Toward sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO): mapping managerial perspectives

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose this paper is to profile individual-level perspectives on sustainability and supply chain partnering, introduces the concept of sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO), and suggests pathways between executive profiles toward SSCO. Design/methodology/approach – The research relies on inductive, theory-building grounded theory and phenomenological data collection and interpretations in the wine industry. In-depth interviews were conducted over five years with 112 senior managers from 88 organizations in the global wine industry representing nine wine regions in four countries. Findings – Ten profiles were developed depicting executives’ perspectives on embracing sustainability, the extent to which motivations for various forms of sustainability and partnering compete, and being self-or supply chain partner focussed. A SSCO depicts a leader who embraces sustainability, sees alignment in motivations and is supply chain partner focussed. Research limitations/implications – The paper contributes to the sustainable supply chain management and general business orientation discourses by introducing the concept of SSCO and profiling executives’ perspectives that may help to define pathways toward SSCO. It may be limited by its inductive method and the industry context. Limitations suggest future research in discovering additional profiles and pathways as well as validating them. Practical implications – Findings reveal the importance of understanding what sustainability means to business executives of firms in hyper-competitive markets with global supply chains. Managers will recognize that there are many possible routes toward SSCO, each one revealing potentially unique differentiation opportunities while also providing clues to competitors’ strategies. Originality/value – This work introduces the concept of SSCO and contributes a classification scheme consisting of detailed business executive profile descriptions and specific pathways toward SSCO followed by those executives.

Supply chain sustainability led by governance: A multicase propositive study in Brazil

“…These were the conclusions of the research by Signori et al. (), when they interviewed 112 executives, wine producers, and leaders of their chains in four different countries: the United States, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand.…”

“…Sustainability may be geared exclusively to meet the needs of the focal company and not include the members of the chain in that process, mainly due to the skeptical characteristics of its leader. The “Skeptical and self‐focused” profile is that which is least directed to the sustainability of the supply chain (Signori, Flint, & Golicic, ), SCS is presented through nine other profiles of chain leaders, from which it can reach the most advanced stage in which the leader, the end‐product holder that is oriented toward sustainability, disseminates and commits its entire supply chain to achieving superior social, economic, and environmental performance and to conferring sustainability to its products. These were the conclusions of the research by Signori et al.…”

A framework for sustainable supply chain in emerging economies

“…An interesting approach for developing a framework is to utilize theory-building strategies (Carter & Rogers, 2008;Shi, Koh, Baldwin, & Cucchiella, 2012;Signori, Flint, & Golicic, 2015;Wacker, 1998). The theory-building approach provides for development of the field, shows similarities considering different grounds, is used for support, and generates insights into practical problems (Wacker, 1998).…”

Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Exploring the Role of Supply Chain Dynamic Capabilities in Determining Firm Performance

“…A sustainable supply chain management is based on the combination of sustainable theory and supply chain management [8]At the same time, globalization and digitization attach more challenges to modern supply chain management in terms of complexity and dynamicity, and that requires higher level of dynamic capabilities in supply chain. The capabilities in creating new abilities is essentialy the dynamic ability of the enterprise.…”

“…Integration of the sustainability concept into the core business functions in such away fall within the domain of supply chain management, such as procurement, supplier, logistics, operations, and knowledge management, has led to a critical-interdiciplinary area, that is sustainable supply chain management (SCM) [5] The elaboration of ethics principles into strategic management body of knowledge can be found earlier in the Hosmer [6]seminal article which titled "strategic planning as if ethics mattered". Hosmer's profound thinking on the inclusion of more ethics research in the field of strategy as the moral obligations of management become part of several other components in the strategic planning process during the early development of Corporate Strategy as a field of Study [7] However, research on the collaboration between strategic management theories and the sustainable supply chain management theories [8] are inconclusive, especially in determining how these combination may answer the challenge to provide sustainable performance as well as economic performance and social performance in a highly competitive, complex, and globalized context. As we all know, globalization of the market, sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution is growing, and customer are becoming more demanding, with the expectation upon customized products, and better customer service.…”