PurposeThe present study seeks to explore the relationships among human resource management (HRM) practices, supply chain management (SCM) implementation and small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) performance in Australia. It also investigates whether HRM practices have any mediating effect on such relationships.Design/methodology/approachIn line with the research objective, a quantitative model was applied and a multi-item survey questionnaire was developed to collect primary data. Cross-sectional surveys of a sample of 216 SMEs from different industries were undertaken to collect data, and factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to analyse data and test hypotheses.FindingsThe statistical results inform that SCM implementation and HRM practices improve SMEs' performance in Australia. SCM implementation is also found to be positively linked to HRM practices and has a significant indirect effect on organisational performance when the HRM practices are mediating. HRM practices are, thus, found in this study to mediate the relationship between SCM implementation and Australia's SMEs performance.Originality/valueThe concurrent effects of SCM and HRM practices on SMEs' performance and how businesses' internal management such as HRM practices mediate and affect SCM and SMEs' performances have not been addressed previously in the Australian business context. This study, hence, addresses the gap in the literature concerning the effect of SCM on SMEs by integrating HRM practices as a significant behavioural support system to SCM implementation in Australia's SMEs.

Purpose This paper aims to comprehensively analyse the sustainability reporting practices of Australian electricity retailers in comparison with global sustainability reporting indicators outlined in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Design/methodology/approach Based on the GRI G4 sector-specific guidelines, the paper investigated Australian electricity retailers’ reporting in three broad areas of sustainability, namely, economic, environmental and social. The 2018/2019 annual reports along with websites, corporate social responsibility reports and standalone sustainability reports of the major electricity retailers listed on the Australian Energy Regulator were analysed and coded using a content-based technique. Findings The findings inform that electricity retailers’ disclosures are substantially varied between and within the three categories of sustainability reporting, and the majority of the retailers have failed to address over two-third of the GRI indicators. This study also shows that positive information is the dominant form of the disclosures, and reporting with declarative information without providing any quantifiable data is a common practice of the retailers who fail to address an indicator that requires information in numerical terms. Originality/value Electric utilities provide essential services to society and have a significant influence on sustainable development. This study contributes to the social disclosure literature, in particular in a developed countries energy sector context, and captures insights about the sustainability reporting and accountability behaviour of the major electricity retailers operating in Australia.

While the sustainable supply chain is an emergent area of interest, the literature provides little guidance on how best to carry out sustainable supply chain management. The purpose of this paper is to provide hints to businesses on how best to approach the challenge of developing a sustainable supply chain. Hence, the case studies method is undertaken to explore how Australia’s companies that are prominent worldwide for their sustainability performance have approached the challenge of managing sustainability in their supply chain. This study finds that sustainability action plans and governance tools that rightly reflect requisites for suppliers, diverse evaluation means to measure the suppliers’ performance, and regular reviews of sustainable supply chain management practices and policies enable businesses to manage sustainability in their supply chain. The study contributes to the literature by providing a best practice model from the findings to provide practical guidance to businesses.

This study, based on the stakeholder theory, explores the relationship between Australia’s electricity companies’ sustainability reporting practices and their financial performance. This paper uses the GRI G4 sector-specific guidelines to examine Australia’s electricity companies’ disclosure level on sustainability, return on assets to assess the companies’ performance, and descriptive statistics and multiple regression to test hypotheses. Relying on the secondary data collected from companies’ annual reports, websites, corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, or standalone sustainability reports, the regression results show that the sustainability reports have a connection with the companies’ performance. Additional analysis also reveals that only economic and social performance disclosures of sustainability reporting significantly influence the companies’ performance. Though earlier studies on the relationship between sustainability reporting and financial performance have mostly been based on international data, this paper inspects the connection between the adoption of sustainability reporting and the financial performance of electricity companies within Australia that provide essential services to society and have a significant influence on sustainable development. Moreover, this research arbitrates prior inconsistent findings (Garg & Gupta, 2020; Bhattacharyya & Rahman, 2019; Sila & Cek, 2017) and adds to the sustainability reporting and firms’ performance literature

With the increased globalisation and disruptions faced by businesses in this digital era and the occurrence of natural disasters such as floods and disease outbreaks in the world, supply chain risks and management of those risks are major challenges for businesses, especially for SMEs of clothing retailers in Australia. This study, hence, is carried out using an exploratory case study research method, and the data have been collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with key informants from managerial levels of 20 Australian SMEs of clothing retailing businesses to identify various supply chain risks and their management processes. This study finds five supply chain risks, namely supply risk, demand risk, financial risk, environmental risk, and operational risk, that the SMEs of clothing retailers mostly face in the supply chain. This study also finds that most of the investigated retailers lack a formal risk identification approach, though they informally use the reactive and proactive methods of risk identification. Furthermore, the assessment methods are not well established in most of the participating firms, and supplier monitoring receives more attention compared to their own performance to deal with their supply chain risks. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by being one of the first empirical studies to explore the SMEs of clothing retailers’ supply chain risks and their management processes in the Australian business context, which can add value in guiding supply chain design decisions for SMEs in other sectors.