Barriers to the adoption of sustainable supply chain management practices: Moderating role of firm size

Rizwan Shabbir,Muhammad Hashim,Sajjad Ahmad Baig,Aysha Batool,Pantea Foroudi,Muhammad Abrar

doi:10.1080/23311975.2020.1841525

Abstract

The reason behind the low adoption of sustainable supply chain management practices in developing countries is since emerging economies’ supply chains face relatively more barriers to sustainability as compared to those which operate in developed countries. The research on the textile and apparel industry is mostly done in developed countries but empirical research on SSCM in developing countries is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key barriers that hinder the adoption of sustainable supply chain management practices and firm performance at the triple bottom line and what is the effect of firm size in tackling these barriers. Data is collected through a structured survey from B2B textile companies situated in Pakistan. After analyzing the exploratory factor analysis parameters, three groups of barriers are extracted: sectoral-economic, managerial, and supplier hindrance. The results exhibit that sectoral-economic and supplier hindrance has a significant effect on environmental management practices. Managerial barriers are significant with supply chain integration practices. Moreover, firm size significantly moderates the relationship of sectoral/economic barriers with environmental practices, and managerial barriers with social practices. Most importantly, the demand for societal awareness is required at both business and client levels to encourage organizations for adopting sustainable measures to gain competitiveness.

Highlights

The fast-paced industrial growth has put doubt among legislators and decision-makers about negative environmental and social impacts across the world (Gadenne et al, 2009)
The present study aims to fill this gap by measuring the impact of sustainability barriers on the adoption of environmental, social, and supply chain integration practices within Pakistani textile firms
Study-1 was done to identify the categorical barriers in the context of the Pakistani textile industry through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) which were rarely studied in previous literature

Summary

Introduction

The fast-paced industrial growth has put doubt among legislators and decision-makers about negative environmental and social impacts across the world (Gadenne et al, 2009). The textile is one of the major sectors in terms of share in supplier countries’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. The textile and apparel industry faces the most challenging issues for maintaining sustainability parameters with the United Nations (UN) development goals. The global fragmentation of the textile industry has made it problematic as a high level of outsourcing is done in developing countries. Suppliers are located in diverse geographical loca tions, causing a lack of transparency, especially while lower tiers are involved (Köksal et al, 2017). Owing to the textile sector’s importance, the damages to the environment and society by its production must be addressed instantly (Desore & Narula, 2018; Jeswani et al, 2008)

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Conclusion