Vol. 8 No. 1 (2015): January - June

This issue of the Journal of Operations and Supply Chain Management has seven papers that cover new and exciting topics in our field. Three of the papers cover the new and growing field of sustainable and socially responsible operations. Firstly, the paper shows how sustainable practices are making their ways into manufacturing.  Sannö, Deleryd and Fundin (2015) show in their work the forces driving environmental change in 27 manufacturing European and American plants.  Biazzin, Paiva, Di Serio and Andrade (2015), in their turn, provide insights on how even Sugar-Alcohol producing firms, which operate in a sector marked by many environmentally unfriendly practices, can mitigate their environmental impacts and improve local social conditions. Silva, Neutzling, Alves, Dias         and Santos (2015) then provide an overview of the state of the art of the Brazilian literature on Sustainable Supply Chain Management and point out avenues for future research.

 This issue also explores aspects of risk and project management as well as international R&D partnerships and critical operations management. Díaz and Tachizawa (2015), for instance, show how the Red Cross organized itself to operate during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and identified the key factors enabling a successful operation.  Battistuzzo and Piscopo (2015) explore how capital goods manufacturing MNEs manage projects aimed at developing Complex Products and Systems (CoPS) and Guedes, Bittar, Di Serio and Oliveira (2015) make a comprehensive assessment of the risk management practices in the Brazilian automotive industry. Finally, Zarpelon and Gavronski (2015) explore the literature on international R&D partnerships to identify best practices and research gaps.

I wish our readers an informative and pleasant reading!

Luiz Artur Ledur Brito

Editor-in-chief