Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Review and Research Opportunities
Vol 23, No 4; Article by Sudheer Gupta and Omkar D Palsule-Desai; December 2011
Anthropogenic emissions are likely to pose serious threat to the stability of our environment; immediate action is required to change the way the earth's resources are being consumed. Among the many approaches to mitigation of environmental deterioration being considered, the processes for designing, sourcing, producing and distributing products in global markets play a central role. Considerable research effort is being devoted to understanding how organisational initiatives and government policies can be structured to facilitate incorporation of sustainability into the design and management of supply chains. In this paper, we review the current state of academic research in sustainable supply chain management, and discuss the future direction and research opportunities in this field. We develop an integrative framework summarising the existing literature under four broad categories: (i) strategic considerations; (ii) decisions at functional interfaces; (iii) regulation and government policies; and (iv) integrative models and decisions support tools. We aim to provide managers and industry practitioners with a nuanced understanding of the issues and trade-offs involved in making decisions related to sustainable supply chain management. We conclude the paper by discussing environmental initiatives in India and the relevance of sustainability discussions in the context of the Indian economy.