Expanding the boundaries of SSCM: the role of non-traditional actors

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the fact that Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) literature acknowledges the importance of applying sustainability across the entire supply chain, most scholars to date have explored sustainability from the lens of focal firms. This paper aims to shift attention from the current perspective to better understand the role and mechanisms adopted by “non-traditional actors” in the governance of sustainability issues across supply chains. Through a literature review, this study identifies four different roles of non-traditional actors and a set of governance mechanisms associated with each role (i.e. campaigning, providing training, developing standards and connecting actors). Three different propositions for future research have emerged from these findings. The first calls for longitudinal studies in order to explore the evolution of the roles over time. The second and third propositions call for a more integrative and holistic approach in SSCM studies, and shed light on the Political Corporate Social Responsibility and Base-of-Pyramid bodies of knowledge as promising fields in order to include non-traditional actors as legitimate members within supply chains. This manuscript contributes to the SSCM literature by focusing on non-traditional actors as the level of analysis, which has been underexplored in this field thus far.