Waseem Ahmad

Strategic thinking on sustainability: challenges and sectoral roles

This paper focuses on identified challenges for sustainable development across various sectors and the actions needed by different institutions and individuals for the achievement of a sustainable path. For finding solutions that impede sustainable development, emphasis is given to collaborative, inter- and trans-disciplinary problem-solving approaches. The ‘ecological modernization’ view is based on the belief that science and technology will result in continuous improvement in human welfare, while the emerging postmodern ‘ecological paradigm’ also emphasizes harmony with nature and other actors. Global societies are in the midst of a number of challenges: (1) implementation of existing and new hard- and soft-law instruments, (2) the degradation of natural resources, (3) an inadequate global mechanism for handling environmental and social responsibilities by the international community, (4) an unbalanced distribution of wealth, locally and internationally, (5) unethical and unsustainable business practices, (6) consequent unethical and unsustainable consumer practices, (7) selective application of ethical principles by rich countries and (8) the absence of norms of good conduct by powerful and wealthy peoples pertaining to sustainable development. Governments, civil societies, academicians, indigenous peoples, communities, businesses and international organizations need to become engaged in the formulation and enforcement of environmentally and ecologically sound development policies along with relevant research, education, training, awareness and a change in social values as provided in the Earth Charter to support actions for sustainable development.

The Earnings Disadvantage of 21st Century Immigrants in the United States

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the earnings disadvantage of 21st century immigrants in the United States. The study is the first to decompose the earnings disadvantage faced by recent immigrants to present the channels through which immigrants lag behind their native counterparts. The decomposition of the earnings disadvantage reveals that the time spent in the United States is the key determinant of the earnings disadvantage. Other important sources of the earnings disadvantage of immigrants are the levels of English-language proficiency and educational attainment. The decomposition analysis also suggests that low levels of human capital cause an even larger disadvantage for immigrants in the years following the 2008-2009 recession as compared with the corresponding relative returns of the prerecession period. The decomposition analysis and trends in returns to human capital variables highlight the merits of a selective immigration system that favors young, English-speaking, and highly educated individuals. JEL Classifications: J1, J3, J6

Selection of Reverse Logistics Operating Channels Through Integration of Fuzzy AHP and Fuzzy TOPSIS: A Pakistani Case

In the emerging business environment, the organizations must promote alternative uses of resources that may be cost-effective and eco-friendly by extending products’ routine life cycles. In this perspective, an efficient management of product returns through reverse logistics operating channels is a strategic issue. Business organizations including those of automobile manufacturing industries would like to focus on their core competency areas and there is need of making outsourcing decisions of their reverse logistics operating channels. There are five operating channels of reverse logistics; Supplier Operation, Manufacturer Operation, Distributor Operation, Third Party Operation and Joint Operation. The objective of this work is to develop the multi-criteria group decision support system to assist the top management of the company in selection of reverse logistics operating channels through integration of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) under fuzzy environment. An illustrative case is included to validate the proposed method. The key findings and managerial insights of present study also enables the logistics managers to better understand the complex relationships of the main attributes in the decision making environment and subsequently improve the reliability of the decision making process.