Sustainable Manufacturing Practices and Sustainability Performance: A Conceptual Framework for Manufacturing SMEs

In the Sustainable Development Goals Summit in September 2019, world leaders addressed current and future sustainability challenges faced by the world, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has shocked and dampened global sustainable development efforts. Malaysian manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are not exempt from this tragedy, as they have suffered economically, socially, and environmentally. The goal of this paper is to establish sustainable manufacturing practices (SMPs) as a dynamic internal strategic action for manufacturing firms that transforms firm capabilities into sustainability performance. The authors conducted an extensive literature search to explore global sustainability issues and narrowed the scope to issues encountered by Malaysian manufacturing firms. The most commonly used terminologies of sustainability, sustainable practices, and sustainability performance were subsequently analyzed to conceptually develop a holistic framework for future studies. Specifically, the authors proposed an explanatory quantitative study to comprehend the link between firm capabilities and multidimensional sustainability performance with the integration of SMPs as a mediator. The results of the analysis would provide useful recommendations for the manufacturing sector and directions for future studies. Additionally, this paper enriches the theory of the Dynamic Capability View by bringing in the sustainability model to explain the development process of sustainability performance among Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. This article does not just inform firms and authorities on the importance of SMPs for superior performance but also guides firms towards understanding and improving their current SMPs. Managers in the manufacturing sector would benefit from this paper by learning and implementing effective sustainable strategies in their operations management to improve sustainability-related outcomes.