Toward sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO): mapping managerial perspectives
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
ISSN: 0960-0035
Article publication date: 6 July 2015
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.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the leaders and managers at the 88 organizations with whom the authors meet for this research and the financial support from the three universities.
Citation
Signori, P., Flint, D.J. and Golicic, S. (2015), "Toward sustainable supply chain orientation (SSCO): mapping managerial perspectives", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 45 No. 6, pp. 536-564. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-07-2014-0160
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited