Drug shortages disrupt healthcare delivery and pose a critical challenge to the resilience of pharmaceutical supply chains. This study investigates the drivers of drug shortages in Italy – Europe’s leading pharmaceutical producer – to identify the factors associated with supply disruptions and inform evidence-based health policy. Using national data from 2018 to 2023, we analysed 17,619 drugs across 3,013 groups of substitutes, covering community, dual-dispensed, and hospital distribution channels. Generalised linear mixed models were employed to assess how drug characteristics, market dynamics, and regulatory features influence shortage risk. Shortages were most prevalent among community drugs, where high market fragmentation and low-profit margins contributed to supply instability. Patent protection was associated with lower shortage risk for non-sterile drugs, while sterile drugs remained vulnerable regardless of patent status, likely due to manufacturing complexity. Notably, price effects were age-dependent: higher prices mitigated shortage risk, particularly for older drugs. This study offers a comprehensive evaluation of shortage patterns in a key pharmaceutical market, identifying structural risk factors and market vulnerabilities. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers aiming to design targeted interventions, strengthen supply chain resilience, and ensure continuous access to essential medicines.

Much philosophical literature on sweatshop ethics assumes that the individual branded marketers that sell consumer goods either employ sweatshop workers or can strongly influence the conditions under which those workers labor. This oversimplification misidentifies the rationale for and details of the responsibilities of big buyers for the labor standards in their supply chains. Throughout this article, we illustrate how philosophers’ “vertical integration” and “control” assumptions distort our understanding of the internal dynamics within supply chains. Under the more realistic assumption that big buyers have “constrained influence” over labor conditions in their supply chains, we show that big buyers retain the responsibility to work toward social upgrading goals. However, fulfilling such a responsibility requires big buyers to collectively cede power to third parties in supply chains in formalized and accountable ways. Recent developments in transnational industrial agreements, such as the International Accord, are examples of this commitment.

In recent years, the manufacturing sector has seen an influx of artificial intelligence applications, seeking to harness its capabilities to improve productivity. However, manufacturing organizations have limited understanding of risks that are posed by the usage of artificial intelligence, especially those related to trust, responsibility, and ethics. While significant effort has been put into developing various general frameworks and definitions to capture these risks, manufacturing and supply chain practitioners face difficulties in implementing these and understanding their impact. These issues can have a significant effect on manufacturing companies, not only at an organization level but also on their employees, clients, and suppliers. This paper aims to increase understanding of trustworthy, responsible, and ethical Artificial Intelligence challenges as they apply to manufacturing and supply chains. We first conduct a systematic mapping study on concepts relevant to trust, responsibility and ethics and their interrelationships. We then use a broadened view of a machine learning lifecycle as a basis to understand how risks and challenges related to these concepts emanate from each phase in the lifecycle. We follow a case study driven approach, providing several illustrative examples that focus on how these challenges manifest themselves in actual manufacturing practice. Finally, we propose a series of research questions as a roadmap for future research in trustworthy, responsible and ethical artificial intelligence applications in manufacturing, to ensure that the envisioned economic and societal benefits are delivered safely and responsibly.

Analysis of feeder and early weaned pig markets, important segments in pork production, is nearly nonexistent. We derive and estimate a structural econometric model relating demand and supply for market hogs, feeder pigs, and early weaned pigs. Estimates from the econometric model predict how disruptions are transmitted through hog and pig markets. Results indicate that hog and pig markets are most sensitive to hog processing plant utilization relative to capacity and that this sensitivity has increased compared to prior estimates. A set of counterfactual scenarios quantify the effects of shocks to hog processing capacity, wholesale pork demand, and supply response.

Modern supply chains are vital to global commerce, but they are also major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As climate change intensifies, achieving carbon neutrality – particularly through supply chain decarbonisation – has become a global imperative. While organisations have made strides in reducing direct emissions, addressing indirect supply chain emissions presents greater complexity and urgency. We invite academic contributions that examine the challenges, enablers, potential risks, strategic approaches and innovative practices related to decarbonisation across a wide range of sectors, including manufacturing, service industries and humanitarian logistics. Emphasis is placed on holistic, multi-stakeholder approaches aligned with the GHG Protocol. The issue welcomes interdisciplinary research employing varied methodologies – ranging from empirical studies to conceptual frameworks – to inform practice, policy and sustainability transitions. By showcasing sector-specific insights and cross-cutting solutions, this issue aims to advance knowledge and action in building low-carbon, resilient supply chains.

