Emerald

The need for innovations to achieve economically viable and green supply chains has been illuminated in recent literature. Closed‐loop supply chains are part of green supply chain management and include traditional forward supply‐chain activities as well as additional activities of the reverse supply chain. Extant supply chain literature calls for a chain perspective in order to avoid sub‐optimization in the chain since changes at one stage can affect the performance at other stages. The purpose of the paper is to analyze how implementation of green supply chain innovations can enhance value offerings along the supply chain.

This research is based on an explorative, single‐embedded case study of a food supply chain. The case is concerned with implementation of green supply chain innovation in terms of biogas technology. The single case comprises four actors in the food supply chain: a retailer, an industrial bakery, a mill, and a farmer. Data collection is based on semi‐structured interviews with persons responsible for sustainability in the respective companies.

The case demonstrates that in order to reach the full potential of a green supply chain innovation, the different supply chain actors must be included. What in isolation of one company's perspective is perceived as a waste can be transformed to a value when the problem area is analysed from a chain perspective.

The paper is based on a single case study that does not provide static generalizations, and it represents the first step on a road to building new theory about green supply chain innovations. Future research can expand the findings by elaborating upon cases of other types of supply chains and supply chain innovations.

The perception of waste in a supply chain can be changed through green supply chain innovations. This case illustrates how obsolete food products at the retail level, which traditionally have been perceived as a waste product with related discarding costs, can be regarded as a valued input by implementation of biogas technology at the industrial bakery company. As a result, other food supply chains can investigate similar solutions.

The paper provides a case that visualizes how value offerings along a food supply chain can be chased through green supply chain innovations. Furthermore, the paper applies a supply chain perspective not only conceptually but also empirically. By focusing on the interfaces between each main actor in the supply chain, this paper contributes to existing research with valuable knowledge of inter‐organizational issues related to challenges of supply chain innovation.

To outline a core competence model by exploring links between core competence and the associated concepts of competencies, capabilities, and resources, and by proposing refinements to the characteristics of these concepts.

A case study based primarily on personal interviews.

The findings suggest that competencies, capabilities, and resources are all linked to core‐competencies; the first two continuously, and the third intermittently; motivate refinement of the competence concept, by adding adaptation competence as governing customer loyalty, and transfer competence as managing transcendental integration; and motivate refinement of the capability concept, by adding capacity as a quality characteristic, and communication as a characteristic that can actively initiate organizational change.

The paper outlines a core competence model and propose refinements of the characteristics and links of the concepts, contributing to both core competence theory and resource‐based theory.

This work informs managers of the details of the core competence concept, of particular interest to managers with a customer‐focused standpoint. An empirical core competence exemplifies the importance of knowing the characteristics of competencies, since they encapsulate the power of organizational development. Managers also need to pay attention to the influences of capabilities, since they not only support organizational processes (if up‐to‐date), but also initiate change.

The development and specification of the core competence concept.

The purpose of this paper is to delineate the similarities and distinctions between cooperation and coordinate and to present distinctive definitions for each.

An extensive review of the extant literature was conducted to examine the precedents with regards to the conceptual domains of cooperation and coordination.

This paper concludes that cooperation is an orientation that one firm has about working with another organization; whereas, coordination are joint activities. This is reflected in the definitions presented in this paper.

Several researchers and practitioners alike view cooperation and coordination as synonymous. However, an organization's cooperative orientation about working with another organization does not inherently lead to coordination. This paper points out that it is necessary to consider cooperation and coordination as two separate but related issues in managing interorganizational relationships.