Sustainable Supply Chain Performance Research Articles

B2B firms’ supply chain resilience orientation in achieving sustainable supply chain performance

The present research investigates the influence of B2B firms' supply chain resilience orientation on achieving sustainable supply chain performance via firms' adaptive capability. Furthermore, this research also tests the moderating role of B2B firms' customer engagement between adaptive capability and sustainable supply chain performance. The proposed conceptual model was analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS)-Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) by applying survey data collected from 276 samples of 138 B2B firms. Our results indicate that B2B firms' supply chain resilience orientation positively and significantly influences sustainable supply chain performance via B2B firms' adaptive capability. Based on our analysis, the positive effect of B2B firms' adaptive capability on sustainable supply chain performance is evident only in high customer engagement. Drawing from the literature and theoretical paradigm, the first contribution of this study is the formation of a conceptual model of sustainable supply chain performance in the context of B2B firms. The second key contribution is examining how B2B firms' adaptive capability is influenced by both B2B firms' supply chain resilience orientation and sustainable supply chain performance. The outcome of this study also adds further theoretical insight by analyzing the moderating effect of B2B firms' customer engagement on the relationship between adaptive capability and sustainable supply chain performance. The findings from this research play a significant role in understanding the importance of next-generation supply chains that require B2B firms to invest considerable resources in achieving sustainable supply chain performance to remain competitive in their respective industry. Therefore, B2B firms need to embrace supply chain resilience orientation to achieve sustainable supply chain performance in response to the pandemic resulting from COVID-19.

Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the garment industry supply chain network

This study empirically tested the relationships of multinational enterprises (MNE) and non-MNE customer pressures with the compliance and commitment of garment industry suppliers to climate change adaptation (CCA) and the disaster risk reduction (DRR) goal (sustainable development goal 13). It further investigated the effect of mitigating climate change and disaster risks among sub-suppliers in the supply chain (SC) network on SC sustainability performance under the moderating effect of artificial intelligence-powered supplier-relationship management. The study applied a mixed-methods research approach. The literature review led to the development of the theoretical model and hypotheses generation and further testing, using structural equation modeling, which was followed by the qualitative investigation completed during the second phase. This study highlights the motivation behind CCA and DRR-related practices that can guide SC managers when creating effective sustainability policies.

The Influence of Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Integration on Overall Sustainable Supply Chain Performance: An Empirical Analysis from Manufacturing Companies in Morocco

This study examined the association between digital transformation (DT), supply chain integration (SCI), and overall sustainable supply chain performance (OSSCP). The current literature has preliminarily explored the concepts of DT and SCI and their relationship with sustainable supply chain performance. However, real empirical evidence of the direct impact of DT and SCI on OSSCP has been missing so far. To fill this gap, data were collected from 134 professionals working in international manufacturing companies operating in Morocco through a questionnaire-based survey from August 2022 to November 2022. A conceptual framework was developed based on DT, SCI, and OSSCP and analyzed by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the assistance of SmartPLS 4.0 software. The findings revealed that DT has a significant positive influence on SCI and OSSCP. Furthermore, SCI directly and positively impacts OSSCP with a partial mediation effect on the relationship between DT and OSSCP. Further, this research provides insights for practitioners into enhancing sustainable supply chain performance by adopting digital technologies and integrating SC functions. In particular, this study revealed that DT adoption drives a higher ethical supply chain level from the perspective of sustainability and efficiency in operations. This study is the first to analyze the influence of digital transformation and supply chain integration on sustainable supply chain performance in a manufacturing context.

