At 5:00 p.m., October 13, 2022, the Business School of Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) held the 13th Session of the Business School’s Excellent Academic Forum Lecture Series in 2022 through online Tencent Meeting and offline meeting venues. Dr. Gong Yu, associate professor of operations management from the Business School of University of Southampton, was invited as the keynote speaker of this lecture, and more than 40 people (including teachers, master and doctoral students, and undergraduate students) attended this lecture.

    Dr. Liu Xiaohong, professor of the Department of Supply Chain and Operation Management of the Business School, member of the Teaching Steering Committee for Logistics Management and Engineering Majors in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, and deputy head of the Working Group of Supply Chain Management Logistics of the Teaching Steering Committee for Logistics Majors in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education, presided over this meeting. Dr. Liu Xiaohong introduced the research interests and academic achievements of Dr. Gong Yu. Dr. Gong Yu is an associate professor of operations management and a doctoral supervisor at the Business School of University of Southampton. His main research interests are multi-level sustainable supply chain management and supply chain innovation. He has published nearly 50 SCI/SSCI papers and three teaching cases. His papers have been published in many high-level journals such as IJOPM, IJPE, IJPR, IMM and BSE. Besides, he serves as the associate editor of Business Strategy and the Environment (ABS 3, Impact Factor 10.8) and Journal of Computer Information Systems (ABS 2, Impact Factor 3.3), the guest editor of international journals such as IJOPM and IJPR, and the anonymous referee of several internationally renowned journals, such as JOM, IJPE, IJPR and TRE.

    The topic of Dr. Gong Yu’s lecture is “Overcoming the Obstacles of Supply Chain Decarbonization: Case Studies Based on Pioneers”. In this research, he conducted relevant studies on this topic from the supply chain level through the case studies of six pioneers. The studies revealed four common obstacles, i.e. “huge upfront investment costs”, “lack of awareness”, “lack of expertise” and “a resistant mindset”. Besides, SMEs are facing additional obstacles such as “lack of support from supply chain partners” and “uncertainty of return on investment”. At the performance level, most pioneers have achieved positive economic performance associated with their carbon neutrality initiatives. Based on research findings and literature, this paper proposes a theoretical framework and discusses how governments and businesses can work together to overcome the obstacles of supply chain decarbonization.

    After the sharing, the attending teachers and students actively participated in the discussion about the topic of the lecture delivered by Dr. Gong Yu, and Dr. Gong Yu answered their questions in an enthusiastic manner, further deepening their academic exchanges.

    The “Excellent Academic Forum” is an academic exchange platform established by the Business School to fulfill the mission of “contributing new management knowledge”, which focuses on cutting-edge theoretical issues and organizational development dilemmas in the discipline of business administration and the Chinese enterprise management practice, and brings together frontier ideas and innovative ideas in China and abroad, so as to explore Chinese solutions for China's social and economic development.