Abstract
Global business organizations face the challenges of adapting proper sustainability strategies and practices to effectively respond to social, ethical, environmental, and governance issues while improving financial performance in creating value for their shareholders. Business sustainability enables the integration of financial economic sustainability performance and non-financial environmental, social, ethical, and governance sustainability performance dimensions into the corporate culture, supply chain management and business models in creating shared value for all stakeholders. Business literature has provided mixed evidence of the tension, and possible link, between financial and non-financial sustainability performance dimensions and sustainability theories have yet to sufficiently address this tension. This paper attempts to fill this void by shedding light on the link between various dimensions of sustainability performance, their integrated effect on creating shared value for all stakeholders and their implications for supply chain sustainability. This paper examines the synergy between business sustainability and supply chain management by presenting a framework consisting of sustainability theories, sustainability performance dimensions, sustainability shared value concept, and sustainability best practices. Companies can use the suggested framework in integrating both financial and non-financial sustainability initiatives into their supply chain sustainability from production design, purchasing and inbound logistics, and manufacturing process to distribution and outbound logistics.
Highlights
Business sustainability has advanced in the past decade from branding and greenwashing to strategic imperative while global business organizations continue to focus on the achievement of sustainability performance as investors demand and regulators require the disclosure of sustainability performance information
This paper examines the integration of business sustainability into supply chain management through continuously improving both the financial economic sustainability performance (ESP) and non-financial ESEG dimensions of sustainability performance in generating shared value creation for all stakeholders
This paper suggests several ways that management can focus on sustainable and long-term performance including providing both financial/quantitative and non-financial/qualitative sustainability information to investors, focusing on long-term performance and its continuous improvements, and communicating sustainability performance and SCS information to all stakeholders
Summary
Business sustainability has advanced in the past decade from branding and greenwashing to strategic imperative while global business organizations continue to focus on the achievement of sustainability performance as investors demand and regulators require the disclosure of sustainability performance information. Business organizations are facing the challenges of adapting proper sustainable supply chain strategies and practices to effectively respond to ESEG issues while creating sustainable financial performance and value for their shareholders. Sustainability 2018, 10, 275 financial ESP and non-financial ESEG sustainability performance dimensions into all facets of supply chain management from purchasing and inbound logistics, production design, and manufacturing processes to distribution, outbound logistics, customer services, social programs, and environmental initiatives. Future research can use the framework to study the joint and integrated effects of financial ESP and non-financial ESEG sustainability performance on management decisions including strategic, operational, financing, and investment activities as well as risk assessment, supply chain management, and the possible impacts of sustainability performance disclosures on financial markets, society, and the environment.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have