A meta-analysis of sustainable supply chain practices and performance: the moderating roles of type of economy and innovation

PurposeIn recent years, sustainable supply chain practices (SSCPs), including corporate social responsibility (CSR), have been recognised as important means of developing firms’ sustainability performance (SP). However, empirical findings on the SSCP–SP interaction are inconsistent and even contradictory. This research presents a quantitative meta-analysis that aims to uncover SSCP–SP interactions based on the correlations found in previously published empirical studies.Design/methodology/approachBased on the main and moderating variables and selection criteria, 64 sample studies were selected after a systematic literature review and meta-analysis.FindingsThe findings confirm a positive correlation (0.438) between SSCP and SP. The results also reveal various critical moderators identified through meta-regression.Practical implicationsThis study provides insights for operations managers and policymakers regarding the significance of control variables (e.g. ISO certification, type of economy, innovation approach, data collection method) on the relationship between SSCP and SP for business operations. This research uncovers the impacts of ISO regulations and proposed hypotheses through the lens of the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and institutional-based view (IBV).Originality/valueThis research is unique in that it provides a systematic view of the SSCP–SP interaction, validates the results through a theoretical lens (NRBV and IBV) and generalises the results by evaluating the moderation effects via checking prior literature.

Sustainability indicators for assessing the sustainability of the frozen chicken meat supply chain

The growing market for chicken meat, mainly frozen chicken meat and processed food, poses significant challenges to global sustainability. Furthermore, there is still a need to evaluate the sustainability performance of the food supply chain in developing countries. This study analyzes the stages of the chicken meat supply chain, especially the production process of frozen chicken meat in Indonesia. Moreover, this study provides indicators for assessing the sustainability performance of the frozen chicken meat production stage. The study utilized the Delphi technique to identify sustainability indicators. The Delphi technique involved experts from the chicken meat industry, resulting in 14 sustainability indicators. The proposed indicators are relevant to assess the sustainability of the frozen chicken meat production stage based on the perspective of the triple bottom line of sustainability.

Identification of Sustainable Supply Chain Performance in Primary Cocoa Processing (Case Study in Patuk, Yogyakarta)

This study identified the handling of dry fermented cocoa bean production, analyzed the level of cocoa supply chain (SC) performance in Patuk, and developed recommendations for poor performance to improve SC performance. In this study, environmentally friendly handling was carried out by observing the SC and processing process, and SC performance was measured based on the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model in the scope of reliability, responsiveness, and agility supported by the 2.2 Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) weighting method using pairwise comparison. The result of this study indicates that sustainable practices from the seeding, nurturing, harvesting, and shipping stages are easier to implement due to the small scale and proximity to residential areas and processing units. Cocoa SC performance in Patuk is divided into 3 parts, namely for farmer performance (79.79), collective traders (70.23), and processing industry (83.29). Improvements that can be made to improve the performance of the SC are by increasing plant maintenance, recording production, and making contracts. The benefits of this study are to encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly cocoa cultivation and processing practices, provide information on SC factors on SC performance, and provide recommendations for performance improvement.

Sustainable Supply Chain Performance Strategies in Achieving the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Approach: A Case Study of AngloGold Ashanti -Ghana

Sustainable Supply Chain Performance Strategies in Achieving the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Approach: A Case Study of AngloGold Ashanti -Ghana

The Effect of Digital Transformation on the Pharmaceutical Sustainable Supply Chain Performance: The Mediating Role of Information Sharing and Traceability Using Structural Equation Modeling

As the global pharmaceutical market continues to expand, the demand for pharmaceutical supply chain is increasing. In the context of “Industry 4.0”, the pharmaceutical supply chain sector needs to accelerate digital construction. Pharmaceutical companies need to strengthen risk management in order to cope with supply disruptions. From the perspective of sustainable development, the pharmaceutical supply chain can achieve sustainable supply performance in social, economic and environmental dimensions through digital transformation. There is a lack of research on digital transformation of pharmaceutical supply chain management. Further research is needed on what specific digital management pharmaceutical companies need to enhance to improve supply performance. This study uses empirical analysis to examine the impact of digital transformation on sustainable supply chain performance and to explore the role of information sharing and traceability as mediators. The aim is to guide the pharmaceutical supply chain to clearly manage the development of digital transformation and obtain sustainable supply performance. This study presents hypotheses based on cutting-edge theoretical findings. In total, 298 Chinese pharmaceutical company supply chain managers were surveyed and Structural equation analysis was conducted using SPSS26.0 and AMOS24.0. The results show that digital transformation significantly and positively impacts sustainable supply chain performance. Traceability plays a mediating role. The mediating role of information sharing is not significant. However, information sharing and traceability as two separate trends can have synergistic effects that together affect sustainable supply performance. The conclusion is that the pharmaceutical supply chain should accelerate digital construction, eliminate the uneven development of digital technology among supply chain members, and reduce the impact of technological uncertainty on performance. Companies are enhancing supply chain security management through information sharing and traceability systems, and are continuously focusing on the role of digital transformation as a driver for sustainable development.

