Abstract
This paper conducts a structured review on the topic of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in the supply chain management context to define research trends on the topic and identify research gaps. The review is carried out using the largest databases of peer-reviewed literature (Scopus and Web of Science). A sample of 122 papers focusing on the topic of energy-efficient and sustainable supply chain management was selected and analyzed through descriptive and content analysis. The review highlights that despite there is a growing research trend on the topic, different research gaps remain to be covered. These gaps concern the factors influencing energy efficiency and environmental sustainability initiatives, the classification of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability initiatives, the impact of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability on supply chain performance, the customer perspective in sustainable and energy-efficient supply chain, and the different technologies supporting the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability initiatives. The research gaps and the research questions identified offer the opportunity to identify areas of investigation to design future research directions and propose guidelines in the field of supply chain management.
Highlights
The methodological analysis of the selected papers highlights that the qualitative literature on the topic neglects longitudinal case studies. This result allows us to identify a research gap concerning the evolution in environmental awareness and the consequent evolutionary process of firms in adopting energy-efficient and sustainable initiatives. This aspect demonstrates that the framework of knowledge in the field of environmental sustainability and energy-efficient supply chain management is in evolution in the current literature and this result provides guidance for the necessity of future longitudinal research
The literature map points out that the framework of knowledge in the field of environmental sustainability and energy-efficient supply chain management is in evolution in the current literature
Thanks to the enabling collaborative technologies, cheaper and very easy to use systems are available posing reduced financial, technical and cultural barriers. This aspect stresses that the scenario is evolving and is offering firms new managerial and technological opportunities to explore in the field of sustainable supply chain management
Summary
The literature highlights that the supply chain has undergone radical changes and passed through several evolutionary phases [1,2,3]. According to the emerging literature on open innovation, managing the impact of firms’ operations on the environment could be supported by the use of innovative collaborative technologies for new product development [70,71,72,73] With this background in mind, the main aim of the present review on environmental sustainability and energy-efficient supply chain management is to provide an updated overview on the topic to identify the main factors influencing positively or negatively the adoption of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability initiatives, the main initiatives adopted, the impact of these initiatives on supply chain performance, the information and communication technologies supporting these initiatives, and the customer perspective in energy-efficient and sustainable supply chain (RQ). The paper presents conclusions and research implications in the seventh section
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