Purpose This study aims to investigate the role of sustainable supply management (SSM) practices in a firm’s overall sustainability performance and reflect the significance of supply management in this performance. The paper uses dynamic capability view as a theoretical foundation for the research of SSM practices and differentiates between reactive and proactive practices. Design/methodology/approach The research design includes a focus group session with nine supply management professionals and survey data collected from 111 companies. The research objectives are examined by means of quantitative analyses. Findings The empirical results show that SSM practices represent a significant share of the firm’s sustainability performance overall. However, the significance of the practices differs depending on the strategic type and importance of the practice. SSM practices reflecting reporting and upstream SCM activities aim to ensure sustainability of the entire supply chain and have a focal role in improving firm’s sustainability performance. Originality/value A three-dimensional matrix for the categorization of SSM practices is proposed. This is a novel theoretical contribution to the SSM literature. Reactive practices are basic ones where the strategic importance regarding the development of new capabilities is low. Proactive practices are dynamic in nature and aim toward the development of new capabilities. Thus, proactive practices have a long-term effect and are necessary for gaining higher sustainability performance.

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This paper highlights the role of green supply management in the development of a sustainable supply chain. It examines if supply risks, supplier relationship management capability, and end‐customer orientation of supply management function are connected to the green supply management practices of a firm. These connections are studied using a survey data of 165 firms collected in Finland. The results of regression analysis show that the protection of a firm's reputation is highly related to the level of green supply management; consumer awareness of green requirements puts strong pressure on a firm's supply management to meet the end‐customers' expectations, and the high the level of supplier relationship management capability in firms increases the adoption of green supply management. Furthermore, it finds that larger firms exploit green supply management practices more than the smaller ones, and green purchasing activities are not applied in high‐volume‐buying Finnish companies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment