scholarly journals Pathways for Sustainable Supply Chain Performance—Evidence from a Developing Country, Malaysia

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai-Chong Thong ◽  
Wai-Peng Wong

Malaysia has recently started to adopt sustainable business best practices to benefit companies, environment and stakeholders. Therefore, this study demonstrates pathways to sustainable supply chain triple bottom line performance derived from linkages of institutional pressures (IP) and organizational identity (OI) to environment and social sustainable practices. It shows that the superordinate goal of sustainable supply chain management is met in spite of unyielding external pressures and desirable OI driving the unequivocal environmental and responsible social practices of firms. A survey approach was adopted to gather the data required for this study. A total of 118 completed questionnaires were received from respondents, who were managers and senior executives in supply chain management (SCM) in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) version 3.0. Our findings showed that all hypothesized relationships are significant except both process- and market-based social practices could not directly impact economic performance. This is in sharp contrast to environmental practices. However, the significant linkage between social practices and social performance is a pathway for the former to economic performance. Therefore, the economic benefits derived from social practices are salvaged through its performance outcomes. The novel and useful impact of institutional pressures on sustainable supply chain practices are also unearthed.

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gawon Yun ◽  
Mehmet G. Yalcin ◽  
Douglas N. Hales ◽  
Hee Yoon Kwon

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the research conducted among the interim, dyadic interactions that bridge the stand-alone measures of economic, environmental and social performance and the level of sustainability, as suggested in the Carter and Rogers (2008) framework.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conducts a systematic literature review based on the Tranfieldet al.(2003) method of the articles published in 13 major journals in the area of supply chain management between the years 2010 and 2016. Results were analyzed using an expert panel.FindingsThe area of research between environmental and social performance is sparse and relegated to empirical investigation. As an important area of interaction, this area needs more research to answer the how and why questions. The economic activity seems to be the persistent theme among the interactions.Research limitations/implicationsThe literature on the “environmental performance and social performance (ES)” interactions is lacking in both theoretical and analytical content. Studies explaining the motivations, optimal levels and context that drive these interactions are needed. The extant research portrays economic performance as if it cannot be sacrificed for social welfare. This approach is not in line with the progressive view of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) but instead the binary view with an economic emphasis.Practical implicationsTo improve sustainability, organizations need the triple bottom line (TBL) framework that defines sustainability in isolation. However, they also need to understand how and why these interactions take place that drive sustainability in organizations.Originality/valueBy examining the literature specifically dedicated to the essential, interim, dyadic interactions, this study contributes to bridging the gap between stand-alone performance and the TBL that creates true sustainability. It also shows how the literature views the existence of sustainability is progressive, but many describe sustainability as binary. It is possible that economic sustainability is binary, and progressive characterizations of SSCM could be the reason behind the results favoring economic performance over environmental and social.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1001-1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swayam Sampurna Panigrahi ◽  
Bikram Bahinipati ◽  
Vipul Jain

Purpose The business enterprises are increasingly focusing on buying and supplying of products and services in a manner to reduce the adverse impacts on the environment, society, and economy. In view of the above, the concept of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has received attention of the industry and academia due to its importance on environmental, social and corporate responsibility through economic performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The structured literature review attempts to map the various theories in the SSCM literature from the perspectives of economic performance, environmental dimensions, and social values and ethics. Findings As supply management is vital for enhancing organizational competitiveness, the present work attempts to investigate the theoretical perspectives in SSCM to develop an understanding of the current research activities and future potentials. Practical implications This work aims to gain a number of valid insights for the practitioners and the researchers. It also focuses on the perspectives of governance mechanisms for successful implementation SSCM practices in the business enterprises. Originality/value As the theory building initiatives with implications on the conceptualization of SSCM is limited in literature, this work has also been able to identify the trends and relevant research gaps to define the potential areas for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost de Haan-Hoek ◽  
Wim Lambrechts ◽  
Janjaap Semeijn ◽  
Marjolein C. J. Caniëls

The rise of global supply chains as well as attention to the Triple Bottom Line provides organizations with new conditions and strategy paradoxes to be dealt with when it comes to sustainability in supply chain management. This study of a large multinational organization with a strong Triple Bottom Line focus provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of control and governance mechanisms in supply chain context. Through the Levers of Control framework, the application of these mechanisms both internally and across organizational boundaries is shown. The interplay between levers helps in dealing with the in itself paradoxical nature of Triple Bottom Line goalsetting. The results show that the “softer” elements of the Triple Bottom Line, i.e., People and Planet, are approached with the lever associated with the beliefs system, which in turn enforces the boundary and interactive control systems. Ultimately, applying the Levers of Control in supply chain context might contribute to pursuing a holistic approach of sustainable supply chain management.


2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Beske ◽  
Stefan Seuring

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify key categories of Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and related practices that are required to fulfill the demands of sustainability and, therefore, contributing to sustainability performance. As part of this, the authors will identify different approaches in practice implementation in SSCM and supply chain management (SCM). SSCM has become a topic of great interest and is linked to the assumption that a more sustainable performance for businesses would be achieved on its implementation. Such performance has to be achieved with respect to all three dimensions of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is conceptual in nature. The authors draw from literature on SSCM and examine frameworks and critical accounts on the topic. This allows identifying key aspects of SSCM and pointing out differences and overlaps with SCM. Findings – The authors identify five key categories which are of high importance for the sustainable management of supply chains: orientation toward SCM and sustainability, continuity, collaboration, risk management and proactivity. In a second step, the authors describe distinctive practices which allow organizations to follow the goals formulated in the five key categories. Finally, they highlight issues preventing companies that follow a rather “conventional” approach to SCM to reach the level where it can be called SSCM, i.e. how to reach sustainability performance in SCM. Research limitations/implications – The work presented is conceptual in nature. It would be required to operationalize respective categories and, therefore, test them in empirical research. Practical implications – The categories and practices identified within the framework can be used for guiding managers toward the implementation of SSCM. This is the case when management takes performance implication into account without solely considering rather simplistic indicators. At the same time, differentiating a company based on the implementation of sustainability practices has become more difficult, due to the proliferation of sustainability in a wider field. Social implications – Social aspects are integrated into the framework on the same level as environmental and economic aspects, emphasizing the triple bottom line orientation. Originality/value – While all practices applied in SSCM have originally been identified and described by researchers for the case of “conventional” SCM, their particular interrelation and joint implementation makes up SSCM and ensures a contribution to sustainability performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 7863-7875

The continuous enhancement and network complexity of Global supply Chains (G-SC)are accentuating the need of incorporating social, economic and ecological dimension (Also known as Triple- Bottom Line (TBL)) in strategic planning. Therefore, the blending business aims with Sustainable Supply Chain Management (S-SCM) practices and dynamic capabilities has steadily increased in improving the firm’s performance. In this paper an attempt is made to conceptualize a scale for measuring the Sustainable- supply chain management (S-SCM) practices, development of sustainable capabilities of manufacturing firms while evaluating the performance of the organization on TBL. Based on systematic review, the researchersh as identified five major determinants of S-SCM practices, namely Supply-Chain Coordination & Trust (S-CCT); Supply-Chain Learning (S-CL); Supply-Chain Continuity(S-CC); Supply-Chain Orientation(S-CO) and Supply -Chain Risk Management(S-CRM) and further additional five determinants were identified as Supply-Chain Dynamic Capabilities (S-CDC): Knowledge generation and absorptive capacity of the firm (KG-AC);Demand-0rientation(D-O), Innovative-Ability(I-A), Renovation Ability(R-A) and Social Network enhancement-Ability (SNE-A).Further three determinants of S-SCM performance namely Environmental-Performance (E-P); Social-Performance (S-P) and Economic- Performance(E-P) are identified. In order to collect data from 172 automobile and electronic goods companies in India, a research survey was being carried out. The SEM measurement and Structural Model Analysis was carried to find the association between the three determinants. The result of the analysis makes a significant contribution to SCM literature. The research outcomes of this research aim to enable practitioners to design execute and monitor the different elements of S-SCMfirm level activities, its dynamic capabilities and assess the effect of these activities on the firms’ operational efficiency.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Petljak ◽  
Katrin Zulauf ◽  
Ivana Štulec ◽  
Stefan Seuring ◽  
Ralf Wagner

