Abstract
This paper aims to analyse how the publications in Brazil are considering the relationship between sustainability and supply chain management. For this end, a literature review was carried out in 120 Brazilian academic journals in which 124 papers were identified, from 2008 until 2013. When considering the Triple Bottom Line approach, the results show that sustainability research in Brazil is focusing on the environmental dimension and SCM research is focusing on the economic dimension. Additional inputs are provided by integrating the governance dimension in the analysis to underline which actions and policies are discussed in Brazil at a corporate level. To support the results a consultation of experts in the field of sustainability in Brazil was fulfilled, and three case examples are presented to explain some of the research results. The findings on publications in Brazil contrast with international studies, particularly on the topic of social performance and management in supply chains. One of the main conclusions is that there are large opportunities to increase publications about sustainability and SCM in the country and that Brazil presents some specificities in the field that researchers and managers shall consider.
Highlights
Over the last few years, sustainability-related publications have been increasing around the world (Silvestre, 2016) and are stimulating discussions in different contexts
47 papers are analysing the link between sustainability and Supply Chain Management (SCM) in relation to different dimensions
The governance perspective demonstrates that to study corporate sustainability the triple bottom line approach has several limitations. This new dimension brings new insights and emphasizes the importance of management practices; (2) different from all literature reviews about Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) we are not limited to identify the sustainability dimensions presented in the papers, we study in depth each one to figure out which aspects have been studied by researchers in Brazil; (3) this paper presents from all the sustainability aspects several research gaps that could be used by Brazilian researchers, researchers that are in countries with similar characteristics as Brazil, and other researchers interested in conducting research in Brazil
Summary
Over the last few years, sustainability-related publications have been increasing around the world (Silvestre, 2016) and are stimulating discussions in different contexts. Despite its recent progress, Baumgartner (2011) believes that the effective benefits for the society occur slowly and need to be more deepened in the academic debate. Considering this idea, some papers highlight that it is necessary to position the role of businesses in bringing sustainability closer to Supply Chain Management (SCM). When these topics are related, it is commonly agreed to talk about “Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM)” (Ashby et al, 2012; Tatticchi et al, 2013).
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