the survey questionnaire distributed to manufacturing companies in the UK and EU. The present study aims to equip manufacturers with necessary understanding of the key opportunities and barriers to address the challenges encountered during the implementation of CE.

Purpose – This paper theorises and develops seven dimensions (strategic supplier partnership, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, customer service management, internal lean practices, postponement and total quality management) into a SCM practices (SCMPs) construct and studies its causal relationship with the conceptualised constructs of supply chain performance (SCP) and manufacturing firms’ performance (MFP). The study also explores the causal relationship between SCP and MFP. \ud Design/Methodology/Approach – Data was collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 249 Jordanian manufacturing firms. The relationships proposed in the developed theoretical framework were represented through three hypotheses: H1: there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and SCP; H2: there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and MFP; and H3: there is a significant relationship between SCP and MFP. Linear regression, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The results were further validated using structural equation modelling (SEM). \ud Findings – The results indicate that SCMPs have a positive effect on SCP (H1), which in turn also positively affect MFP (H3). Despite this intermediary positive effect of SCMP on MFP through SCP, the study also suggests that SCMPs have a direct and positive effect on MFP (H2). \ud Practical Implications – This study provides hard evidence indicating that higher levels of SCM practices can lead to enhanced supply chain and firms’ performance. It also provides SC managers of manufacturing firms with a multi-dimensional operational measure of the construct of SCMPs for assessing the comprehensiveness of the SCM practices of their firms.\ud Originality/Value – This study is among the very first SCM researches conducted on the Jordanian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the practices that manufacturing firms in this country need to adopt to make their supply chains a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing companies, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated supply chains are key stages in economic development

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of delivery dependability and time to market, on the relation between the infrastructure framework and supply chain agility. Furthermore, the impacts of supply chain agility on firm performance are examined. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 113 respondents, senior executives and managers, in purchasing, operations, supplying, planning and other supply chain functions in large manufacturing firms in the MENA region, which includes 12 countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, Tunis and Algeria). A large-scale survey questionnaire was used for data collection process. The research framework was tested by using hypothesis-testing deductive approach. The results are based on covariance-based analysis and structural equation modelling using analysis of moment structures software. Findings The results show that infrastructure framework elements do not contribute significantly to support supply chain agility. It is also found that delivery dependability and time to market partially mediate the relationship between infrastructure framework elements and supply chain agility. Additionally, it is found that supply chain agility is associated with enhanced firm performance. Originality/value This paper provides an overview and empirically shows that delivery dependability and time to market are appropriate logistics practices for mediating the impact of infrastructure framework and supply chain agility. These relationships indicate a contribution to theory that explains how infrastructure framework elements can procreate supply chain agility, through the synchronising of appropriately matched logistics practices.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main determinants logistical factors that have an impact on the adoption of cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies. By adopting the diffusion of innovation, technological, organizational and environmental model as a theoretical framework, the 14 factors examined in this study are as follows: relative advantage (RA), compatibility, complexity, value creation, technology readiness (TR), security concerns, technical barriers, top management support (TMS), enterprise readiness (ER), enterprise size (ES), enterprise status, competitive advantage, government support and infrastructure/telecommunication. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 131 respondents’ senior executives and IT managers in SMEs in developing economies (Jordan, Lebanon, King Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait and Turkey). A web-based survey questionnaire was used for data collection process. The research framework and the derived hypotheses were tested by logistic regression analysis. Findings The findings indicate that compatibility, TR, technical barriers, TMS, ER, ES and competitive pressure have a significant effect on the adoption of cloud ERP. This conclusion can be utilized in enhancing the strategies for approaching ERP cloud by pinpointing the reasons why some SMEs choose to adopt this technology, while others still do not go forward with this. Originality/value This study provides an overview and empirically shows the main determinants logistical factors that might face SMEs in the developing economies. The findings also help SMEs consider their information technologies investments when they think to adopt cloud ERP.

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Electronic government (e-Government) in its simplest form can mean using information and communication technology (ICT) tools to provide services to citizens. Still with the huge benefits and synergies that e-Government grants to governments and societies, it faces many obstacles and challenges. Therefore, there are always a number of critical success factors and risks associated with e-Government. This paper highlights some of the key ones; it critically assesses key factors that influence e-Government services adoption and diffusion. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine and identify the factors that influence and affect the utilization of e-Government in the developing countries, specifically in Jordan. Furthermore, this article investigates the challenges and barriers that must be overcome in order to successfully implement e-Government in Jordan. Semistructured interviews were conducted and used in this study to collect the data. The results of this study show that the most significant challenges and factors influencing the implementation of e-Government services in Jordan are related to budgeting and financial costs, human expertise, social influence, technological issues, lack of awareness, resistance of public employees, data privacy and security, the legal framework, the needed technology, administrative obstacles, and trust or believing in e-Government. Conclusions, recommendations and future work are stated at the end of the paper.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality practices of European pharmaceutical manufacturers to determine the level of readiness of this industrial sector to implement and/or sustain lean manufacturing (LM). Design/methodology/approach An assessment framework developed by Al-Najem et al. (2013) was adapted to evaluate how ready European pharmaceutical manufacturers are to implement and/or sustain LM. Therefore, the lean readiness (LR) level of these organisations was assessed through six quality practices related to LM. These included: processes, planning and control, human resources, top management and leadership, customer relations, and supplier relations. One research question and three hypotheses were formulated and tested using a combination of descriptive statistics and non-parametric Mann-Whitney tests. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire distributed to 310 European pharmaceutical manufacturers and responded by 37 of these organisations. Findings Overall, the results of this study indicate an inadequate level of LR for the participating firms. Simultaneously, it was concluded that factors such as company size, type of relationships with suppliers and ISO 9000 certification do not have an effect on the quality practices, and hence LR level, of European pharmaceutical manufacturing organisations. Practical implications This study provides crucial information regarding the LR level of European pharmaceutical manufacturers, which can now be aware of the areas in their practices that require further improvement towards a successful lean journey. Simultaneously, organisations in the pharmaceutical sector that intend to implement LM can consider the results of this study and evaluate their readiness level. Managers can, therefore, refer to this research and use it as a platform to take better decisions regarding what quality aspects of their operations need to be enhanced to successfully deploy or sustain a lean strategy. Originality/value This research is one of the very few studies that have focussed on evaluating whether the European pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is ready to successfully implement or sustain LM. Therefore, this research expands the limited existent body of knowledge of LM in this industry.

PurposeThis study contributes to the supply chain management (SCM) literature differently. It offers insightful information about the use and adoption of technologies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Some challenges regarding the predictive supply chain business analytics (SCBA) tools and their prediction remain unexplored and require addressing and examination in developing economies. Therefore, this study examines the substantial roles of relative advantage (RA) and compatibility (Comp.) in using technology in predictive SCBA adoption among SMEs in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThis paper performed a quantitative survey-based study to analyze the substantial role of RA and Comp. with the aim of using predictive SCBA adoption. To this end, the author conducted an online survey through which 262 SMEs from developing countries (i.e. Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Turkey and Qatar) only responded by email.FindingsThe partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) clearly shows a significant relationship between RA and predictive SCBA adoption. Still, Comp. does not significantly affect the use of predictive SCBA adoption.Originality/valueSuch findings of this study can provide insightful implications for stakeholders and policymakers regarding the importance of using predictive SCBA adoption in SMEs in developing countries.