scholarly journals Frontiers in Service Science: Integrating ESG Measures and Supply Chain Management: Research Opportunities in the Postpandemic Era

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinglong Dai ◽  
Christopher Tang

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the instrumental role of supply chains in delivering economic, human, and societal value. At the same time, the pandemic has intensified interest among businesses, governments, and academics to examine environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. In today’s hyper-globalized economy, ESG measures are futile unless they explicitly incorporate a firm’s end-to-end operations throughout its entire supply chain. On the other hand, well-calibrated ESG measures should play a central role in guiding a firms’ day-to-day supply chain management practices. To illustrate the value of unifying ESG and end-to-end supply chain thinking, we present three supply chain cases that arose amid the COVID-19 pandemic, involving online platforms; public health supply chains; and vaccine development, manufacturing, and distribution, respectively. Drawn from these three cases, we spotlight some new research opportunities in both ESG and supply chain management.

Author(s):  
Yasin Galip Gencer

Supply chain management is receiving increased attention as means of becoming competitive in a globally challenging environment. As its use is rising in several businesses, we have focused on SCM in retailing business. The concept of ethics has become more critical for companies. In this paper, ethics and sustainability in retailing are also examined. Sustainability has received more attention in retail management. Sustainability related issues have been discussed for many years and the term sustainability has received increased attention in research since the last two decade. This paper brings an overview of past and current sustainability research in retail applications for examining retailing and sustainability relevance. The paper considers role of retailers in supply chains through an extensive analysis of sustainability examinations in different research areas relevant to retail supply chains. Ultimately, the study is exampled from retailing businesses and it is concluded by further discussions.


Author(s):  
Ibibia K. Dabipi ◽  
Judy A. Perkins ◽  
Tierney Moore

Over the years the supply chain industry has been transforming to improve the end-to-end (production to delivery) process. Supply chain management (SCM) allows various industries to oversee and better handle how their product is manufactured and delivered. It allows them to track and identify the location of the product and to be more efficient in delivery. Integrating total asset visibility (TAV) technology into the supply chain structure can provide excellent visibility of a product. This kind of visibility complemented with various packaging schemes can assist in accommodating optimization strategies for visualizing the movement of a product throughout the entire supply chain pipeline. The chapter will define SCM, discuss TAV, review how transportation as well as optimization impacts SCM and TAV, and examine the role of packaging in the context of SCM and TAV.


Author(s):  
Stephen Kelly ◽  
Vojtech Klézl ◽  
John Israilidis ◽  
Neil Malone ◽  
Stuart Butler

AbstractAs industries mature, they rely more heavily on supply chain management (SCM) to ensure effective operations leading to greater levels of organisational performance. SCM has been widely covered in many industrial areas and, in line with other burgeoning sectors such as Tourism, an industry focus provides the opportunity to look in-depth at the context-based factors that affect SCM. Developments in digital distribution and rapid technological innovations have resulted in an increased focus on Digital Supply Chains (DSCs), which bring about significant changes to how consumers, customers, suppliers, and manufacturers interact, affecting supply chain design and processes. Through a systematic review of the Videogames Industry Supply Chain Management literature, which serves as a pertinent contextual example of a DSC, we look at how supply chains are affected by structural, market and technological change, such as increased platformisation, disintermediation and the proliferation of digital distribution. We distil these findings into a new research agenda, which identifies themes in line with extant DSC research, provides a series of relevant practice recommendations and identifies opportunities for future research.


Author(s):  
R. Craig

This chapter considers the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in supply chains. It starts with an overview of the important role of SMEs in national and world economies. Following this is an overview of supply chains, information and communication technologies, and e-business. Both opportunities and challenges for supply chains in general and SMEs in particular are considered, and conclusions drawn. The major contribution of the chapter is in providing an extensive overview of the literature as it relates to information and communication technologies, supply chain management, and SMEs, providing researchers and practitioners with a starting point to look for further information as needed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1145-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Engelseth ◽  
Judith Molka-Danielsen ◽  
Brian E. White

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to question the applicability of recent industry-derived terms such as “Big Data” (BD) and the “Internet of things” (IoT) in a supply chain managerial context. Is this labeling useful in managing the operations found in supply chains? Design/methodology/approach BD and IoT are critically discussed in the context of a complete supply chain organization. A case study of banana supply from Costa Rica to Norway is provided to empirically ground this research. Thompson’s contingency theory, Alderson’s functionalistic end-to-end “marketing channels” model, Penrose’s view of supply purpose associated with service provision, and particularities of banana supply reveal how end-to-end supply chains are complex systems, even though the product distributed is fairly simple. Findings Results indicate that the usefulness of BD in supply chain management discourse is limited. Instead its connectivity is facilitated by what is now becoming commonly labeled as IoT, people, devices and documents that are useful when taking an end-to-end supply chain perspective. Connectivity is critical to efficient contemporary supply chain management. Originality/value BD and IoT have emerged as a part of contemporary supply chain management discourse. This study directs attention to the importance of scrutinizing emergent and actual discourse in managing supply chains, that it is not irrelevant which words are applied, e.g., in research on information-enabled supply process development. Often the old words of professional terminology may be sufficient or even better to help manage supply.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Notteboom ◽  
Larissa van der Lugt ◽  
Niels van Saase ◽  
Steve Sel ◽  
Kris Neyens

Green supply chain management (GSCM) can be defined as the integration of environmental concerns into the inter-organizational practices of supply chain management (SCM). This paper analyzes the role of seaports in the greening of supply chains in two ways. First, the fields of action to pursue GSCM objectives in ports are identified and grouped. The proposed typology includes five groups of actions, i.e., green shipping; green port development and operations; green inland logistics; seaports and the circular economy; and, actions in the field of knowledge development and information sharing. In the empirical part of the paper, this typology is used to analyze green actions and initiatives developed by market players and port authorities in the Rhine–Scheldt Delta, the leading European port region in cargo throughput terms. This structured overview of green actions and initiatives shows that these ports are hotbeds for GSCM initiatives, but progress in some areas remains slows. The second part of the analysis focuses on the attitudes and perceptions of port-related actors towards the greening of port-related supply chains. A large-scale survey conducted in the Belgian and Dutch logistics and port industry reveals that greening has been put massively on the agenda by the firms between 2010 and now. The results give a clear view on the diverse drivers and impediments towards the greening of supply chains. In addition, one can still see a gap between words and actions. The survey further points to the role of governments as catalysts or soft enforcers for change, and calls for continuity and coherence in government policy. This paper is the first study providing a comprehensive analysis on initiatives, approaches, and perspectives of port-related actors in a specific multi-port region.


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