GSCM Arif

Journal of Cleaner Production 85 (2014) 212e225
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro
Impact of supply chain management practices on sustainability

Kannan Govindan a, *, Susana G. Azevedo b, Helena Carvalho c, V. Cruz-Machado c
a
Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
b ~, Portugal
UNIDEMI, Department of Business and Economics, University of Beira Interior, Covilha
c
UNIDEMI, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: This paper aims to investigate the impact of lean, resilient and green supply chain management practices
Received 21 November 2013 on supply chain sustainability. A deductive research approach was used to derive a conceptual model.
Received in revised form Eighteen research propositions are suggested and tested with empirical data derived from five case
20 May 2014
studies belonging to the Portuguese automotive supply chain. A conceptual model to assess the impact of
Accepted 21 May 2014
Available online 7 June 2014
lean, resilient and green practices on supply chain sustainability was derived from the data analysis. The
practices with significant impact on supply chain sustainability are: “waste elimination,” “supply chain
risk management” and “cleaner production.” The following lean, resilient and green supply chain
Keywords:
Lean
management practices do not have a significant impact on supply chain sustainability: “flexible trans-
Resilient portation,” “flexible sourcing,” “ISO 14001 certification,” and “reverse logistics.” The paper provides a
Green taxonomy for lean, resilient and green supply chain management practices at three levels: upstream,
Supply chain organization and downstream. Practitioners can use this taxonomy as a checklist to identify possible
Sustainability practices to achieve their sustainability goals. The proposed model makes it possible for researchers to
Case study develop surveys in order to better explore the proposed relationships. This paper presents an innovative
approach since it studies simultaneously the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social
and economic), and the lean, resilient and green supply chain management paradigms which are
considered strategic for supply chain competitiveness. Identification of the conceptual relationships
between supply chain management practices and sustainability is a contribution that the authors hope
will become a forward step in the development of new theoretical approaches and empirical research in
the field of supply chain management and sustainability.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction However, there are no researches exploring simultaneously the

three SCM paradigms and their impact on SC sustainability. So, this
In the supply chain (SC) context, it is necessary to implement study intends to overcome this research gap and aims to propose a
management practices that not only promote company and overall conceptual model to analyze the impact of lean, resilient and green
SC performance, but also that focus on social, economic and envi- SCM practices on SC sustainability. This approach will help the
ronmental concerns (Beske, 2012; Amin and Zhang, 2014; Alzaman, companies and their respective SCs to reduce their business wastes
2014). In other words, supply chain management (SCM) should be while it increases value to the customer, sustain their operations
concerned with its sustainability as well. Lean, resilient, and green and overcome disruptions, and at the same time to reduce the
approaches are referred to as SCM paradigms which allow com- negative environmental impacts. A deductive research approach is
panies to become more competitive and sustainable in a volatile and used to develop a conceptual model from the literature review and
high demand market. Existing literature focuses on two of these SCM a case study is used to address the following three research ques-
paradigms and sustainability, e.g. the lean and green paradigms and tions: 1) Which lean SCM practices impact the SC sustainability?; 2)
sustainability are studied by Mollenkopf et al. (2010), and green and Which resilient SCM practices impact the SC sustainability?; and 3)
resilient as a way to increase the sustainability of companies and Which green SCM practices impact the SC sustainability?
their supply chains by Azevedo et al. (2013). The paper is organized as follows. Following the introduction, a
literature review on the lean, resilient and green paradigms is
provided from a SCM perspective, and several management prac-
* Corresponding author.
tices are proposed. After that, some insights on SC sustainability
E-mail address: gov@sam.sdu.dk (K. Govindan). are presented. Subsequently, a conceptual model is proposed as a
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.05.068
0959-6526/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Govindan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 85 (2014) 212e225 213
means of suggesting a set of lean, resilient and green practices and on the integration of only a couple of paradigms. A review about the
their relationships with environmental, social and economic di- integration between lean management and SC sustainability can be
mensions of SC sustainability. After that, a case study on automo- found in Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes (2014); the study of
tive companies is developed to validate the proposed conceptual resilient SCM and sustainability is developed by Fiksel (2006) and
model. Finally, some considerations are drawn. Rosic et al. (2009); and the study of green and sustainability in a SC
context is explored by Kainuma and Tawara (2006). In a review
2. Literature background study about the definitions of SC sustainability, Ahi and Searcy
(2013) conclude that resilience is also rarely addressed in defini-
A SC can be described as a chain that links various entities, from tions of business sustainability. So, new integrative management
the customer to the supplier, through manufacturing and services approaches are needed to deal with the SC sustainability challenge.
so that the flow of materials, money and information can be In this paper the focus is on lean, green and resilient SCM
effectively managed to meet the business requirements (Stevens, management paradigms considering its different, but comple-
1989; Charkha and Jaju, 2014; Viskari and Karri, 2013). Re- mentary objectives (Carvalho et al., 2011), such as: i) increase value:
searchers have started advocating radical changes in the way SCs the lean intents a systematic approach to identify and eliminate all
are managed so far with profit as the sole aim. Efforts to make SCs non-value-added activities or “wastes” through continuous
more environmentally friendly have gained priority due to improvement; ii) cope with unexpected events: resilience refers to
increasing threats arising from global warming and climate change the SC's ability to react efficiently and overcome the negative effects
(Shukla et al., 2009). Only more recently academics have recog- of disturbances; iii) reduce negative environmental impacts: green
nized the importance of addressing sustainability issues in SCM SCM intends to reduce environmental risks and impacts while
(Linton et al., 2007; Carter and Rogers, 2008; Seuring et al., 2008; improving the SC ecological efficiency. Table 1 contains some of the
Krause et al., 2009; Seuring and Müller, 2008; Winter and main lean, resilient and green SCM practices found in literature.
Knemeyer, 2013; Santos et al., 2013; Topcu et al., 2013; Gobbo et Carvalho et al. (2011) provide a useful comparison of lean, green
al., 2014; Salimifard and Raeesi, 2014). The World Commission on and resilient paradigms highlighting the existence of synergies and
Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) considers sustain- trade-offs among the SCM paradigms, e.g., the presence of strategic
ability as economic practices which meet the needs of the present inventory reduces the companies' vulnerability to unexpected
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet events that may interrupt the supply of materials, but this same
their own needs. practice could hide the causes of a bad supply chain performance
Azevedo et al. (2012a) consider that green and lean practices are and generate material obsolescence; for that reason, the lean and
two important pillars of the sustainable development of business. green paradigms prescribe the minimization of inventory levels.
The deployment of these practices along the SC enables an According to Govindan et al. (in press) the definition of lean, green
enhanced social, environmental and economic performance. Ac- and resilient constructs must take into consideration the in-
cording to Vinodh et al. (2011) and Fliedner (2008), some of the teractions among practices. With this in mind, the interactions
benefits of synchronizing lean and sustainability principles include between practices was one criteria used in the selection of the
reduced costs and lead time, improved process flow, compliance practices belonging to each SCM paradigm. One example of these
with customer expectations, improvement of environmental interactions is concerned with the practice of lead-time reduction
quality, as well as employee morale, and commitment. Vinodh et al. (resilient) which is promoted by the just-in-time practice (lean) but
(2011) argue that the implementation of green SC practices can could contribute to a reduction on the practice of energy con-
influence sustainability; one example is related to Ford that had sumption (green) since it demands higher fuel cost from urgent
implemented recyclable plastic containers for shipping their car transportation utilization. The proposed set of lean, green and
parts as opposed to cardboard, reducing CO2 emissions during resilient practices was derived from Table 1 but also considering the
transportation, improving process efficiency since new containers practices more relevant for leanness, greenness and resilience of
are handled easily by plant workers, and reducing transportation the automotive SC (e.g. Azevedo et al., 2012a,b; 2013; Govindan
cost by over 25%. et al., in press). Also, according to the suggestion of Govindan
According to Srivastava (2007) within the context of sustain- et al. (in press), in order to guarantee the construct validity, each
ability, an organization must manage not only short-term financial paradigm is defined using practices that contribute only to that
results, but also the risk factors resulting from its products, envi- paradigm and that are not related to the other ones. A set of three
ronmental waste, and worker and public safety. Carter and Rogers practices is suggested as follows:
(2008) also consider that SC sustainability encompasses the abil-
ity to understand and manage the SC economic, environmental, Lean paradigm: waste elimination, total quality management
and social risks. Because of the costs and SC disruption (fragility), and just-in-time.
the operations field has also become the focus of serious concerns Green paradigm: cleaner production, ISO 14001 and reverse
about environmental sustainability, often involving the triple bot- logistics
tom line: planet, people, and profit (Stonebraker et al., 2009). More Resilient paradigm: flexible sourcing, SC risk management and
recently, Ahi and Searcy (2013) expand the business sustainability flexible transportation
characteristics to an integrated perspective, including not only the
environmental, social and economic focus, but also resilience along This paper aims to analyze the impact of lean, resilient and
the focus on stakeholders, volunteers and long-term performance. green practices on SC sustainability. To this end, the three di-
Moore and Manring (2009) considered that small and medium size mensions of sustainability are considered: i) environmental; ii)
companies could find synergistic effects among resilience and social and ii) economic.
sustainability to increase value creation. In this sense SC resilience
is a critical pillar of SC sustainability. 3. Conceptual model
These previous arguments support the simultaneous deploy-
ment of lean, resilient and green SCM paradigms to develop a In this section, a conceptual model is proposed to explore the
sustainable SC. However, the literature shows that most researches impact of lean, resilient and green SCM practices on SC sustain-
have been focused on the study of individual paradigms in SCM or ability. That is, it intends to explore the relationships between the
214 K. Govindan et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 85 (2014) 212e225
Table 1
Lean, resilient and green supply chain management practices.
SCM Upstream Focal company Downstream

