Sustainable Supply Chain Practices Research Articles

Sustainable supply chain: vendor and customer participation

Sustainable (green) supply chain management has emerged as a proactive approach for improving environmental performance of processes and products in accordance with the requirements of environmental regulations. Study empirically investigates the construct of and the scale for evaluating sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices implementation among manufacturers. With data collected from Indian small and medium sized enterprises, measurement models of vendor and customer participation and implementation were tested and compared by ‘mean score’, ‘t’-test and ‘p’-test. The assessments presented are based on parts of the data and information collected through the execution of the competitive strategies and best practices benchmarking questionnaire from 60 small and 59 medium size enterprises. Study focuses on present scenario of participation of vendor and customer for sustainable supply chain practices of small and medium sized enterprises in India.

Creating integrated business and environmental value within the context of China’s circular economy and ecological modernization

This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of China’s emerging ‘circular economy’ policy paradigm and based on ecological modernization theoretic approaches. Based on three company case studies in the information technology and electronic industries in China, we identify and demonstrate how a blended business and environmental value can be created from adopting a sustainable supply chain management approach. The adoption of a sustainable supply chain management approach is rapidly becoming a key business challenge and opportunity in China and other large emerging economies around the world, where our greatest environmental management challenges currently reside and will continue to exist for many years to come. The value creation framework proposed in research focuses on evaluating three case study companies who appear in various stages of an electronic industry supply chain. Value creation within a supply chain can provide the impetus for organizations to adopt circular economy, sustainable supply chain practices, for competitive reasons. In addition, we describe how a value proposition can be evaluated at two levels of analysis, a more specific micro-level and a more general meso-level of analysis. The four major business value dimensions include cost reduction, revenue generation, resiliency, and legitimacy and image. The initial findings are that a variety of opportunities exist for electronic firms in emerging and developing countries, while results from this study provide an important scholarly foundation to develop and refine sustainable supply chain management practices in emerging and developing economies.

Sustainable supply chain practices: research propositions for the future

Increasing awareness of the ecological impacts of industrial growth, resource scarcity as well as changing consumption patterns, has led to the growth of sustainability issues in supply chain practices. The purpose of this paper is to highlight a few areas of possible importance in planning, implementing and managing sustainable supply chain practices. We discuss four areas where financial, social and ecological benefits can be gained. This will be by considering themes of responsible purchasing, product stewardship, internal organisational ethics and sustainable operations.

Environmental impacts on reverse logistics and green supply chains: similarities and integration

Environmental and economic issues have significant impacts on reverse logistics and are thought to form one of the developmental cornerstones of green supply chains. Global competition requires firms to minimise their use of extraneous resources and develop sustainable supply chain practices. Recent, although limited, research has begun to identify that these sustainable supply chain practices, which include the reverse logistics factors, lead to more integrated supply chains, which ultimately can lead to improved economic performance. Therefore, value may be expected in determining (1) if any overlaps or intersections between the green supply chains and reverse logistics exist and (2) if so, if they can be integrated to provide a more comprehensive, sustainable system. This conceptual paper will explore the potential relationships between the green supply chains and the reverse logistics, specifically focusing on shared commonalities. A conceptual model, describing these relationships, will be presented for future empirical research.

The Optimum Enforcement of Laws

All prescriptions of behavior for individuals require enforcement. Usually the obligation to behave in a prescribed way is entered into voluntarily by explicit or implicit contract. For example, I promise to teach certain classes with designated frequency and to discuss matters which I, and possibly others, believe are relevant to the course titles. By negotiation, and in the event of its failure, by legal action, I and my employer seek to enforce the contract of employment against large departures from the promised behavior. Performance of some kinds of behavior is difficult or impossible to enforce-such as promises to be creative, noble, or steadfast in crisis-and as a result such contractual promises are either not made or enforced only when there is an uncontroversially flagrant violation. The influence upon contract, and upon economic organization generally, of the costs of enforcing various kinds of contracts has received virtually no study by economists, despite its immense potential explanatory power. When the prescribed behavior is fixed unilaterally rather than by individual agreement, we have the regulation or law, and enforcement of these unilateral rules is the subject of the present essay. Departures of actual from prescribed behavior are crimes or violations, although one could wish for a less formidable description than "criminal" to describe many of the trifling offenses or the offenses against unjust laws. My primary purpose is to construct a theory of rational enforcement, a theory which owes much to Gary Becker's major article on the subject (1968). In the conclusion the problem of explanation, as distinguished from prescription, will be commented upon.