Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives Research Articles

Supply chain sustainability initiatives at Bajaj Electricals Limited to achieve Zero Waste to Landfill

<p><strong>Subject area:</strong> This case allows management students to engage with the implementation of sustainable supply chain management practices both at the macro and micro levels. The decision to make supply chain operations sustainable is no longer an option for many organisations. The question is not “should we do it? but how can we implement sustainable supply chain management practices?” <strong>Study level/applicability:</strong> This case has been developed for management institutes and schools that teach undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Sustainability has become an essential module in management curriculums; thus, this case is relevant for management programmes (operations, logistics, supply chain management, business studies, and management). <strong>Case overview:</strong> This case highlights the achievements of Rameshwaram (plant head at the Nirlep factory of Bajaj Electrical Ltd.) and his team for successfully completing a sustainability initiative—Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWTL)—in a short span of six months. This case is divided into two parts: the first part presents their initiatives in making all echelons of their supply chain sustainable; the second part specifically outlines how they achieved Zero Waste to Landfill in one of the manufacturing operations in a short span of six months. A cross-functional team was put together to plan and implement the ZWTL project. Initially, the team encountered many challenges, such as poor quantification of waste at the factory site, inadequate infrastructure for waste segregation, a lack of vendor participation, and extensive training of vendors and employees as needed to ensure project compliance. However, with sustained efforts, the goal was achieved. As a result, BEL became the first Indian company in the sector to achieve 99% diversion from landfills for the waste generated at the Nirlep factory in 2021. It translated into a dramatic reduction of adverse environmental impacts. Monetary benefits were also realized by utilizing the waste for commercial use. As customers across the globe appreciated their efforts, their brand equity increased severalfold. <strong>Expected learning outcomes:</strong> The case establishes that supply chain sustainability initiatives can never be completely successful without the unanimous engagement of internal and external stakeholders. In present times, the foundation of business performance has moved away from financial profitability only to the “triple bottom line,” which incorporates environment and social responsibility. The choice between commercial viability and sustainability is no longer available to the companies, as they need to integrate environmental and social goals within their businesses and provide transparency on sustainable performance and value to not only all stakeholders but also policymakers and consumers.<strong></strong></p>

Predictive value of supply chain sustainability initiatives for ESG performance: a study of large multinationals

PurposeAlthough the integration of sustainability into business strategies and operations has received considerable scholarly attention, little is known about how sustainability initiatives across the extended value chain affect this integration. This study aims to analyze the impact of multinational corporations’ supply chain sustainability initiatives on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance and the moderating role of the key country-level factors of the multinational’s headquarters.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes data published by the top 201 multinationals among Fortune Global 500 companies over the period 2011–2021 on their attempts to integrate sustainability measures in extended supply chains and the resultant impact on their ESG scores. A fixed-effect model is used in the primary empirical study.FindingsResults indicate that managerial interventions through a more robust supply chain policy framework, monitoring mechanisms, corrective actions and training initiatives lead to better ESG-environment pillar performance for multinationals. Additionally, the ESG-environment pillar performance is influenced by the socioeconomic model and country-level ESG risks of the nation where the multinational is headquartered.Originality/valueThe implications of this study are vital for understanding the criticality of sustainability initiatives in the supply chain for a firm’s overall ESG performance. To attain better levels of sustainable performance, multinationals must assume a stewardship position and deploy sustainability initiatives in their extended supply chain.

Understanding the dynamics of global supply chain sustainability initiatives: The role of institutional distance from the buyer's perspective

Research points to sustainable supply chain management as a core strategic goal for most global firms. However, managers continue to struggle with implementing successful sustainability initiatives both internally and throughout their globally dispersed supply chains. Using grounded theory, our findings uncover a potential explanation for how firms manage sustainability initiatives in the context of global supply chain management, from a buyer's perspective. Institutional theory of the firm is applied to help explain the challenges of developing and implementing global supply chain sustainability-related initiatives within buyer-supplier relationships. Analysis of the data from qualitative interviews show that institutional distance is an influential factor that produces mixed effects on the global buyer-supplier relationships in our sample in the context of buyer and supplier strategic orientation toward sustainability. The findings can help guide managers when approaching sustainability-related initiatives in the context of global supply chains. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed as well as areas for future research.

