Sustainable Supply Chain Management—A Conceptual Framework and Future Research Perspectives

Abstract

Sustainable operations and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) have become a highly relevant topic for scientific research and management, as well as policy-making practice. Despite surging growth in extant research, the need for theoretical and conceptual substantiation persists, and large opportunities for further research remain unexploited. This paper responds to the need for a conceptual foundation and, therefore, aims at providing a structured agenda for future research areas in SSCM. Based on an abductive reasoning approach, SSCM constructs and concepts are gathered from existing literature and recombined into a comprehensive conceptual SSCM framework. Areas and directions for future SSCM research, as suggested in earlier studies, are summarized, positioned in the framework, and outlined to stimulate further SSCM research activities. To overcome the lack of holistic research in the field, sophisticated techniques and integrated systems to support decision-making are required to tackle related issues’ complexity. Therefore, this paper’s contribution lies in the synthesis of state-of-the-art literature to provide a more comprehensive view of SSCM. Researchers may find promising recommendations and a suitable foundation for future studies, while practitioners may find helpful orientation and guidance for decision- and policy-making.

Exploring Supplier Sustainability Audit Standards: Potential for and Barriers to Standardization

“…The emergence of SSCM, which began as a fringe sub-topic of supply chain management [57] can be seen as a response to this stakeholder pressure [2]. The remarkable growth and massive research activity in SSCM attest to the continued academic significance of the topic [3,10,15,[58][59][60], which has also become a seemingly indispensable part of FCs' sustainability activities [2,6,61]. Roy et al [15] take stock of the approaching overwhelming amount of literature on SSCM and develop a thematic landscape schematisation of SSCM research since 2000, in which they prescribe understanding SSCM as a process that begins with adoption, then implementation and extension, and continues with maintenance and then analyses of outcomes.…”

Dear supplier, how sustainable are you?

“…Much has been written on the subject of questionnaire design, with research spanning half a century and continuing into the present (for example: Bradburn et al 2004;Dalal and Hakel 2016;Jenkins and Dillman 2012;Krosnick 2018;Schwarz et al 1991;Tourangeau 1984;Wright and Barnard 1975). In short, respondent's reactions and responses to questionnaires are affected by: the language used, the questionnaire mode, the way the questions are constructed, the self-assessment process that the questionnaire is embedded in and the visual/spatial construction of the questionnaire (Jenkins and Dillman 2012).…”

“…In other disciplines much attention has been paid to questionnaires (such as the order of questions, leading vs. open questions etc.) and their design (Bradburn et al 2004;Dalal and Hakel 2016;Jenkins and Dillman 2012;Tourangeau 1984). In our case studies we clearly observed that the ISQ's 'leading questions' (that were noticeably looking for one type of socially desirable response) were overwhelmingly responded to in the expected manner.…”

Forward-Looking Sustainability Agency for Developing Future Cruise Ships

“…The research on social roles in sustainability partner networks has highlighted the role of a lead partner in the chain [40][41][42]. The leader in the chain uses its power to select such suppliers whose sustainability performance is in line with the leader's requirements.…”