Abstract
The proposed study deals with sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the textile and apparel (T&A) industry. We analyze prerequisites and practices of supply chain (SC) sustainability in a multiple case study of the German and Ethiopian T&A industry. Our analysis is based on ten semi-structured interviews conducted with the managers of seven companies in the Ethiopian T&A production and the German fair fashion retail industries. The contribution of expert knowledge helps in identifying SC sustainability prerequisites and practices. The chosen cases of production in Ethiopia and retail in Germany highlight the complexity of T&A SCs while representing both the suppliers’ and retailers’ perspectives, which is rare in the related literature. As a major research contribution, the study adapts a framework for SC sustainability in the chemical industry and transfers it to T&A SCs. Moreover, practitioners from the T&A industry find useful insights into relevant practices and their prerequisites, which helps in improving SC sustainability in this sector. The study reveals that management orientation and interest groups such as customers represent the most important prerequisites for sustainability. Manufacturers rely more on internal practices such as monitoring, while retailers focus on external sustainability practices, such as supplier development. In a comparative approach, similarities and differences between T&A SCs and the chemical industry are identified.
Highlights
Globalization has caused many geographical shifts in production sites towards emerging and developing countries
Sustainability-related challenges arise in the context of often poor social and ecological standards within the production force, because sourcing in these regions has become a common practice in the textile and apparel (T&A) industry
Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is defined as the “management of material, information and capital flows as well as cooperation among companies along the SC while integrating goals from all three dimensions of sustainable development, i.e., economic, environmental and social, which are derived from customer and stakeholder requirements” [10] (p. 1700)
Summary
Globalization has caused many geographical shifts in production sites towards emerging and developing countries. Sustainability-related challenges arise in the context of often poor social and ecological standards within the production force, because sourcing in these regions has become a common practice in the T&A industry. This is in contrast to the highly developed level of sustainable sourcing and operations achieved in industrialized regions and saturated markets [4,5,6]. Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is defined as the “management of material, information and capital flows as well as cooperation among companies along the SC while integrating goals from all three dimensions of sustainable development, i.e., economic, environmental and social, which are derived from customer and stakeholder requirements” [10] Since the study at hand builds upon this frameSuwstoairnkab,iltithye20s2e0,c1o2n, xsFtrOuRcPtEsEaRrReEbVrIEieWfly introduced in the following
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