Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Sustainable Supply Chain Financing Decision Based on Triple Bottom Line Theory

Abstract

In recent years, sustainable supply chains that balance economic development and the environment have become an inevitable focus for many businesses and industries. Supply chain finance as the core driving force for supply chain development, plays a vital role in resolving any financing difficulties that exist in many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. However, most SME supply chain financing assessments currently use economic indicators as the sole measure of the evaluation system and rarely consider sustainability. While existing supply chain financing decision-making systems can resolve SME financing problems to some extent, the one-sided pursuit of maximum economic benefits is contrary to sustainable development and does not assist financial institutions in avoiding finance risks. Therefore, this paper, based on the theory of the triple bottom line (economy, environment, and society) from a sustainable development perspective, innovatively proposes an SME financing evaluation model for supply chain finance that applies a fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation method combined with Topsis. Additionally, at the end, an example is given to demonstrate model validity and evaluate the best possible SME financing model for financial institutions.

Assessing the Sustainability of High-Value Brands in the IT Sector

“…Consequently, a new term which now appears in the scientific literature, corporate sustainability, is used to specify its differences and similarities in the business domain. In any case, sustainability is understood from three areas of action or dimensions, namely the "triple bottom line" or "triple result": the economic area, the social area, and the environmental area [8,9]. This article uses this "triple result" definition to homogeneously interpret the terms of CSR and corporate sustainability.…”

Literature Review and Content Analysis: Internet Finance, Green Finance, and Sustainability

“…At the same time, more and more enterprises pay greater attention to the sustainable development of supply chain construction and investment. From the perspective of sustainable development, Xuedong Liang (2018) et al Put forward TOPSIS based on the triple bottom line (economic, environmental and social) theory [18], which combines fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation method with supply chain finance [19]. Research of Feng x (2015) shows that small and medium-sized enterprises in the supply chain can reduce the cost of capital through revenue sharing contracts and repurchase contracts, so as to reduce the financing constraints they face [20].…”

Research on Operation and Financing Strategy of an Emission-Dependent Supply Chain under Variable Transportation Fee Strategy

“…Sarkar et al [9] incorporate the cost of carbon emissions into the environmental impact on total profits to design a synergic economic order quantity model. Based on a fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation method combined with Topsis, Liang et al [36] propose a new SME financing evaluation model. Yang et al [37] develop four models on the basis of two cooperation models to discuss the firm's carbon emission reduction decisions.…”