practices
Lean Supplier relationships (Panizzolo, 1998; Perez Lot size reduction (Shah and Ward, 2003; Just-in-time (Panizzolo, 1998)
and Sanchez, 2000; Berry et al., 2002; Saleem et al., 2013; Manna et al., 2013; Hozak, 2013) Delivery flexibility (Perez and Sanchez, 2000;
Sezen and Turkkantos, 2013) Total quality management (Shah and Ward, 2003; Niranjan and Ciarallo, 2013;
Just-in-time (Panizzolo, 1998; Berry et al., 2002; Doolen and Hacker, 2005) Sharma and Bhat, 2013)
Shah and Ward, 2003) Cycle/Setup time reduction Customer relationships (Perez and Sanchez,
Suppliers involvement in product development (Doolen and Hacker, 2005) 2000; Doolen and Hacker, 2005)
(Perez and Sanchez, 2000; Waste elimination (Schulze and Sto €rmer, 2012)
Olorunniwo and Jolayemi, 2014)
Resilient Sourcing strategies to allow switching of Minimal batch sizes (Christopher and Peck, 2004) Flexible transportation (Tang, 2006)
suppliers (Rice and Caniato, 2003) Lead time reduction (Viskari and Karri, 2013; Silent product rollover (Tang, 2006)
Flexible supply base/flexible sourcing Bansal et al., 2014; Christopher and Peck, 2004) Demand-based management
(Tang, 2006) Supply chain risk management (Christopher and (Iakovou et al., 2007)
Developing visibility (Christopher and Peck, 2004)
Peck, 2004)
Green Environmental collaboration with suppliers Cleaner production practices (Rao and Holt, 2005) Reverse logistics (Zhu et al., 2005;
(Vachon and Klassen, 2006) To minimize waste (Rao and Holt, 2005) Jindal and Sangwan, 2013)
To encourage suppliers to take back To decrease the consumption of Hazardous and Environmental monitoring by customers
packaging (Rao and Holt, 2005) toxic materials (Zhu et al., 2005) (Zhu et al., 2005; Vachon and Klassen, 2006)
Certification of suppliers' environmental ISO 14001 certification (Rao and Holt, 2005; Discuss with customers about changes in
management systems (Vachon and Klassen, 2006) Vachon and Klassen, 2006) existing packaging (Zhu et al., 2005)
proposed set of practices and the three dimensions of sustainability organizations (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002). Moreover, focusing on
in order to discover which practices have an effect on which cultural and behavioral issues, Gunasekaran (1999) identified
dimension. communication, team work cross-functional activities, empower-
A deductive research approach was used to develop the con- ment, training, and education as important enablers of TQM
ceptual model from the literature review. implementation. Correspondingly, environmental education and
training for employees solidifies their perception of organizational
3.1. Impacts of lean practices on supply chain sustainability commitment with respect to sustainability. Being so, there exists a
relationship between the implementation of TQM practice and
There are evidences in literature about the influence of lean social sustainability. So, the following propositions are derived:
philosophy on economic and social sustainability of SCs. According
to Fliedner and Majeske (2010) sustainability is the next evolu- P3: The lean practice “Total Quality Management” impacts eco-
tionary stage of lean as it goes beyond the internal waste elimi- nomic sustainability.
nation of Ohno's seven lean principles encouraging external waste P4: The lean practice “Total Quality Management” impacts social
reduction across the SC and leading to improved social conditions sustainability.
globally. One of the contemporary issues is that the lean principles
which facilitate waste reduction lead to enhance environmental In literature, there are also evidences about the influence of the
performance. Non value-added activities consume resources and lean practice “Just-in-time” (JIT) on environmental and economic
therefore are not economically sustainable over a long time. Lean sustainability. Beamon (2003) considers that JIT principles
and sustainability promote the ability to reduce resource or ca- requiring small transportation batch sizes appears to be at odds
pacity requirements through conservation and reclamation activ- with environmental management, in general, and with
ities. They also promote the ability to capture resources for a cost environmentally-conscious distribution in particular. JIT distribu-
that is less than the value recovered. There is no doubt that cost tion requires that items are delivered on an as-needed basis, in very
reduction has enhanced companies' bottom-line performance small batches. This practice leads to reduced storage costs and
through lean and sustainability initiatives (Fliedner and Majeske, increased available capital. However, small volume shipments yield
2010). From this perspective, the following propositions are more frequent deliveries, which lead to increased traffic congestion
derived: and environmental degradation (Porter and Linde, 1995). JIT prac-
tice seems to also have some impact on economic sustainability.
P1: The lean practice “waste elimination” impacts economic Msimangira (2003) argues that the use of JIT can improve a com-
sustainability pany's manufacturing performance. Ansari and Modarress (1986)
P2: The lean practice “waste elimination” impacts social defend its positive impact on the inventory levels, Beamon (2003)
sustainability on increased productivity and efficiency, improved quality,
reduced lead times, and improved customer service. Also, Klassen
Total Quality Management (TQM) is also considered a lean (2000) concluded in his work that the implementation of JIT
practice that influences the three dimensions of sustainability. Also, manufacturing is an important step towards more sustainable
due to increased competitive pressure, today's managers are look- manufacturing practices. According to literature, the next propo-
ing to TQM as a way to improve and sustain organizational per- sitions are suggested as follows:
formance (Abusa and Gibson, 2013). Salajeghen et al. (2013) argue
that the existence of qualitative concerns in companies is a must for P5: The lean practice “Just-in-time” impacts environmental
encouraging organizational resources in order to achieve higher sustainability.
productivity and efficiency. The implementation of TQM practices P6: The lean practice “Just-in-time” impacts economic
also involves training of employees in multiple skill sets and sustainability.
empowering them to make decisions relevant to their work in
3.2. Impact of resilient practices on supply chain sustainability The impact of “flexible sourcing” on social sustainability is
argued by Porter (1995). This author considers adopting a flexible
Researchers in resilience and ecological topics have focused on sourcing strategy less risky domestically than abroad. From his
the ecological properties that are correlated with system resilience. point of view, although the cost benefits of sourcing abroad
They argue that the following attributes of a system affect its cannot be ignored, the volatile nature of various cultural, eco-
resilience: i) its adaptive capacity, which is broadly equivalent to nomic and political environments in conjunction with logistics
the diversity amongst organizations and assets available in social issues that might occur could lead to failed sourcing strategies.
systems Folke et al., 2002); and ii) its robustness, which refers to He argues that implementing flexible domestic sourcing strate-
the properties of a system that allow it to accommodate pertur- gies can be a potential source of opportunity and innovation for
bations without additional adaptation (Webb and Levin, 2005). In achieving competitive advantage and social progress when a
economic terms, these bear on the ability of the system to with- company applies its considerable resources, expertise and in-
stand either market or environmental shocks without losing the sights to activities that benefit society. Christopher et al. (2011)
capacity to allocate resources efficiently or deliver essential ser- introduced the term sustainability risk to refer to increasing
vices (Perrings, 2006). In the literature, there are also evidences of vulnerability across the chain due to the negative impacts of
the influence of the resilient practice “SC risk management culture” global sourcing on economic, social and environmental sustain-
on economic sustainability. Beamon (1999) argues that total SC cost ability. They consider that ineffective reverse logistics practices,
and profit that account for both benefits and costs of risk man- under-utilized transportation, waste generation, and long dis-
agement strategies are important outcomes that need to be tances between suppliers and manufacturers are responsible for
measured to ascertain the effectiveness of a risk management increasing the negative impacts of sourcing activities on the