Purpose Green supply chain management (GSCM) research is so far dominated by studies focusing on manufacturing companies, while research on retailers is missing. The purpose of this study is to assess the interaction between green in-store activities (environment-related infrastructure and retail in-store processes), GSCM and environmental and economic performance outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on empirical evidence gathered from 190 responses by Croatian food retailers to a self-administered survey. The identified relationships in the conceptual model are tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results reveal a positive relation between green in-store activities and GSCM in food retailing regarding environmental and economic performance. The relevance of these relationships accrues from the positive association between GSCM and food retailers’ environmental performance, which in turn drives economic performance. It is noteworthy that green supply chain practices drive environmental and then also economic performance. Research limitations/implications The study extends the application of GSCM to retailing and, therefore, broadens its scope. However, the data collected are based on one country and, thus, should be extended to assess the impact of green retailing practices in the supply chain on environmental and economic performance in other countries. Originality/value This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first empirical analysis on the relationship between green in-store activities and GSCM in the context of food retail. This important link to customers has rarely been explored. Further, the representative sample of food retailers in Croatia is unique as generally data from Central and Eastern European countries are still rare. Finally, the operationalization of GSCM practices into three constructs as green logistics, green purchasing and cooperation with suppliers’ offers conceptual contributions to the GSCM field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 936-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamel Fantazy ◽  
Syed Awais Ahmad Tipu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw upon the resource-based view of the firm to explore how a firm’s resources (assets and capabilities) such as culture of competitiveness (CC) and knowledge development (KD) relate to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and organizational performance (OP). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 242 supply chain and logistics managers in Pakistan and a structured equation modeling approach was used. Findings The results of the study provide support for the proposed hypotheses and indicate that CC and KD are positively related to SSCM and OP. This points out that the organizations in Pakistan are likely to emphasize CC and KD to achieve OP. However, the positive but weak association of CC and KD with SSCM highlights that the organizations in Pakistan show less concern for SSCM. Originality/value The literature did not reveal any study which examined the relationships of the CC and KD to SSCM and OP in developing countries. The present study aims to address this gap in the literature.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 552-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Cuesta ◽  
◽  
Masaru Nakano

There is increasing concern regarding sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). This paper defines SSCM in terms of environmental, economic, and social dimensions, also known as triple bottom line plus risk management. Prior to the SSCM serious game (SG) “Chain of Command (CoC)” there were no board-based SGs that incorporated the three dimensions of SSCM. Prior research has only managed to incorporate one or two dimensions of sustainability. “CoC” serves as a tool to bring about discussion, awareness, raise questions, and even identify a player’s preference towards the three dimensions of sustainability. The research results reveal that “CoC” does bring about awareness of SSCM. While encouraging players to carry out green activities and design a lean and efficient supply chain (SC), it also considers social implications and risk management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelly Oelze ◽  
Tim Gruchmann ◽  
Marcus Brandenburg

The motivations for clothing companies to implement dedicated certification schemes as sustainability practices has received limited attention in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) research so far. Therefore, it is important to understand how different rationales for the implementation of certification schemes have developed in the past because they considerably influence the overall success of sustainability management efforts. This paper picks up on this gap and presents the results of an in-depth comparative case study drawing on interviews conducted with five managers of three companies from the clothing sector in 2018 and abductive content analysis. By applying such a qualitative approach, this study explores motivations and benefits as well as elaborates on the implementation of certification schemes in apparel supply chains. It outlines that certification in the clothing sector is driven by strategic factors, marketing considerations, and information considering sustainability aspects. The study also shows that certification schemes may strengthen the marketing and competitive position of clothing companies as well as sustainability awareness in textile and apparel supply chains in general. Finally, a framework conceptualized from the findings of the interviews presents relevant SSCM practices in the clothing industry. Therefore, the present study contributes to theory building in SSCM by confirming and extending previous research on the implementation of certification schemes for sustainability, as well as to practice by examining reasons to apply certification schemes and potential performance outcomes.


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