A supply chain view of sustainability management

Abstract

Given the global sustainability challenges facing humans and nature today, this theoretical paper aims to propose a supply chain view of sustainability management and thereby contribute to elevating the sustainable supply chain management field to the level of theory. This is done by identifying supply chain stakeholders and related sustainability challenges, which reveal the inherent paradoxes and tensions in global consumption and production networks. This perspective supports the urgent need for all supply chain stakeholders to understand sustainability challenges and adopt a sustainability mindset. The focus on reducing supply chain disruptions, improving supply chain resilience, and improving supply chain sustainability performance has neglected and even undermined broader sustainability challenges, such as climate change. Therefore, this paper first provides a discussion on the complementarity between stakeholder theory and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) from a systems perspective; and, second, develops a novel supply chain theory to enhance sustainability management by identifying supply chain stakeholders and related sustainability challenges. Linking stakeholder theory and SSCM facilitates a holistic understanding of sustainability challenges, making it possible to identify opportunities to improve one's decisions, actions, and current consumption and production patterns. Instead of perpetuating a firm- or client-centred perspective, the supply chain view places the product/service at the center of the stakeholder identification process. It clearly identifies stakeholders upstream, within the focal firm, downstream, or outside the supply chain (SC), as well as the related sustainability challenges. It encourages all organizations and individuals to practise their systems thinking skills in order to improve their sustainability mindset and enhance their subsequent ability to solve sustainability and ethical challenges. The proposed supply chain view supports managers, policymakers, educators, consultant, consumers, and individuals in identifying stakeholders and understanding sustainability challenges related to production and consumption effectively. This extends existing knowledge on sustainability management from a supply chain perspective and opens new research areas, particularly for ethical decision-making and behavioural sciences.