strategy. On the supply side, two outcomes of interest in global SCs environment, and can lead to pollution and emissions of green-
emphasized supply disruptions (Chopra and Sodhi, 2004), and total house gases, particularly CO2. Also, Gunasekaran and Tirtiroglu
inbound lead time (Fagan, 1991). On the demand side, the outcomes (2001) defend the impact of flexible sourcing on performance
most emphasized include stock-outs (Chopra and Sodhi, 2004), fill of organizations and SCs. Considering the literature, the
rates (Chang and Makatsoris, 2001), lead times, and delays to following propositions are suggested:
customers (Chopra and Sodhi, 2004). Operational outcomes of in-
terest in global SCs include average inventory (Min and Zhou, P10: The resilient practice “flexible sourcing” impacts social
2002). The proposition derived is: sustainability.
P11: The resilient practice “flexible sourcing” impacts economic
P7: The resilient practice “SC risk management” impacts economic sustainability.
sustainability.
Another resilient practice found in literature about SC sustain- 3.3. Impact of green practices on supply chain sustainability
ability is “flexible transportation.” To support SC contingency plans
in case of a disruption, many companies are working in a flexible Industry plays an important role in sustainability. This role is
base of transportation modes. Most of them, however, are motor- related to the changes in production processes, products and ser-
based which have the most unfavorable environmental impact vices aimed at reducing the environment impact according to the
per ton-mile (Golicic et al., 2010). life cycle perspective. This results in the improvement of environ-
Transportation represents a key component of the SC and re- mental, economic and social performance of companies (Honkasalo
searchers increasingly recognize its impact upon the overall supply et al., 2005). Besides the green practices considered within the
chain (Sanchez-Rodrigues et al., 2010). According to EPA reports, environmental dimension of the sustainability concept, it is inter-
transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas esting to analyze which of them are recognized as the most
emissions and also the largest end-use source of CO2 (Ilyas et al., important to SC sustainability. Considering the green practice
2010). According to Crilly and Zhelev (2010), an important means “cleaner production,” this concept was founded by UNEP in 1989,
for reducing the pollution caused by transportation is improving along with other terms similar in meaning such as eco-efficiency,
the quality of transporting networks. Also, Golicic et al. (2010) green productivity, pollution prevention, etc. (UNEP, 2002). For
consider that the use of flexible transportation modes contributes Kjaerheim (2004), “cleaner production” means using energy and
to a lead time reduction and consequently to less holding in- resources efficiently to eliminate toxic raw materials, and to reduce
ventories, thereby influencing the economic sustainability of SCs. both the amount and toxicity of all emissions and wastes before
That leads to the following propositions: they leave the production process. There are many benefits that a
company can avail in using cleaner production methods. When
P8: The resilient practice “flexible transportation” impacts envi- applying cleaner production, the following economic, environ-
ronmental sustainability. mental and social improvements can be achieved (Halme et al.,
P9: The resilient practice “flexible transportation” impacts eco- 2002): improved efficiency; lower costs; conservation of raw ma-
nomic sustainability. terials and energy; improved compliance to market requirements;
improved environment; better compliance with environmental
As regards the resilient practice “flexible sourcing,” it seems to regulations; more cohesive working environment for laborers and;
impact both the social and economic sustainability. Sourcing ac- better public image of the company. Attending to that, the
tivities include analyzing expenses, identifying potential suppliers, following propositions are derived:
requesting quotations, negotiating contracts, monitoring and
improving suppliers (Kumar et al., 2003). Sourcing flexibility is the P12: The green practice “cleaner production” impacts economic
ready capability of the company's SC architecture to cope with sustainability
change; to realign the chain in response to market uncertainty and P13: The green practice “cleaner production” impacts social
change; to rapidly send and receive products cost effectively; and to sustainability
configure information systems with existing SC entities to meet P14: The green practice “cleaner production” impacts environ-
changing information needs (Stevenson and Spring, 2007). mental sustainability
As regards the green practice “ISO 14001 certification” from the literature, evidence exists of its impact on environmental and
point of view of Schaltegger and Burritt (2000), the impact of this economic sustainability. The impact of “reverse logistics” on envi-
practice on environmental and economic sustainability occurs as ronmental sustainability could be found in Beullens (2004) who
company' prepare for certification since their facilities may realize a states that this green practice prevents waste by diverting materials
variety of technological and managerial opportunities to cut ma- from landfills and conserving natural resources such as energy and
terial and energy waste in their production processes. Sambasivan materials. The influence of reverse logistics on economic sustain-
and Fei (2008) have identified some perceived benefits of imple- ability can be found in Tonanont (2008) who argues that a well
menting ISO 14001 such as: improved company reputation and organized reverse logistics not only reduces costs but also increases
image, increased staff morale and motivation, profit, performance customer satisfaction and gains competitive advantages. Based on
and opportunity, customer loyalty and trust. Beyond these benefits, the anecdotal evidences from literature, the following propositions
Tan (2005) also identified better business control, transparency/ are derived:
openness, marketing advantages, cost reduction, less injuries/
environmental accidents, more research and development, P17: The green practice “reverse logistics” impacts economic
improvement in operations efficiency, improved company image sustainability.
and improved work culture. Moreover, internal analysis of waste P18: The green practice “reverse logistics” impacts environmental
streams and decision processes, driven initially by voluntary cer- sustainability.
tification program requirements, may result in process and product
innovations that create new products that appeal to environmen- Based on the eighteen propositions derived from the literature,
tally aware consumers (Wagner et al., 2001), which contribute to the following conceptual model is suggested to translate the re-
increased expectations of direct economic advantages. Being so, the lationships between lean, resilient and green SCM practices and
following two propositions are suggested: sustainability (Fig. 1).
As can be seen in Fig. 1, economic sustainability is the dimension
P15: The green practice “ISO 14001 certification” impacts economic with more arrows towards it. This means that in literature there are
sustainability. more evidences on the impact of lean, resilient and green SCM
P16: The green practice “ISO 14001 certification” impacts envi- practices on the economic dimension of sustainability. Social sus-
ronmental sustainability. tainability is impacted only by a few lean, resilient and green SCM
practices.
The green practice “reverse logistics” is defined by “the process
of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost 4. Methodology
effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished
goods, and related information from the point of consumption to The main objective of this research is to explore and understand
the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper the impact of lean, resilient and green SCM practices on SC sus-
disposal” (Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1999). Product recovery and tainability. Unfortunately, as noted by Markides (2007) and Shapiro
reuse contribute to reduce the negative effects on environment, et al. (2007) there is sometimes a gap between management
mainly reducing waste disposal, extraction of raw materials, and research and practice. To fill this gap, a descriptive case study
transport and distribution emissions (Turrisi et al., 2013). In the approach (Yin, 2002) is performed in this study. The importance of
Fig. 1. Conceptual model proposed.