Performance Measurement of the Sustainable Supply Chain During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A real-life case study

Abstract This paper aims to introduce a framework to measure the sustainable performance of the supply chain (SC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The SC stakeholders in this investigation are Suppliers, Production / Remanufacturing / Refurbishing Centers (Factories), Collection / Distribution Centers, Recycling / Landfill Centers, and Customers. The suggested sustainable supply chain (SSC) performance measurement included three pillars with 23 indicators. To evaluate the overall sustainability of the SC understudy, a composite index has been developed that combines all the indicators to reflect the sustainability performance of the SC. Four steps are involved in creating a composite index:1) measuring the value of indicators, 2) weighing indicators, 3) Using the normalization technique, and 4) Evaluating the overall SSC indicator. The real case in Iran is selected as an illustrative case. Our research contributions are: We suggested a novelty indicator of SSC to better show the economic, environmental, and social tradeoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. We have found and measured the negative and positive impacts of COVID-19 on aspects of sustainability in SC. Based on the achieved data of the real case study, a numerical example is represented to explain how to calculate the composite index. The main contribution of this paper is the development of SSC indicators during the COVID-19 epidemic.

A supply chain view of sustainability management

Given the global sustainability challenges humans and nature are facing today, this theoretical paper aims at proposing a supply chain view of sustainability management and thereby contributes to elevating the sustainable supply chain management field to the rank of theory. This is done through the identification of supply chain stakeholders and related sustainability challenges, which reveal the inherent paradoxes and tensions in global consumption and production networks. Such a view is meant to support the urgent need for all supply chain stakeholders to understand sustainability challenges and shift towards a sustainability mindset. The focus on reducing supply chain disruptions, improving supply chain resilience, and improving supply chain sustainability performance has neglected and even undermined broader sustainability challenges, such as climate change. Hence this paper first provides a discussion on the complementarity between stakeholder theory and sustainable supply chain management from a systems perspective and, second, develops a novel supply chain theory to enhance sustainability management through the identification of supply chain stakeholders and related sustainability challenges. Linking stakeholder theory and SSCM facilitates a holistic understanding of sustainability challenges to identify opportunities to improve one's decisions and actions and current consumption and production patterns. Instead of perpetuating a firm or client-centered perspective, the supply chain view places the product/service at the center of the stakeholder identification process and clearly identifies stakeholders upstream, within the focal firm, downstream or outside the SC and related sustainability challenges. It encourages all organizations and individuals to practice their systems thinking skills to improve their sustainability mindset and subsequent ability to solve sustainability and ethical challenges. The proposed supply chain view supports managers, policymakers, educators, consultant, consumers, and individuals in identifying stakeholders and understanding sustainability challenges related to production and consumption in an effective manner. This extends existing knowledge on sustainability management from a supply chain perspective and opens new research areas, particularly for ethical decision-making and behavioral sciences. • Stakeholder theory enables to bring sustainable supply chain management to the theory level. • The supply chain view is proposed to conceptualize sustainable supply chain management. • The supply chain view allows a holistic understanding of (un)sustainable production and consumption patterns for any users.

