Healthcare Public-Private Partnerships and Infrastructural Supply Chain Sustainability

Abstract

Purpose: The research question of this paper is to examine how infrastructural investments, coordinated with their underlying supply chains (SCs) and fostered by Public Private Partnerships (PPP), can enhance systemic sustainability.Design/methodology/approach: This research paper starts from literature gaps about sustainable supply chains. An empirical case of healthcare infrastructural supply chains is then examined and generalized according to an inductive approach.Findings: Provided that sustainable SCs naturally rely on sound and lasting infrastructures, PPP can promote integrated and long-lasting SCs. Financial and economic sustainability can precede social and environmental resilience. Public subsidies are necessary, but sustainability reduces their burden for taxpayers. Research limitations/implications: PPP healthcare supply chains represent a peculiar case, which may need adjustments to be generalized. Environmental concerns need further analysis.Practical implications: Increasing awareness of sustainability drivers can improve resilience and flexibility of public healthcare supply chains, to the benefit of patients and taxpayers.Social implications: Sustainable healthcare SCs provide better cares, outreaching more patients.Originality/value: This study simultaneously addresses the theoretical nature of infrastructural SC and considers their sustainability.