Analysing the interactions of sustainability practices and financial performance on business-to-business buying behaviour in Indian manufacturing industry: a graph-theoretic approach

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to develop a framework for the action hierarchy of sustainability practices and financial performance and their optimal combination for supplier evaluation and selection in business-to-business (B2B) for the Indian manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach Through the extensive literature review followed by comprehensive interviews conducted using the Delphi methodology with professionals, this study attempts to represent the interactions of the sustainability practices and financial performance factors on B2B buying behaviour using a graph-theoretic approach. Findings The contribution of environmental, social, economic and financial performance to B2B buying behaviour is obtained quantitatively in the context of the Indian manufacturing industry. Research limitations/implications This study considers inputs from the Indian manufacturing industry, which may vary significantly based on the type of industry and geographical locations. Practical implications This study provides a direction to prioritize their supplier evaluation and selection criteria for sustainability practices and financial performance with quantifiable rationale. Originality/value The study seeks to encourage manufacturing industries to plan their actions by quantifying the intangibles through a systematic approach.

Modeling a New Supplier Preference Paradigm: A Business-to-Business and African Developing Economy Context

“…For example, the use of biodegradable and recyclable products and packaging, and services and products that are not responsible for excessive greenhouse gasses due to the utilization of renewable raw material and energy in their production [12][13][14]. A number of studies propose further research on greener and/or more sustainable environmental approaches [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]; hence, organizations should implement and develop sustainable procurement practices, which should include strategies, guidelines, and procedures to assist with more environmentally friendly and sustainable procurement decisions [12,15,16].…”

“…A number of research gaps were identified based on the above B2B procurement, supplier, and TBL discourse. Saxena and Seth [23] suggested that further research was needed to investigate TBL substantiality issues. Boruchowitch and Fritz [50] confirm that more research is required based on sustainable SCM and procurement.…”

“…Yu [26] also indicates that future research should survey different levels of B2B procurement personnel and not only at management levels (social pillar). A number of inquiries assert that different factors and/or constructs should be considered in the evaluation of suppliers and sustainable B2B procurement [21][22][23]25,51,55,60,61]. Nilsson and Göransson [22], Voola [25], Difrancesco et al [55], Cherian and Arun [60], and Mufti and Aprianingsih [62] reveal that various economies and sectors have divergent B2B procurement, supplier, and marketing needs, so further research is necessary across countries, economies, and industries.…”

“…This study endeavors to address a number of the aforementioned research gaps and make an original contribution by conducting additional research that considers B2B procurement, supplier, and the TBL framework elements from a developing country perspective. Hence, there is a need for this study, which is justified via literature, since it investigates new sustainable B2B procurement environmental [21,22,[24][25][26], social [22,25,51,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59], and economical factors [23,50] and/or constructs [21][22][23]25,51,55,60,61,64], uses a large sample size [21,22,25,[50][51][52], and seeks to develop a new supplier preference model [27,63,[65][66][67] in an African developing country across various industries [22,25,55,[60][61][62][63]. To determine the aforementioned points, the researcher believed that instead of being prescriptive (that is, looking at the problem from a ...…”

“…The necessity for this study, which considers the aforementioned B2B supplier preference variables, is also justified via literature since a number of authors conducted research on the preference of suppliers' salespeople [5,46,47], BEE status [31,32,34], service quality [9,59], relationship with salespeople and management [37][38][39][40], environment sustainability [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], culture, EE, and AA [28,[33][34][35][36], personal relationships and the provision of gifts [41][42][43][44][45], and access to management and exceeding expectations [48,49]. In summary, the inquiry seeks to understand what bases organizational buyers select their vendors so that sales organizations (vendors) can better align their services to satisfy B2B procurement vendor needs via a new B2B supplier preference paradigm that used the 3Ps of the TBL framework as the foundation of the proposed model.…”