case studies as research methodology has been highlighted by that the companies are located in Portugal, all of them belong to
many authors in operations (Voss et al., 2002); logistics manage- multinational groups and follow their corporations' directives
ment (Ellram, 1996); and supply chain management (Seuring, concerning the development of sustainability in business opera-
2008). Therefore, the conceptual model that was developed using tions. However, as stressed by Moon (2007), corporate social re-
evidences from literature will be verified using data from a real- sponsibility agendas may differ from country to country and among
world context. According to Ellram (1996), case studies are the companies. Moreover, Rosenzweig and Singh (1991) refer that SC
best means to understand certain phenomenon since they provide environmental behaviour may also differ from country to country.
depth and richness allowing the researcher to really understand Therefore it is desirable to focus on one SC in one country before
the what, how and why questions pertaining to a given situation. moving on to cross-supply chains and cross-country studies. A
Also, a case study approach is adequate when a phenomenon is not single SC research design concerned with the Portuguese auto-
clear and there is also no control over behavioural events (Rowley, motive SC was chosen because of proximity convenience.
2002), as in this case. Studying the same problem with a multi- In the SC context, case studies should be performed at different
plicity of methods and from a variety of perspectives can be useful, stages and nodes of the same supply network in order to get a
not only for the study itself, but also for the validity of the analysis. proper network perspective, thus overcoming the limitations of
To this end a triangulation approach can be used (Singleton and traditional research (Seuring, 2008). Following this request, the
Straits, 1999) combining multiple data sources (data triangula- case study companies cover different SC echelons and include two
tion), using multiple research methods to analyze the same prob- focal companies (automakers), two first-tier suppliers, and one
lem (methodological triangulation), or using multiple investigators company that acts simultaneously as a first-tier supplier and
to work on the same task (investigator triangulation) (Oppermann, second-tier supplier. In case study research, there are no unique
2000). In this paper, investigator triangulation was used since the ideal number of cases (Voss et al., 2002): in traditional sampling
research team is composed by four researchers, two experts in in- methods, a random or stratified sample is used, however, in case
dustrial engineering, and two on business and logistics. study research a convenience sample is used. Multiple case studies
By using more than one case in a study it is possible to find often use replication logic, but can also be used to select typical
similarities and differences across the cases deploying various cases within a certain domain (Eisenhardt, 1991). In this case, the
cross-case analysis tools (Yin, 2002). This practice can help in i) replication logic justifies the use of five case studies. The selected
identifying critical predictor variables and causal interactions, and suppliers produce metallic components, electric cabling and
ii) validating or extending existing theoretical models. Thus, harness. The design and production of these components represent
pattern-matching is rightly characterized as a form of empirical a challenge for the sustainability of the automotive industry
validation for qualitative data (Johnston et al., 2001). (Alonso et al., 2007). Therefore, the selected sample is representa-
This research is based on the qualitative data-analysis method tive of automotive companies that intend to achieve sustainability
developed by Miles and Huberman (1994), which consists of in their operations.
anticipatory conceptual model development and simultaneous
data collection, reduction, display and conclusion testing. This same 4.2. Data collection
methodology can be found in Azevedo et al. (2011) to determine the
impact of green SCM practices on SC performance. The objective is For the collection of primary data and to limit expert bias, the
not to offer further insight into the single cases, but to bring them data concerning the personal judgment of the participants were
together to get a wider picture and learn from the cross-case obtained through semi-structured interviews according to the
analysis. The case studies were analyzed as a means to identify interview protocol in Appendix A. Based on the literature review
the lean, resilient and green practices with significant impact on regarding lean, resilient and green SCM practices and SC sustain-
each dimension of the SC sustainability. ability, as well as on the conceptual model developed (Fig. 1), a set
of semi-structured interview questions was devised. The protocol
4.1. Sample selection was pre-tested by a professional from automotive companies and
also three academics. The pre-test consisted of first mailing the
The study focuses on the automotive industry because this in- protocol and then interviewing these individuals by phone and in
dustry seems to be the most developed in terms of environmental person regarding the appropriateness and clarity of the questions.
issues and sustainability and is also vulnerable to SC disruptions. The individual provided written and verbal comments which hel-
The automotive sector experiences great expectations from cus- ped to validate the appropriateness of the protocol and to improve
tomers and society concerning environmental performance, as its it.
products are by nature resource-burning products (Thun and Multiple interviews were used to provide a broader view
Müller, 2010). The automotive SC is also under pressure to regarding the perception of professionals from automotive com-
become more sustainable and, therefore, more environmentally panies about the impact of lean, resilient and green practices on SC
friendly while achieving the expected economic benefits from a sustainability. The same structured interview protocol was used at
more greening behavior (Koplin et al., 2007). Also, there is evidence each session to avoid bias by the interviewer. Follow-up questions
that the tendency of many automotive companies to seek out low- devised to clarify and elaborate on the responses were added when
cost solutions may have led to leaner but also more vulnerable SCs necessary. After the interviews, additional follow-up questions
(Svensson, 2000; Azevedo et al., 2008). The automotive SC is a were conducted by e-mail. In all cases, the company names were
typical example of high vulnerability levels to disturbances withheld in accordance with the general request for confidentiality.
(Svensson, 2000). According to Thun and Hoenig (2011), the trends In the research design, five case studies (j ¼ 1, 2, … 5) were used
in globalization and the necessity to offer many product variants to collect data concerning three lean practices (k ¼ 1, 2, 3), three
are the key drivers for increasing the vulnerability of this industry. resilient practices (b ¼ 1, 2, 3), three green practices (a ¼ 1, 2, 3) and
According to this, and to attain the paper’ objective, a purposive three dimensions of SC sustainability (w ¼ 1, 2, 3; being 1 ¼ social,
sample (Patton, 1990) constituted by five typical case studies was 2 ¼ economic and 3 ¼ environmental) according to the proposed
used, based on a semi-structured interview to obtain the percep- conceptual model. Using a methodology similar to that of Azevedo
tion of the automotive company professional regarding the impact et al. (2011), a pure data interview was used to attribute values to
of the focused SCM practices on SC sustainability. Despite the fact the research variables according to the following notation:
i. (lkw)j is the impact level of lean practice k on sustainable SC The impact of each set of lean, resilient and green practices on
dimension w in the case study j; each dimension w of SC sustainability is then aggregated into three
ii. (rbw)j is the impact level of resilient practice b on sustainable scores, namely, Lean_SSCw, Resil_SSCw and Green_SSCw, as shown in
SC dimension w in the case study j; Equations (7)e(9):
iii. (gaw)j is the impact level of green practice a on sustainable SC
dimension w in the case study j; X
3
Lean SSCw ¼ lkw (7)
k¼1
The variables are measured on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1
meaning that the variable does not impact the sustainability
dimension, and 5 meaning that the variable has an extremely high X
3
Resil SSCw ¼ rbw (8)
impact on the sustainability dimension.
k¼1
4.3. Data analysis