Supply chain sustainability trajectories: learning through sustainability initiatives

PurposeThis paper explores how organizational capabilities and path dependence affect the implementation of supply chain (SC) sustainability initiatives. Through the lenses of contingency and evolutionary theory, the paper addresses the underexplored supply chain dynamics that enhance or inhibit sustainability trajectories.Design/methodology/approachUsing in-depth multi-case studies for theory elaboration, five supply chains were studied through open-ended interviews with SC members, secondary data collection and site visit observation. The design consists of a combination of deductive and inductive approaches to elaborate theory on supply chain dynamics and enhanced sustainability trajectories.FindingsThe empirical study shows that learning is a fundamental condition for supply chains as they implement sustainability initiatives, and that exploitation capabilities are more frequently used than exploration capabilities. Path dependence plays a role in the outcomes of supply chain sustainability initiatives, which are influenced by both path dependence and contingencies of the contexts in which these systems operate.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper puts forward five propositions that emerge from the literature and from the field study results. Although this is an exploratory research bounded by geographical limitations and the limited number of SC cases, the goal of elaborating theory may open up several promising avenues for future large-scale and longitudinal research studies.Practical implicationsBy enhancing our understanding of the dynamics of supply chain sustainability trajectories, decision-makers, scholars and policy-makers can better understand how supply chains learn, how they employ SC member capabilities and how they deal with stakeholder resistance.Originality/valueThis paper extends supply chain sustainability theory by addressing the knowledge gap that exists with regard to understanding the dynamics of evolving supply chain sustainability trajectories. This paper sheds additional light on this important topic and contributes in multiple ways to the sustainable supply chain management literature.

Supplier Engagement in Sustainability Programs: A Field Experiment of Enabling Versus Coercive Formalization

Formal, compliance-focused governance for supply chain sustainability initiatives has a mixed empirical track record. We build on classic research on bureaucracy to examine how “enabling” and “coercive” formalization at the buyer–supplier interface affect attitudes, an important precursor to behavioral engagement. We conduct a randomized field experiment with the supplier community of a South African insurance company to directly compare treatment effects of enabling and coercive interventions. We report and discuss the enabling intervention’s positive attitudinal effects and the moderation of these effects by supplier characteristics. Our findings also reveal some notable null effects, especially from the coercive intervention. We believe this work contributes to a more nuanced understanding of formal governance choices in supply chains and their impact on supplier engagement.

Formal Governance for Supplier Engagement in Sustainability Initiatives: A Field Experiment

Highly formalized, compliance-focused supply chain sustainability initiatives often yield disappointing results and risk damage to interorganizational relationships. Instead of categorically reject...

Big Food and Little Data: The Slow Harvest of Corporate Food Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives

Over the past several years, many of the companies collectively known as Big Food have launched ambitious programs to assess and improve the sustainability of their raw material supply chains. Fueled partly by concerns about the risks posed by climate change and other environmental problems, these efforts differ from earlier corporate food supply chain governance in that they rely more on metrics of continuous improvement than compliance with standards. They also extend beyond high-value, high-profile products to include staple ingredients such as corn and soy. These commodities are sourced through long, complex, and traditionally nontransparent supply chains, where even the biggest food companies exercise surprisingly little clout over producers. This article examines how companies contend with this problem both within their own supply chains and as members of multistakeholder initiatives. The assemblage concept not only describes the many actors, technologies, and practices now working to get certain kinds of data flowing off farms; it also highlights the relational nature of this work and the uncertainty of its outcomes. More broadly, the article points to the limits of both corporate food power and the very notion of Big Food as an explanation for how that power is wielded.

Expanding boundaries: Nongovernmental organizations as supply chain members

Abstract Using a social movement perspective, we propose a framework that includes nonprofit actors as members of supply chains in a context that we call sustainable supply chain facilitation, particularly within multi-stakeholder supply chain sustainability initiatives. In this framework, certain nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) work alongside other supply chain firms, going beyond technical roles to serve as coordinators, conveners, organizers, brokers, and negotiators who facilitate multiparty agreement on sustainability issues within and across supply chains. We describe a set of roles consisting of third-party facilitators (3PF), fourth-party facilitators (4PF), and fifth-party facilitators (5PF) serving in increasingly strategic roles with increasing numbers of actors, and with increasing potential for co-creation of value in global supply chains. Reframing nongovernmental organizations as members of supply chains instead of outsiders provides a dramatically different perspective. This explicit acknowledgement of membership can help business and NGO managers to rethink their own roles and motivations and to find collaborative solutions in the steady transition to more sustainable supply chains.