Blockchain, an emerging technology exhibiting swift growth, significantly bolsters transparency within a given supply chain, enabling secure traceability, backtracking, and info tracing. Blockchain technology holds substantial promise for the dairy sector, offering enhancements unnecessary market intermediaries, thereby broadening access to credit and insurance for farmers, particularly in developing economies Such advancements could lead to more sustainable, efficient, and resilient livestock practices. However, the technology faces challenges, including the need for sophisticated infrastructure, cross-platform software, and skilled personnel with advanced expertise. Divergence in technological capabilities between developed and developing nations may hinder trade and exacerbate disparities. Regulatory barriers could also restrict blockchain's application. Thus, it is imperative to enhance blockchain knowledge among trade authorities and policymakers to facilitate its broader adoption. The objective of this review is to discuss principles of blockchain and proposed future work pathways for its use in the dairy industry.

Precarious work, the problems it poses in terms of labour standards/regulation, and remedies to this, have sparked considerable attention from researchers and policy-makers over the past three decades. This paper examines industrial relations (IR) legislation introduced by the Australian Labor government elected in 2022, and which, amongst other things, has addressed precarious work. These initiatives are placed in historical context, noting how essentially similar problems shaped IR regulation a century earlier. The article also examines the more immediate precursors to the legislation, by reviewing state and federal inquiries into precarious work and related issues in Australia from the 1990s onwards. Placing the new legislation into historical context enhances our understanding of the law and surrounding policy debates. The Albanese federal Labor government package of industrial relations laws introduced between 2022 and 2024 marked a paradigm shift from earlier measures. While these reforms are rooted in Australian institutions, law and industrial relations history, they provide an alternative policy template for addressing the problems wrought by neoliberalism on labour standards, especially if accompanied by synergistic reforms in other areas, such as immigration and economic policies promoting manufacturing.

This article discusses the EU supply chain legislation, by virtue of the recently adopted Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) which aims to reduce negative sustainability impacts in global supply chains with regard to a list of human rights and environmental standards specified in its Annex I of the CSDDD.

We argue that the CSDDD marks a fundamental change on the EU level, from disclosure duties to mandating prevention of, and compensation for, adverse sustainability impacts in supply chains.

We further find that the CSDDD is a legal transplant combining the principles laid down in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business and those of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, along with elements of French supply chain legislation from 2017 (which relies on a private enforcement model) and the German supply chain law from 2021 (which is based on a public enforcement model). Like all legal transplants, the resulting legal text generally prompts questions about consistency and specifically raises doubts as to whether combining all of the components of a private and a public enforcement model is proportionate for the purpose of the CSDDD which is to ensure that companies take effective steps to counter violations of human rights and environmental standards in global supply chains. The scope provisions (including smaller in-scope EU firms while leaving non-EU peers of a similar size aside) paired with significant high compliance burden provide grounds to argue that the CSDDD impacts on the competitiveness of these smaller in-scope EU companies, and thus the EU economy at large.

The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) has recently incorporated driver pay into its guidelines on the promotion of safe and decent work in road transport. ILO guideline 73 states that ‘the remuneration of … CMV [commercial motor vehicle] drivers should be sustainable and take into consideration the attractiveness and sustainability of the industry’. In the spirit of this, we explore the relationship between truck drivers’ relative income and intrastate motor carrier safety performance. We utilise the United States (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage data for heavy and tractor-trailer truck driver median annual incomes and the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates of median household incomes to construct county level relative income ratios for truck drivers. This information is merged with public safety data to analyse the relationship between truck drivers’ relative pay and motor carrier safety performance. We find that, all else constant, carriers located in counties where driver earnings are relatively high tend to experience fewer crashes. This provides evidence that safety performance is better when driver pay is more attractive in the truck driver labour market and, consequently, validates the ILO’s assertion under guideline 73.

The management of surplus dairy calves in Australia has traditionally been influenced by the economic viability of different practices. When beef prices are favourable, more surplus calves are raised for beef, and when beef prices are low, more calves are killed in the first few days of life. Early life killing of surplus calves may however threaten the dairy industry’s social licence to operate. The aim of this study was to describe the views of value chain stakeholders regarding the management of surplus calves. Representatives from seven post-farm gate organisations participated in semi-structured interviews and were asked about their views on current practices, alternatives to early life killing and how best to implement change. Responses were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and were organised into three themes: (1) ethics of surplus calf management; (2) economics of surplus calf management; and (3) moving towards solutions including approaches to affecting change. We conclude that stakeholders widely recognised early life killing of surplus calves as a threat to the industry’s social licence. Whilst technical solutions such as beef on dairy breeding programmes were cited as important, participants emphasised that implementing sustainable solutions will require collaboration, leadership, and commitment by all stakeholders along the value chain.