An ontology-based KBE application for supply chain sustainability assessment

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) plays a key role in digital transformation demanded by Industry 4.0 and life cycle assessment, including sustainability assessment. Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) applications can support PLM by integrating heterogeneous knowledge from different stages throughout the product life. However, the integration of knowledge from different stages and teams can cause misunderstanding if not represented in a unified form. Furthermore, different forms of knowledge used by different software are neither machine-readable nor human-readable, which also sets obstacles to knowledge integration in KBE applications. Supply chain sustainability assessment is such a scenario that entails integrating knowledge from different sources. This paper firstly implements a sustainability assessment method from other scholar to calculate the supply chain sustainability performance and adapts a sustainability assessment ontology for supply chain sustainability assessment. Then, an example KBE application is developed by implementing the sustainability assessment ontology and calculation method to simulate the knowledge sharing and integration between different teams. Finally, through this example application, it is discussed that the implementation of ontology to represent knowledge in PLM application for collaborative tasks like sustainability assessment can increase the efficiency of data sharing and integration. This paper is a proof of concept for the ontology-based framework. This framework can facilitate to represent knowledge but not create new knowledge, which means it can increase the efficiency of the software development, but can not provide a better calculation method and assessment framework for supply chain sustainability assessment. • An ontology-based application simulates the knowledge sharing and integration in sustainability assessment. • Ontology-based knowledge representation provides a unified and flexible data format. • Ontology-based knowledge representation makes a unified knowledge base possible. • Ontology increases the efficiency of data sharing and integration in collaborative tasks. • High-efficient software development contributes to supply chain sustainability management.

Impact of sustainable supply chain management on cost performance: empirical evidence from manufacturing companies of Bangladesh

PurposeThe aim of the study has been performed to investigate the relationship between sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices and the cost performance of manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. Moreover, this paper highlights the key environment-friendly approaches and their association with financial performance in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe paper empirically assesses sustainable supply chain performance using four major supply chain practices, including sustainable procurement, sustainable production, sustainable distribution and investment recovery, and compares it with the cost performance. Twenty-four variables were identified through different literature and distributed as a structured questionnaire among the managers appointed in different manufacturing firms in Bangladesh. An empirical study was conducted using the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to examine the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe results find a positive relationship in two variables of sustainable supply chain practices, including sustainable procurement and investment recovery, while sustainable distribution negatively impacted cost performance. In addition, sustainable production found no effect on cost performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper emphasizes the financial perspective of a sustainable supply chain without explicit consideration of sustainability's environmental and social dimensions.Practical implicationsThis study has implications for the literature on the SSCM approaches of manufacturing firms in the least developed economies. In addition, this study could work as a guideline for some manufacturing industries that prefer a policy or standard to alter their traditional supply chain management system to a sustainable supply chain.Originality/valueThe paper provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating the coordinated effect of SSCM practices on cost performance where variables of four specific activities of SSCM and cost performance are adopted from different studies. Further studies could be initiated, including some other eco-friendly supply chain variables, and the effect could be evaluated from an environmental perspective.

Examining the role of virtue ethics and big data in enhancing viable, sustainable, and digital supply chain performance

In the real world of practice, data-driven supply chains have gained huge popularity in recent years. This has led operations and supply management researchers to the focus on the role of advanced information and technology, including big data. Literature highlights that the use of big data can enhance business performance. Nonetheless, big data is analyzed by humans and a lack of virtue ethics could lead to disastrous consequences (erroneous decision-making can stem from bad data analysis resulting in not only huge business losses but also deterioration of relationships with suppliers and customers in the supply chain). To address the calls of previous researchers, this study utilizes the Ethical Theory of Organizing framework and Stakeholder theory to develop the theoretical model and further examine the relationships. The samples are drawn from the manufacturing industry. Hypothesis testing is executed through covariance-based structural equation modeling and finally, the conclusions are drawn. The findings of this work provide a more nuanced understanding of virtue ethics and big data implications, thereby answering the important questions of “why” and “how” data-driven green and lean practices increase the stakeholders' trust and enhance viable, sustainable, and digital supply chain performance.

