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Purpose: This paper explores how the manufacturer's strategic choice (acquisition or investment) impacts product quality in a supply chain comprising two complementary suppliers and a common manufacturer. Design/methodology/approach: The manufacturer faces six strategic choices to improve product quality: acquiring or investing in the high-capable supplier, the low-capable supplier, or both. As the Stackelberg leader, the manufacturer determines which strategy is adopted, while suppliers are separately responsible for components' quality and wholesale prices. The authors use game theory and calculate the model with Mathematica. Findings: The authors develop analytical models to analyze how acquisition costs, investment proportions, component importance and quality improvement coefficients influence decision-makers. The results show that the highest quality may not benefit the manufacturer. Investing in or acquiring a low-capable supplier is better than a high-capable supplier under certain conditions. If the gaps between two suppliers' quality improvement coefficients and the importance of two components are dramatic, the manufacturer should choose an investment strategy. Originality/value: This study contributes to the complementary supply chain management by comparing two kinds of strategies-acquisition and investment, with a high-capable supplier and a low-capable supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litter is a global issue that pollutes water, air, and land, and has esthetic and environmental repercussions. Therefore, this study utilized the value -belief -norm (VBN) theory to analyze residents' preventing littering behavior in Ghana. This study employed a random sampling approach and used an online survey to gather quantitative data from 511 participants. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results show that the "biospheric value," "altruistic value," and "egoistic value" had substantial beneficial effects on the new environmental paradigm. The findings revealed that the new environmental paradigm increased awareness of consequences, which strongly enabled the ascription of responsibility to address environmental concerns. Personal norms influenced residents' preventing littering behavior. The study also discovered that the ascription of responsibility and new environmental paradigms promote residents' preventing littering behavior indirectly through personal norms and awareness of consequences. The study found that awareness of consequences moderates the association between personal norms and residents' preventing littering behavior. These findings provide new insights for litter prevention policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing an inclusive policy agenda for ensuring sustainable development is a challenge for both developed and developing countries. The developing countries face challenges in designing policy that achieves sustainable development goals based on environmental awareness, and that is one of the main contributions of this research. By taking into account the SDG 13 (climate action) and 7 (clean and affordable energy) this study examines the influence of education, natural resource availability, financial development, urbanization, and economic growth for ASEAN nations from 1991 to 2018. For an empirical estimate, second-generation approaches are used. The findings demonstrate the energizing influence of renewable energy usage in altering the environmental quality. According to the empirical findings, renewable energy and education lower CO2 emissions by 0.46% and 0.22%, respectively. Financial development, urbanization, and natural resource depletion all have a 0.14%, 0.03%, and 0.08% impact on the environment, respectively. The heterogeneous causality analysis reveals the feedback effect, i.e., bidirectional causal links between education, carbon emissions, and the use of renewable energy. This empirical data implies that nations should enhance investment in renewable energy and education sectors, as well as prepare for renewable energy research and development, to ensure environmental sustainability. This research has policy implications for ASEAN countries in terms of renewable energy and education investments. Through this agenda, the objectives of SDG 13 and SDG 7 will be achieved, while SDG 4 will be targeted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines a scenario involving an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer promoting innovation, a retailer focusing on advertising and service (A&S), and a government implementing nonsubsidized policies to enhance social welfare and spur EV adoption. The nonsubsidized policies under consideration are classified as ex‐ante (EA), ex‐ing (EI), or ex‐post (EP), depending on their chronological deployment. Our findings indicate that EI is consistently suboptimal due to the presence of the (anti‐)synergy effect. However, either the EA or EP policy proves optimal: EA is preferred when consumers value EV innovation and A&S whereas EP is desirable when associated costs are inefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]