X
3
Green SSCw ¼ gaw (9)
The collected data in the five case studies was explored in a k¼1
cross-case analysis to identify the lean, resilient and green SCM
practices among all case studies with more impact on social, eco- Finally, the impact of lean, resilient and green practices on SC
nomic and environmental sustainability and which dimension of SC sustainability can be computed by three scores named Lean_SSC,
sustainability is more impacted by SCM practices. Each variable is Resil_SSC Green_SSC. To this end, the impact of practices on SC
examined in turn, and a score is calculated. The scores are taken sustainability Lk_SSC, Rb_SSC and Ga_SSC are aggregated according
forward in the cross-case analysis to indicate the impact of SCM to Equations (10), (11) and (12), as follows:
practices on SC sustainability for the five companies in the case
Lean SSC ¼ L1 SSC þ L2 SSC þ L3 SSC (10)
study.
Equation (1) contains a cross-case score to assess the impact
level (Lkw) of each lean practice lk on each dimension w of SC Resil SSC ¼ R1 SSC þ R2 SSC þ R3 SSC (11)
sustainability:
Green SSC ¼ G1 SSC þ G2 SSC þ G3 SSC (12)
X
5
Lkw ¼ ðlkw Þj (1)
j¼1
The proposed score in Equation (1) can be replicated according 5. Case study
to Equations (2) and (3) for deriving the cross-case impact level of
resilient (rb) and green practices (ga) respectively on each dimen- To answer the three research questions presented in the intro-
sion w of SC sustainability: duction, this section purposes to identify the main impacts of lean,
resilient and green SCM practices on social, economic and envi-
X
5 ronmental sustainability of automotive SCs. More specifically, the
Rbw ¼ rbw j
(2) study intends to validate the proposed conceptual model and the
j¼1 eighteen propositions associated with it through a pattern-
matching (Johnston et al., 2001).
X
5 This section is organised as follows: first, the case studies' profile
Gaw ¼ ðgaw Þj (3) is presented; second, cross-case analyses are performed to provide
j¼1 a better understanding about the impact of lean, resilient and green
To assess the overall effect of each lean, resilient and green SCM practices on SC sustainability. In the end, a final model is
practices on the SC sustainability, three scores denoted by Lk_SSC, proposed based on the case study to illustrate which lean, resilient
Rb_SSC, Ga_SSC are proposed which aggregate the impact of each and green practices impact each dimension of SC sustainability.
practice (lk, rb and ga respectively) on the three dimensions w of
sustainability. These scores are translated by Equations (4)e(6): 5.1. Case study profile
Lk SSC ¼ lk1 þ lk2 þ lk3 (4) The Portuguese auto component sector employs more than
42.000 workers in about 177 companies (AFIA, 2012). With 80.5% of
Rb SSC ¼ rb1 þ rb2 þ rb3 (5) component production sold to other countries, the auto component
industry is one of Portugal's biggest export sectors, playing a stra-
Gb SSC ¼ gb1 þ gb2 þ gb3 (6) tegic role in the economy and representing 8.9% of the country's
exports (AFIA, 2012). All the case study companies belong to the
Table 2
Profile of companies.
Product lines Position in the supply chain Company size (employees) Interviewed
Company 1 Light duty trucks Focal company 350 Assistant Manager -Quality Assurance
Company 2 Components metallic to automotive industry Second-tier supplier 200 Quality Engineer
First-tier supplier
Company 3 Cars Focal company 1300 Process Engineer
Company 4 Electric cabling First-tier supplier 900 Lean manager
Company 5 Harness First-tier supplier 650 Supplier Management
automotive industry and are sited in Portugal. They represent sustainability. Now, considering environmental sustainability,
typical cases allowing to study the impact of lean, resilient and “waste elimination” and “Total Quality Management” are the two
green SCM practices on the sustainability of SCs. Table 2 summa- lean practices with more impact than the “just-in-time” practice,
rises the five caseestudies profile. which presents only a weak impact; it has a score of eighteen
The selected companies have some common characteristics. The reflecting the low impact scores that professionals had attributed to
suppliers studied use a just-in-sequence production philosophy, it. Considering the three dimensions of SC sustainability jointly, it is
producing components according to the daily requirements of the possible to observe that “waste elimination” is the lean practice
automakers, although some sub-assemblies are produced in with high impact on overall SC sustainability. It presents an
batches according to a make-to-order policy. The transport of final aggregated score of sixty eight.
products to the automaker is performed using specific reusable To decide on which impacts are considered significant between
containers or racks adapted to each product type. These reusable the lean practices and the three dimensions of SC, a reference value
containers or racks will directly supply the assembly line and act as equal to or higher than twenty was considered. This baseline of
a kanban, that is, their return to the suppliers will act as a signal twenty points reflects impact levels equal to or higher than four on
that more components are needed. a 5-point Likert scale signed by each professional of the five
In the automotive industry, the automaker corporations are an research companies. Bearing in mind this criteria, and according to
important driver for SC sustainability since they are responsible for the Table 3, only the “Just-in-time” practice seems to not have a
the environmental and social externalities caused by their suppliers significant impact on environmental sustainability. The evidences
(Koplin et al., 2007). Therefore, the sustainability concerns of the from Table 3 indicate that the propositions P1, P2, P3, P4 and P6 are
automakers are extended to their suppliers, stimulating the adop- supported.
tion of management systems to improve their economic, social and
environmental performance. The companies under study belong to
international corporations which already have strong corporate 5.3. Impact of resilient practices on supply chain sustainability
sustainability policies, with global milestones, self-auditing and
improvement programmes. The main objective here is to analyse the relationships be-
tween resilient practices and social, economic and environmental
sustainability of SCs. In Table 4, a score for each relationship was
5.2. Impact of lean practices on supply chain sustainability computed according to the professionals' perception about the
impact of each resilient practice on the different dimensions of
Table 3 shows the perception of the professionals regarding the SC sustainability. To this end, a 5-point Likert scale was used,
impact of lean practices on social, economic and environmental where 1 means “without impact” and 5 means “extremely high
sustainability of SC using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 means impact.”
“without impact” and 5 means “extremely high impact.” According to Table 4, the “SC risk management” is the only
According to Table 3, professionals from automotive SC com- resilient practice with a significant impact on social sustainability.
panies consider that the lean practices with more impact on social This practice presents a score of twenty three which is above the
sustainability are “waste elimination” and “Total Quality Manage- baseline of twenty. Now, analysing the impact of resilient practices
ment.” They both reflect a score of twenty two, which means that on economic sustainability of SC, “flexible sourcing” is the one
all the professionals consider the impact of these two practices on presenting a higher impact with a score of twenty two. Also, all the
social sustainability as high or extremely high (score above 4 on a 5- focused resilient practices have a considerable impact on this
point Likert scale). dimension, since all of them present a score value equal or above
As regards the impact of lean practices on economic sustain- twenty. As regards the impact of resilient SCM practices on envi-
ability of the SC, according to the values presented in Table 3, ronmental sustainability, it can be stated that “flexible sourcing” is
“waste elimination” has a higher impact on this dimension of SC the one with a score below twenty. This reflects the professionals'
Table 3
Impact of lean SCM practices on SC sustainability.
Companies (j) Lean SCM practices (lk) Social sustainability Economic Environmental
(w ¼ 1) sustainability (w ¼ 2) sustainability (w ¼ 3)
Company 1 Waste elimination 4 5 4 68 L1_SSC ¼ l11 þ l12 þ l13