Digital transformation, smart technologies, and eco-innovation are paving the way toward sustainable supply chain performance.

The world has limited resources and resource depletion has been a serious concern for many years. To ensure that ecological balance is maintained, the United Nations has developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study attempts to meet the 12th SDG of "responsible production and consumption" and provide a guideline to manufacturing organizations in Pakistan. Many scholars have examined the role of different technologies on sustainable performance. However, research using eco-innovation (EI), digital transformation (DT), and smart technologies (ST) is still scarce. The current study develops the conceptual model based on the resource-based view (RBV) and technology, organization, and environment (TOE) theories, and using a simple random sampling technique, valid data from 375 professionals in the manufacturing industry is collected to test the relationship between sustainable development strategy (SDS), EI, DT, ST, and sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP). The results indicate strong positive relationships between SDS, EI, DT, ST, and SSCP. Results indicate that even if organizations are executing SDS and EI, without DT and ST, organizations cannot achieve SSCP. Therefore, it is recommended to the managers that they must apply DT and ST to guarantee their pursuit of achieving sustainable performance and contribution toward SDGs.

Sustainable supply chain management and performance in Iran’s wooden furniture industry

ABSTRACT The relationship between the sustainable supply chain practice and firm performance has attracted interest from scholars and industry owners in recent years. On this basis, a model for sustainable supply chain management (SCM) in Iranian Wood Furniture Industry was developed and used to improve the performance of home and office furniture manufacturing companies. The statistical population of the qualitative part consisted of experts and specialists of sustainable SCM, and purposive non-random sampling was used. A structural equation modeling was used in the inferential and quantitative part through Lisrel-v8.8 software. The study identified economic, environmental, and social factors as underlying dimensions of SSCM. It also identified the components of customer satisfaction, financial and market performance as performance components. The results revealed that the path coefficient of SSCM to performance was 0.90. As the t-statistic was 18.07, it was confirmed at 99% level. So, in Iranian wood furniture industry, SSCM has a statistically significant impact on firm performance. Several factors such as strategies, backgrounds, and intervening factors were considered in the final model. The study has significant practical implications for industrial managers and government policy makers in the furniture industry.

Social sustainable supply chain performance assessment using hybrid fuzzy-AHP-DEMATEL-VIKOR: a case study in manufacturing enterprises.

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has received extensive attention by academia and industries recently. However, there are increasing yet still scarce studies measuring the social sustainability performance of supply chain and discussing the interrelationship between social and economic sustainability. Further, the measurement does not fully utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) attributing to the lack of understanding of precise quantitative gauge of the supply chain social sustainable performance. To bridge this gap, this study analyses the social and economic sustainability performance in terms of demand planning, innovation, manufacturing, finance, sales and customer relationship, distribution and delivery and compliance. A framework is proposed to locate key metrics to evaluate the social sustainable supply chain (SSC) performance. A hybrid fuzzy-AHP–DEMATEL–VIKOR method is designed to investigate the social sustainability of supply chain. Data analysis and a case study are given to validate and support the feasibility and potency of the proposed approach. The robustness of our proposed model is executed via sensitivity analysis. From the proposed framework, demand planning and distribution and delivery are found to be the most critical criteria in economic and social dimension, respectively.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Food Industry: A Conceptual Model from a Literature Review and a Case Study.

The purpose of this study is twofold: firstly, to provide a literature review of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) critical factors, practices and performance; and secondly, to develop a comprehensive and testable model of SSCM in the food industry. The research conducted comprises a literature review and a case study. The literature review findings propose a theoretical framework linking SSCM critical factors, practices and performance. The case study comprises two sustainability leaders in the Greek food supply chain in order to investigate the three SSCM constructs. A new set of pioneering SSCM practices in the Greek food industry is identified, including daily conversation, local sourcing and HR investments. The end result of this research proposes a testable model that sheds light on SSCM in the food industry and is based on a set of propositions.

