HOW SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT CAN STRENGTHEN SUPPLY
SCHOOL Kühne Logistics University, Germany
S ustainability and supply security are not mutually exclusive – in fact, they may even play a crucial role in mitigating global health risks such as antimicrobial resistance. This is the key finding of a new study by Marianne Jahre, professor of operations management and dean of research at Kühne Logistics University. Her research on the integration of environmental criteria into pharmaceutical procurement challenges the widespread assumption that such requirements can increase costs and heighten the risk of medicine shortages. The study examined a procurement process for generic antibiotics, where priority in the award of contracts was given to suppliers meeting specified environmental requirements more fully, rather than those quoting the lowest price. While it was found that this approach did lead to higher short-term expenditure, it also supported more stable supplier relationships and helped safeguard supply continuity. There was no evidence in the case that including environmental criteria negatively affected availability. Moreover, expert assessments suggest that more environmentally responsible production practices – for example, stricter wastewater and emission control requirements – may help curb the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in the long term. “Our findings show that sustainable procurement does not have to come at the expense of availability. Applied correctly, it can help reduce risk and make supply chains more resilient,” concluded Jahre. CD
PERCEPTION BIAS ABOUT AI COULD CHALLENGE THE PURPOSE OF COPYRIGHT
created by a human. Moreover, when participants were positioned as mock jury members, they found the AI-generated work to be significantly more infringing, or plagiaristic, than the human-created equivalent. “If a human and an AI do the exact same thing, with the same input and output, people still react differently. It’s as if our vision has changed,” suggested Avery, who co-authored the research with the University of Georgia’s Mike Schuster. The suggestion is that this perceptual bias stems from a desire to reward “what feels human”, as Avery terms it and that this then gets mixed up with the ability to make fair judgements in a legal context. “The point of copyright is to encourage creative works,” Avery elaborated. “If we start punishing works because AI was part of the process, we may risk chilling innovation and limiting what people can imagine.” EB
SCHOOL University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School, US
evelopments in AI are making it increasingly difficult for people to
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discern what is real and what has been generated by technology. Now, a new study co-authored by Joseph Avery at the University of Miami Herbert Business School has shown that perception bias around AI could have serious implications for copyright laws. In the study, participants were shown a copyrighted piece of work and then asked to evaluate two identical infringing works – one created by a human and one by AI. Intriguingly, the work produced by AI was deemed to be less ethical and of a lower quality than the one
8 Business Impact • ISSUE 1 • 2026
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