Company 2 (WE ¼ l1) 5 5 5
Company 3 5 5 3
Company 4 4 5 5
Company 5 4 5 4
P
L1w ¼ 5j¼1 ðl1w Þj 22 25 21
Company 1 Total Quality Management 4 5 4 66 L2_SSC ¼ l21 þ l22 þ l23
Company 2 (TQM ¼ l2) 5 5 5
Company 3 5 5 2
Company 4 4 5 5
Company 5 4 4 4
P
L2w ¼ 5j¼1 ðl2w Þj 22 24 20
Company 1 Just-in-time (JIT ¼ l3) 4 5 4 62 L3_SSC ¼ l31 þ l32 þ l33
Company 2 5 5 5
Company 3 4 4 2
Company 4 4 5 4
Company 5 3 3 3
P
L3w ¼ 5j¼1 ðl3w Þj 20 22 18
P P3 P3 P3
Lean SSCw ¼ 3k¼1 lkw 64 71 59 194 Lean SSC ¼ k¼1 lk1 þ k¼1 lk2 þ k¼1 lk3
Table 4
Impact of resilient SCM practices on SC sustainability.
Companies (j) Resilient SCM practices (b) Social sustainability Economic Environmental
Company 1 SC risk management 5 3 4 64 R1_SSC ¼ r11 þ r12 þ r13

Company 2 (SCRM ¼ r1) 5 5 5
Company 3 5 5 3
Company 4 3 5 5
Company 5 5 3 3
P
R1w ¼ 5j¼1 ðr1w Þj 23 21 20
Company 1 Flexible transportation 4 3 4 59 R2_SSC ¼ r21 þ r22 þ r23
Company 2 (FT ¼ r2) 5 5 5
Company 3 3 4 3
Company 4 3 4 5
Company 5 4 4 3
P
R2w ¼ 5j¼1 ðr2w Þj 19 20 20
Company 1 Flexible Sourcing (FS ¼ r3) 4 3 4 59 R3_SSC ¼ r31þr32þr33
Company 2 5 5 5
Company 3 3 5 2
Company 4 3 5 4
Company 5 4 4 3
P
R3w ¼ 5j¼1 ðr3w Þj 19 22 18
P P3 P3 P3
Resil_SSCw ¼ 3b¼1 rbw 61 63 58 182 Resil SSC ¼ b¼1 rb1 þ b¼1 rb2 þ b¼1 rb3
perception of the weak influence of this practice on this particular In a cross-case analysis, it is possible to infer that the green
dimension of sustainability. Both “SC risk management” and also practice with higher impact on social sustainability is “cleaner
“flexible transportation” are considered as having a significant production” with a score of twenty (Table 5). Both “ISO 14001
impact on the environmental sustainability of SCs. certification” and also “reverse logistics” present scores of eigh-
Table 4 also shows that, considering the aggregated sustain- teen which are below the baseline of twenty. This means that the
ability of SC (computed by the sum of the social, economic and impact of these two green practices on social sustainability is not
environmental sustainability), “SC risk management” is the resil- considered significant by the companies' professionals. The eco-
ient practice with higher value (sixty four from a maximum value of nomic sustainability is impacted by both “cleaner production”
seventy five). In conclusion, Table 4 gives evidence to support the and “reverse logistics.” The green practice “ISO 14001 certifica-
next propositions P7, P8, P9 and P11. tion” presents a score of twenty three, representing the green
practice with higher impact on the environmental sustainability
5.4. Impact of green practices on supply chain sustainability of SCs.
Among the green research SCM practices, “cleaner produc-
The professionals' perception about the impact of each green tion” with an aggregate score of sixty two, is considered by the
practice on the different dimensions of SC sustainability was researched companies as the one having significant impact on
collected using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 means “without overall SC sustainability, The analysis of data from Table 5 gives
impact” and 5 means “extremely high impact” as shown in evidence to support the propositions P12, P13, P14, P16, P17 and
Table 5. P18.
Table 5
Impact of green practices on SC sustainability.
Companies (j) Green SCM practices (a) Social sustainability Economic Environmental
Company 1 Cleaner Production 4 4 4 62 G1_SSC ¼ g11 þ g12 þ g13

