How does environmental policy affect operations and supply chain management: A literature review

Abstract

Governments in many countries actively carry out various policies to tackle pollution problems sourced from operations and supply chain activities, aiming at reducing adverse environmental impact and promoting sustainable development. This study provides a comprehensive and well-structured review of research on operations and supply chain management within the context of environmental policy. Specifically, this study meticulously identifies 137 papers and presents the descriptive results of a bibliometric analysis on these papers. Afterwards, using a well-defined framework encompassing three types of policies and various levels of operational and supply chain management, the identified papers are further classified. For each classification, content analyses are conducted accordingly, delving into the diverse concerns and contributions of the reviewed papers from the perspectives of pricing, production planning, inventory and technology management, coordination and competition, recycling and remanufacturing activities, transportation decisions, and network design. Three aspects of sustainability performance are also considered in the analyses. Finally, this study provides future research directions from seven perspectives: research methodology, forms of regulation, dynamic games, types of contracts, sustainable target management, green behavior of supply chain members, and investment constraints. These insights in turn inform the development of policies and decision-making processes related to environmental sustainability.