Research on sustainable development is significantly influenced by the trade‐off between the economic, social and environmental performance of businesses. Industry 4.0 development is a key business priority due to the promise of exponential increase in productivity, time efficiencies and cost reduction. However, Industry 4.0 development has been slow. Notably, human actors remain central to Industry 4.0, while the social responsibility component of sustainable development is a key prerogative for industry, championed through the UN sustainable development goals and European Commission. Therefore, we evaluate human‐related impediments for Industry 4.0 and critically explore how human resource management (HRM) can overcome these barriers using a socially responsible orientation. First, we analyse the human‐related challenges to Industry 4.0 through a thematic literature review. Thereafter, through an integrative literature review of different research streams (Industry 4.0, HRM and social responsibility), we critically argue novel perspectives on how human resource practices can enable sustainable development of Industry 4.0 in a socially responsible manner. Herein, we address a crucial literature gap. Our findings reveal numerous people‐related barriers, including change resistance, digital skills gap, employment threats widening socio‐economic inequalities, lack of industry‐wide collaboration, leadership and organisational culture challenges. We show that HRM can be a crucial enabler for sustainable Industry 4.0 development through socially responsible human resource practices. These include strategic multistakeholder collaborations, holistic talent management, change leadership, inclusive knowledge sharing, sponsoring education research and codesigning curricula, smart technology for upskilling and retention and rewarding inclusive Industry 4.0 ideas. We conclude with future research directions.

Manufacturing entities in emerging economies face significant obstacles implementing circular economy principles due to resource‐constrained environments. Arguably, manufacturers need customer green pressure to propel the circular economy, alongside frugal innovative strategies. There is a dearth of research on digital platform (DP) capabilities, customer green pressure, and frugal innovative strategies with circular economy. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, 889 manufacturers were surveyed in the emerging economy of India. Customer green pressure moderation was assessed on the links between frugal innovative strategies and circular economy, DP integration capabilities and frugal innovation, and DP reconfiguration capabilities and frugal innovative strategies. Structural equation modelling revealed that DP integration and reconfiguration capabilities positively influence frugal innovation strategies enabling circular economy performance. Customer green pressure positively moderated DP reconfiguration and frugal innovative strategies. Actionable insights are provided to prioritize DP capability development to satisfy customer green pressure and promote frugal innovative strategies, ultimately facilitating the circular economy.

Purpose: This study investigated human resource (HR) practices on Sri Lankan tea plantations regarding the degree to which these fit into the extant notion of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS). The Sri Lankan tea plantations meet the criteria for sustainable organizational long-term performance. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews, thematically analysed, were conducted with the management, the workers and the unions. Findings: Both the nature of practices within each HPWS sub-system (people flow, performance and rewards and opportunities for employee involvement), and partly the sub-systems themselves, are substantially different in the plantations from those presumed in the HPWS literature. To illustrate, the following key ingredients of HPWS as seen in the literature were in essence absent: sophisticated recruitment and selection, systematic training and development, internal promotion opportunities and broad career paths, formal appraisal mechanisms, job design to allow worker autonomy, open communication and information sharing. Teamwork, though utilized, was seen as problematic by all parties. Nonetheless, these HR systems have enabled bottom-line performance along with employee well-being and stability in the local communities over many decades. The data also suggested that company paternalism served as an overarching mentality in the way employees were managed. Practical implications: “State-of-the-art” HR practices that aim at a lean workforce that is constantly stretched to perform and develop themselves without consideration of the workers’ personal lives and the sustainability of the community may not be the only alternative. Organizational performance that is sustainable in the long-term may be feasible under a paternalistic HR philosophy that manifests itself in HR practices geared towards the interests of all stakeholders, including the workers and the local community. Originality/value: The study contributes by demonstrating that the way high-performance HRM is typically considered may not be the single alternative available, especially if we aim to achieve a balance between performance in the long-term, the well-being of employees and serving the community.

Purpose: To provide a comprehensive investigation into the relationship of cultural intelligence (CQ) with job performance using primary data. Of special interest were the interactions between meta-cognitive CQ (MCQ) with the other three facets of CQ. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 182 expatriates working in Abu Dhabi. Their line managers evaluated them on the measures of job performance: Organizational citizenship behaviour-Help (OCB-H), OCB-Change (OCB-C) and task performance. Findings: All testing took place with Emotional Intelligence as a control. Most interactions of MCQ with cognitive CQ (CCQ × MCQ), motivational CQ (MCQ × MoCQ) and behavioural CQ (BCQ × MCQ) were related to the measures of job performance. However, interaction patterns were more nuanced than expected. For example, lower motivational CQ was associated with higher OCB-H and task performance when MCQ was weak. Global CQ was related to all performance measures, but the relationships of the four facets of CQ differed across measures, with cognitive CQ showing the greatest consistency. Finally, global CQ was more strongly related to OCB-H and OCB-C than to task performance, with the results for CQ facets demonstrating the same tendency. Practical implications: Higher scores on all facets of CQ may not always be advantageous for job performance in highly culturally diverse environments. Originality/value: The first study with specifically collected data to test the interactions between CQ facets, providing evidence for their interplay. The study adds to evidence on how cultural intelligence relates to job performance, along with its nomological validity.