Compromise or complement? Exploring the interactions between sustainable and resilient supply chain management

Abstract

Supply chain management (SCM) increasingly needs to address both climate change mitigation and adaptation issues. While mitigation aims at sustainability by reducing the environmental impact of supply chains (SCs), adaptation entails improving resilience by increasing the ability to cope with climate-induced disruptions. Although sustainable SCM (SSCM) and resilient SCM (RSCM) are of increasing importance, there has been little effort to conceptually connect SSCM and RSCM. Our study explores the interconnections between both concepts by outlining theoretical elements and conducting a case study of four companies in the automotive SC based on company documents and interviews. Results show that SSCM is prioritised over RSCM. We furthermore highlight trade-offs and overlaps between the elements of SSCM and RSCM, which can be valuable for decision-makers, and introduce two enabling factors: transparency and diversity. We present a novel theoretical SCM framework that integrates both resilience and sustainability perspectives and make propositions for future research.