Company 2 (CP ¼ g1) 5 5 5
Company 3 4 4 3
Company 4 4 5 5
Company 5 3 3 4
P
G1w ¼ 5j¼1 ðg1w Þj 20 21 21
Company 1 ISO 14001 certification 5 3 5 59 G2_SSC ¼ g21 þ g22 þ g23
Company 2 (ISO ¼ g2) 3 3 3
Company 3 3 3 5
Company 4 3 4 5
Company 5 4 5 5
P
G2w ¼ 5j¼1 ðg2w Þj 18 18 23
Company 1 Reverse Logistics 3 3 4 60 G3_SSC ¼ g31 þ g32 þ g33
Company 2 (RL ¼ g3) 5 5 5
Company 3 3 4 3
Company 4 3 5 4
Company 5 5 4 5
P
G3w ¼ 5j¼1 ðg3wÞj 18 21 21
P P3 P3 P3
Green SSCw ¼ 3a¼1 gaw 56 60 65 181 Green SSC ¼ a¼1 ga1 þ v¼1 ga2 þ a¼1 ga3
5.5. Impact of lean, resilient and green practices on supply chain sustainability; and the impact of “Just-in-time” on social sustain-
sustainability ability; and finally, the impact of “SC risk management” on social
sustainability and environmental sustainability.
The shaded cell in each of the Tables 3e5 provides evidence of
the overall impact level of the lean, resilient and green practices on 6. Conclusions
SC sustainability. According to these values, the total impact of lean
practices on SC sustainability is 194, impact of resilient practices on 6.1. Conclusions -remarks
SC sustainability is 182, and finally, the overall impact of the green
practices on the SC sustainability is 181. This paper investigates the impact of lean, resilient and green
The data analysis of the case study helps to assess the validity of practices on social, economic and environmental sustainability of
the proposed conceptual model. The qualitative approach adopted SCs. A comprehensive review of the literature to date was per-
in this research allows us to explore the automotive SC pro- formed to identify a set of practices associated with lean, resilient
fessionals' perceptions about the impact of lean, resilient and green and green SCM paradigms, and also the sustainability of SCs. A
practices on social, economic and environmental sustainability of deductive research approach was used to develop a conceptual
SCs. This research design made it possible to elaborate a model model from the literature review.
adjusted to the realities of business. Therefore, according to the Based on data obtained from five case studies of Portuguese
data collected from the five case studies and its analysis, the model companies belonging to the automotive SC, it was found that not all
in Fig. 2 is proposed to provide a global overview and under- the lean, resilient and green SCM practices have significant impact
standing about which lean, resilient and green SCM practices im- on the SCs sustainability. The resilient practices “flexible trans-
pacts SC sustainability. portation” and “flexible sourcing” do not have a significant impact
Based on the proposed model, a relationship occurs when in the on SC sustainability and also, the same happens with the green
case study the practice was identified as highly impacting a specific practices “ISO 14001 certification” and “reverse logistics.” As
dimension of sustainability. This model was derived from the regards “flexible transportation,” the researched companies
initial, conceptual model, but not all relationships are supported. consider that this practice does not have a significant impact on
Given the case-study data, it was not possible to establish a rela- social sustainability, but the economic and environmental sus-
tionship between the lean practice “Just-in-time” and environ- tainability of SCs are impacted by it. This same result could be found
mental sustainability; “ the resilient practice “flexible sourcing” in Golicic et al. (2010). With respect to “flexible sourcing,” only
and social sustainability; and the green practice “ISO 14001 certi- economic sustainability was identified as being impacted by this
fication” and economic sustainability. Beyond the proposed re- resilient practice, which is also in line with Beamon (1999) and
lationships, other relationships that were not previously identified Gunasekaran and Tirtiroglu (2001).
in the conceptual model were pointed out by the case study data, Considering the green practice “ISO 14001 certification,” the
such as: the impact of “waste elimination” on environmental sus- case study companies believe that it has a significant impact only
tainability; “Total Quality Management” on environmental on the environmental sustainability which allows us to conclude
Fig. 2. Model for the impact of lean, resilient and green SCM practices on SC sustainability.
that this practice does not have an impact on the aggregated sus- Future research requires testing the propositions derived
tainability of SCs. This result is supported by Schaltegger and Burritt from the model, being necessary to develop scales for both the
(2000) considering its impact on environmental sustainability, but SCM practices and sustainability indicators, and to perform the
is contrary to the conclusions drawn by Wagner et al. (2001). Ac- Structural Equation Modeling to empirically test the proposed
cording to Wagner et al. (2001), the “ISO 14001 certification” has an model.
impact (negative) on the economic dimension of sustainability. It will also be interesting to perform the same study in the
However, the authors justify this conclusion arguing that this automotive supply chain sited in developing countries (ex. Brazil,
relation may be very specific to the paper industry. So, it must be China, India) and compare both results. The automotive industry in
noted in regard to the conclusions, that these relationships are developing countries presents different characteristics, such as:
influenced by the type of industry studied. Moreover, the research capital-intensive, lack manufacturing and design technology,
companies also consider that the green practice “reverse logistics” related industries are weak, and capital investment in production,
has only a significant impact on economic and environmental marketing, and R&D activities is limited (Jan and Hsiao, 2004).
sustainability. This same conclusion can be found in Beullens Considering these differences, it will be interesting to study, on one
(2004) and Tonanont (2008). side the level of implementation of lean, resilient and green prac-
Summing up, according to the literature review and also the tices across the automotive industry in these developing countries,
case study approach, the lean, resilient and green SCM practices and on the other side, their impact on the sustainability of SCs.
with significant impact on SC sustainability are: “waste elimina-
tion,” “supply chain risk management” and “cleaner production.” 6.3. Managerial implications
This is because these are the only three SCM practices with sig-
nificant impact on both social, economic and environmental sus- This study represents an important contribution for managers. It
tainability of SCs. gives insights on the kind of lean, resilient and green practices with
The above results support fifteen propositions from the eighteen significant impact on SC sustainability. In the presence of this in-
of this research. According to these results, the only propositions formation, it is easier for companies to choose the set of practices
that were not supported by this study are P5, P10 and P15. The that should be employed to improve social, economic and envi-
identification of the conceptual relationships between SCM prac- ronmental sustainability.
tices and SC sustainability is a contribution that the authors hope Moreover, the proposed model represents an important
will become a forward step in the development of new theoretical framework making it easier to assess the impact of each SCM
approaches and empirical research in the field of supply chain practice on SC sustainability.
management and sustainability.
This paper makes several contributions. First, this conceptual Acknowledgment
model for the impact of lean, resilient and green practices on supply
chain sustainability is theory-driven and can be applied to any SC This research was supported by a Grant from Forsknings-og
setting. Second, Table 1 provides a taxonomy for lean, resilient and Innovationsstyrelsen for project 12-132697 and the Major Program
green SC practices at three levels: upstream, organization level, and of the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 13&ZD147).
downstream. Practitioners can use this taxonomy as a checklist to
identify possible practices to achieve their sustainability goals. Appendix A
Third, by utilising the proposed model here, researchers can
develop empirical research studies that can better explore the Dear expert/professional,
suggested relationships. Kindly provide us your perception about the impact level of a set
of supply chain management practices on supply chain sustain-
6.2. Limitations and scope of research ability. This makes part of a research about the supply chain sus-
tainability. Data will be used only academically.
Although the objective of the study was successfully accom-
plished, some limitations should be noted. The social dimension of Personal data
sustainability is underexplored since there is a lack of literature Experts/Professionals identification
about it. The conceptual model was developed using anecdotal and Country:
empirical evidences present in the literature and no validation was _________________________________________________________
performed. Although the above findings are generalizable, some Affiliation:
attention must be given to the fact that only five companies were ________________________________________________________
studied. According to Yin (2002) the qualitative research is gener- Main activity of the company: ____________________________
alizable by a quite different logic from that of a sample survey. Number of employees: ____________________________
Many qualitative studies involve making one of two types of gen- Job title/areas of expertise: _________________________________
eralizations: case-to-case transfer or analytic generalizations (Miles Experience (years): ______________________________
and Huberman, 1994). Case-to-case transfer involves making gen- Primary product(s) (if applicable): _________________________
eralizations from one case to another case. Analytic generalization How do you define your position in your supply chain (if
is not generalization to some defined population that has been applicable)?
4th tier supplier 3rd tier supplier 2nd tier supplier 1st tier Supplier Focal firm 1st tier customer 2nd tier customer Retailer End-customer
sampled, but to a theory of the phenomenon being studied, a 1 For the following supply chain management practices, please
theory that may have much wider applicability than the particular indicate your perception about their level of impact on the social
case studies (Yin, 2002), as it is in this case. sustainability of supply chains.
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Journal of Cleaner Production 85 (2014) 212e225

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

Impact of supply chain management practices on sustainability

1. Introduction However, there are no researches exploring simultaneously the

SCM Upstream Focal company Downstream

Fig. 1. Conceptual model proposed.

4.3. Data analysis

Company 1 Waste elimination 4 5 4 68 L1_SSC ¼ l11 þ l12 þ l13

Company 1 SC risk management 5 3 4 64 R1_SSC ¼ r11 þ r12 þ r13

Company 1 Cleaner Production 4 4 4 62 G1_SSC ¼ g11 þ g12 þ g13

The social sustainability refers to the human capital of the References

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