This study provides a comprehensive overview of greenwashing research in business and management, focusing on its conceptual and theoretical foundations. Through a systematic literature review of 97 peer-reviewed articles from Scopus and Web of Science, we use bibliometric analysis to map the evolution of greenwashing studies and network analysis and identify four thematic clusters: (1) symbolic management and CSR communication, (2) environmental regulations and institutional complexity, (3) performance and sustainable practices, and (4) marketing, perception, and trust. Additionally, we perform a full-text analysis to map the theoretical frameworks employed across these clusters, revealing the dominance of macro-level theories (e.g., legitimacy, institutional, and stakeholder theories) and their cross-level interactions with meso- and micro-level approaches. By developing a multi-level theoretical framework, we provide a structured approach to understanding greenwashing across different analytical layers. Then, focusing on the theories used to investigate greenwashing, we identify some avenues for future research. This study has practical implications for understanding how greenwashing affects corporate governance, financial performance, and stakeholder trust, providing insights for enhancing transparency and accountability in sustainable business practices.

The concept of Industry 4.0 has been mainly addressed by the current literature from a technological perspective, overlooking the organisational and even ethical challenges related to this recent paradigm. In order to become ‘4.0 compliant’, an enterprise must adapt its organisation and business approaches, and these changes may lead to a significant impact on sustainability. Therefore, we performed a systematic literature review to investigate the most recent Industry 4.0 research streams by adopting a multi-perspective approach. This analysis led to collect insights on the key traits of an Enterprise 4.0: integration, decomposed hierarchy, flexibility, and autonomy. Each of these keywords involves work environments, business and organisational models, and educational approaches, which constitute the key traits of the novel framework proposed in this study.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to appraise and evaluate empirical research on circular economy in food systems, consolidating the existing knowledge and identifying shortcomings in this emerging body of research.Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a systematic literature review of 136 studies from the electronic databases Scopus and Web of Science. The authors also developed a thematic analysis and summarized the results in a framework.Findings: The authors identified seven critical issues for the transition to circular food systems: consumer behavior, multistakeholder coordination, business models, digital technologies, barriers, transition processes and performance and measurement systems. Moreover, the authors provide an agenda for future research on these topics.Originality/value: While reviews on the circular economy are spreading rapidly, no reviews have comprehensively addressed the critical issues for the transition to circular food systems in the business, management, and organization domains.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the credit collection process in public administrations in order to develop a conceptual model which goes beyond the traditional logic of linearity, adopting system thinking approaches.Design/methodology/approach: This study analyses the case of an Italian local government-owned enterprise. Data collection through semi-structured interviews and document analysis has enabled the development of propositions, the identification of systemic variables, and the development of an explanatory modeling process based on the system dynamics approach.Findings: This paper shows that public administrations can effectively involve external actors, especially citizens, as knowledge and public value co-creators only when considering systemic, unintended, and delayed implications of decision-making activities related to the provision of sensitive public services such as credit collection.Originality/value: Business process modelling should address some key fragilities of traditional modeling processes, especially in the public sector. This paper develops a novel systemic conceptual model which lays the groundwork for empirically testing business process innovation in public administrations.