Sustainable Supply Chain Practices Research Articles

100 per cent organic? A sustainable entrepreneurship perspective on the diffusion of organic clothing

Purpose – This paper analyses the sustainability-oriented transformation of industries from the lens of sustainable entrepreneurship. The authors investigate the co-evolution between pioneers introducing radically more sustainable offerings and (mostly large) market leaders with their responses. While sustainability pioneers introduce new products in niche markets, incumbents advance them into the mass market, together leading to the transformation of industries, markets and consumer habits. Design/methodology/approach – The authors apply the sustainable entrepreneurship perspective to a case study of the German clothing retail industry with a focus on organic cotton. The analysis covers four of the ten largest German textile retailers. Data collection is based on public available sources. Findings – The late 1970s saw the foundation of Hess Natur, which pioneered organic cotton practices and supported the development of sustainability standards in the clothing industry. In the beginning this was largely a phenomenon in niche markets, but to date some organic practices have diffused amongst mainstream retailers. This is counter-intuitive, as theory suggests that incumbents only adopt practices with significantly lower sustainability standards than companies in the niche. Research limitations/implication – The study suggests that more research should focus on the co-evolutionary dynamics between pioneering companies and incumbents and examine whether and how sustainability practices diffuse into the mass market. Practical implications – The findings can help managers to better understand their organisation’s role in the transformation of industries towards sustainability and, vice versa, how the transformation may affect them. Leading the transformation challenge by adopting organic and other sustainable supply chain practices can be an important measure for market success. Originality/value – This study is one of the few pieces of research investigating sustainability-oriented industry transformation from a market-based perspective. Actual data on organic cotton diffusion in German retail are presented.

System Dynamics Investigation of Capacity Building by Humanitarian Supply Chain in Disaster Prone Eco-Communities of India

Humanitarian Supply Chain (HSC) is central to any developmental initiative meant for capacity building in the eco-communities of India, particularly for those which are located in disaster prone regions. Although being environmentally rich, such class of rural or tribal eco-communities and their people are often devoid of supplies of adequate Physical, Social, Economic, and Technological resources and are forced to struggle on a daily basis to survive and are unable to cope with any additional stress factors like population growth and abject poverty. In this regard, sustainable humanitarian supply chain practice and community based resource management can collectively promote more resilient communities promoting social, economic and environmental equity and ethical imperatives for sustainable community development. Apart from providing immediate relief assistance at the occurrence of natural disasters, what is more critical is their long term capacity building with a holistic perspective. This is also vital to enhance the effectiveness and speed of community response to major humanitarian programs, such as health, food, shelter, water, sanitation and employment. In this study, an attempt has been made to develop a system dynamics model of humanitarian supply chain in order to capture causal dynamics and inter linkages within the system under investigation and suggest some critical intervention strategies for enhancing overall performance. In this study, an economic sub-sector base model for the Indian tribal communities has been calibrated and used for simulation analysis as a reference case-study. The key motivation to select tribal regions for our model was that the various humanitarian measures undertaken under India Eco-Development Project (IEP) by the Indian government are not able to meet the intended objectives.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices in Indian Manufacturing Firms a Case Based Research

Purpose: It is a fact that there is a great deal of knowledge gap in the existing supply chain management literature, especially on sustainable practices followed by emerging-markets manufacturing industries. Therefore, this paper aims to study sustainable supply chain practices and its implementation in Indian manufacturing firms through a case-based research. Design/Methodology/Approach: The method that used in this article is ‘case-based research’. In other words, multiple cases are being selected to perform in-depth investigation and to draw conclusions for possible managerial implications. Findings: Using triple bottom line approach of sustainability, it is found that majority of firms considered in this study practice or addressed the following issues: Social responsibility, concept of R’s, minimization of ecological foot print, elimination of waste in packaging, green initiatives, reduction of GHG, reduction of emissions. Research Limitations: It is one of the limitations that this study does not use empirical research methods or sophisticated software-based tools to put forward some holistic views, which should improve current sustainable supply chain practices in emerging-markets. Practical Implications: This article would help new researchers who want to pursue case-based research in operations management and manufacturing systems. Thus, it would be a guide for scholars in Asia and other developing countries. Originality/Value: The originality is that it uses the findings of sustainability reports and other secondary data published by firms, which are a measure of significant contribution while implementing the concept of sustainability.

A green supply chain is a requirement for profitability

Many companies are not dramatically changing to more sustainable environmental practices despite pressure from the investment community, the government and consumers. This study explores a simple model that companies can use to understand and improve supply chain sustainability practices. It applies this model in two case studies, Coca-Cola, a leader in global sustainability, and Apple, a company that has only recently started to develop a sustainability strategy. The model was developed through a review of existing research and an application of supply chain principles. The results of this study demonstrate that following this model to eliminate waste throughout the supply chain will make the supply chain more profitable. The outcomes from this study highlight the importance for every company to do so in order to stay competitive. This study is unique in the relative simplicity of its model, combined with the supporting evidence that a sustainable supply chain is the same as a supply chain that is using best practices to reduce waste.

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.