Resource reallocation for improving sustainable supply chain performance: An inverse data envelopment analysis

In recent years, globalization has highlighted the vital role of sustainable supply chains (SSCs) in the development of organizations and production systems to increase profits. The high-performing SSCs not only increase the organizations’ profit but also guarantee responsiveness and sustainability in the networks. Thus, SSC performance evaluation is of cardinal importance in managing the entire network. Due to the importance of supply chain management, various versions of data envelopment analysis models have been introduced in the literature to evaluate supply chain performance. The inverse data envelopment analysis (IDEA) models have been employed to analyze the sensitivity of parameters and assess the risk of a system to changes in inputs and outputs. The IDEA model measures the impact of these changes on the remaining inputs and outputs by applying changes to one or more inputs or outputs, provided that the efficiency remains constant or improves. In this study, we develop a network IDEA model to evaluate SSCs performance considering the nature of network systems. This model considers different stages of an SSC network based on the importance and priority of each stage over the others. Then, a two-phase method is introduced to solve the proposed model to estimate the inputs and outputs while efficiency improves or remains unchanged. An important feature of the proposed model is to consider the relationships between the internal stages in the IDEA model. Furthermore, the proposed model guarantees the integer values for all parameters. The applicability of the IDEA model is demonstrated using a real case study.

Sustainable sugarcane supply chain performance assessment: A review and research agenda

Supply chain sustainability has become a popular concept used by several businesses to increase business competitiveness. However, there is no standard for measuring supply chain sustainability and business competitiveness. The objectives of this research were to analyze and criticize existing methods for supply chain sustainability assessment and develop a new framework for future research. This study reviewed 151 scientific articles related to supply chain sustainability assessments from 2004 to 2020. The results show that many techniques are used for sustainability assessments. However, no single technique can comprehensively measure supply chain sustainability. Therefore, a new robust technique that accommodates complex data in a sustainable supply chain is required. The technique to be developed is a machine learning technique because it can accommodate multi-criteria problems with various nonlinear relationships. This research is a case study of the sugarcane agroindustry supply chain. The supply chain of the sugarcane agroindustry faces various sustainability issues caused by negative environmental impacts. The analysis results show that using machine learning techniques to assess sustainability for the sugarcane agroindustry’s supply chain has great potential to be developed. Machine learning applications for this assessment can also be used to monitor the performance of organizations. Thereby organizations can enhance their sustainability performance through data-driven decision-making.

Optimizing firm's supply chain resilience in data-driven business environment

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of a firm’s supply chain capabilities on supply chain resilience, and the impact of supply chain resilience on sustainable supply chain performance in a data-driven business environment. The study also aims to explore the function of supply chain resilience in mediating the relationship between a firm’s supply chain capability and sustainable supply chain performance.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were acquired through a survey of 310 managers of small- and medium-sized businesses in a variety of industries across Bangladesh. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.FindingsA firm’s supply chain capabilities include information technology, leadership and collaboration. Supply chain capability is positively associated with supply chain resilience. The resilience of a firm’s supply chain is also positively correlated with its sustainable supply chain performance. Supply chain resilience plays a mediating role in the relationship between a firm’s supply chain capabilities and its sustainable supply chain performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a theoretical contribution by corroborating practical knowledge focusing on firms’ supply chain capability, supply chain resilience and sustainable supply chain performance by using a resource-based view and dynamic capability theory – a relevant and unexplored subject in the supply chain literature – and proposes several opportunities for future research.Practical implicationsThe results highlight the study’s managerial and social relevance from the perspective of firms in developing countries. As firms shift toward an online environment, managers and decision-makers need to make strategic decisions, as they did to overcome the challenges presented by COVID-19.Originality/valueThe study’s findings demonstrate that firms’ supply chain capabilities can be leveraged to increase supply chain resilience. Firms’ resilience during COVID-19 allowed them to avoid losses and to improve their supply chain’s sustainable performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, their complex higher order model is a unique contribution to the literature on firms’ supply chain capability and extends previous research on this topic.