A supply chain view of sustainability management

Abstract

Given the global sustainability challenges humans and nature are facing today, this theoretical paper aims at proposing a supply chain view of sustainability management and thereby contributes to elevating the sustainable supply chain management field to the rank of theory. This is done through the identification of supply chain stakeholders and related sustainability challenges, which reveal the inherent paradoxes and tensions in global consumption and production networks. Such a view is meant to support the urgent need for all supply chain stakeholders to understand sustainability challenges and shift towards a sustainability mindset. The focus on reducing supply chain disruptions, improving supply chain resilience, and improving supply chain sustainability performance has neglected and even undermined broader sustainability challenges, such as climate change. Hence this paper first provides a discussion on the complementarity between stakeholder theory and sustainable supply chain management from a systems perspective and, second, develops a novel supply chain theory to enhance sustainability management through the identification of supply chain stakeholders and related sustainability challenges. Linking stakeholder theory and SSCM facilitates a holistic understanding of sustainability challenges to identify opportunities to improve one's decisions and actions and current consumption and production patterns. Instead of perpetuating a firm or client-centered perspective, the supply chain view places the product/service at the center of the stakeholder identification process and clearly identifies stakeholders upstream, within the focal firm, downstream or outside the SC and related sustainability challenges. It encourages all organizations and individuals to practice their systems thinking skills to improve their sustainability mindset and subsequent ability to solve sustainability and ethical challenges. The proposed supply chain view supports managers, policymakers, educators, consultant, consumers, and individuals in identifying stakeholders and understanding sustainability challenges related to production and consumption in an effective manner. This extends existing knowledge on sustainability management from a supply chain perspective and opens new research areas, particularly for ethical decision-making and behavioral sciences. • Stakeholder theory enables to bring sustainable supply chain management to the theory level. • The supply chain view is proposed to conceptualize sustainable supply chain management. • The supply chain view allows a holistic understanding of (un)sustainable production and consumption patterns for any users.