Analysis of barriers of sustainable supply chain management in electronics industry: An interpretive structural modelling approach

Abstract

In the past, industries were concentrating only on the economic aspects of a business. Many organizations are now addressing the social and environment impact of their supply chain for which they are adopting sustainability in their supply chain. The process of transformation to a sustainable supply chain will encounter some barriers which need to be eliminated or mitigated. To successfully manage these obstacles, it is crucial to know and study these barriers in specific context. This research aims to identify and analyse major barriers hampering sustainability implementation in the case of electronics industry in India. Through literature review and experts’ opinion eleven barriers are identified and classified into categories of Policy, Human resource and Technology. The hierarchical structure and interrelationship among these barriers is established using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) methodology. A major finding in this research is that lack of awareness on benefits of sustainability, lack of regulations and enforcement of environment standards and lack of commitment from top management are significant barriers in implementation of a sustainable supply chain. The driving and driven powers of these barriers and their interdependence is determined. Using MICMAC analysis, five barriers were recognized to be the driver variables, three barriers as dependent variables and three as linkage variables. The barrier lack of performance metrics/evaluation standards on sustainability is having strong dependence power and least driving power implying that it is highly influenced by other variables. It is found that most of the barriers in the policy category are independent with high driving and influencing power. The research draws attention to formulate targeted policies at both government and organizational level in the electronics industry for successful implementation of sustainable supply chain management. The modeling gives an insight to organizations in confronting barriers and to manage their resources in an efficient and effective way while making their supply chains sustainable. The paper concludes with findings and future scope of research being discussed. • Identified key barriers of sustainable supply chain in Indian electronics industry. • The barriers are classified into categories of Policy, Human resource and Technology. • Interpretive Structural Modeling is employed for identifying the interrelationship among the barriers. • MICMAC analysis has been carried out to classify barriers of sustainability into four types, viz., autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent. • Lack of awareness of benefits of sustainability is root causal barrier affecting sustainability operations. • Most of the barriers in policy category are independent with high driving and influencing power.