The impact of environmental and social sustainability practices on sourcing behavior

Sustainable service supply chain management: from a systematic literature review to a conceptual framework for performance evaluation of service only supply chain

Purpose

Despite increasing attentions to sustainable service supply chain management (SSSCM), a framework for performance evaluation of sustainable service only supply chain management (SSOSCM) is still missing. This paper tries to fill this gap and provides a novel conceptual framework.

Design/methodology/approach

The articles related to SSSCM are fetched from the databases of SCOPUS and Web of Science. Analysis of 174 articles identified by the systematic literature review is further carried out.

Findings

This research identifies the sustainable practices for service only supply chain (SOSC) as environmental management, social management, economic management, customer management, health, safety and risk management, technical sustainability, institutional sustainability, information and technology management as well as two performance measurement criteria as operational performance and organizational performance. This paper provides a novel conceptual framework for the performance evaluation of SSOSCM. The results call for future exploration in the following three broad directions-(1) customer's perception, involvement and their behaviour towards sustainability in SOSC context; (2) trade-off, incentive mechanism and multilevel evaluation for achieving sustainability in SOSC and (3) sustainability in SOSC from various point of views.

Practical implications

The managers can use the framework to assess the performance of the organization while researchers can explore the discussed research gaps.

Originality/value

This is the first paper that provides a novel conceptual framework for the performance evaluation of SSOSCM as well as potential future research directions.

Shipping surcharges and LSQ: pricing the last mile

Purpose

Pricing the shipping surcharge is a major strategic decision for online retailers, and free shipping promotions are becoming more common among online retailers. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of last mile pricing strategies on customer attraction and retention in the hypercompetitive online retailing industry. Specifically, this paper investigates the effect of partitioning the shipping surcharge on consumer logistics service quality (LSQ) perceptions and, in turn, purchase behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing signaling theory and expectation–disconfirmation theory, hypotheses are derived for two specific points in an online purchase scenario: prepurchase and following a logistics disruption. The hypotheses are tested using a scenario-based experiment with manipulations for the level of shipping surcharge partitioning and the presence of a logistics disruption.

Findings

The results suggest that partitioned shipping surcharges influence prepurchase expectations of LSQ satisfaction and amplify the negative effects of logistics disruptions. This, in turn, drives the purchase and repurchase intentions.

Practical implications

The findings inform online retailers of the perceptual and behavioral effects of last mile pricing strategies. Specifically, this research demonstrates how and under what conditioning partitioning the shipping surcharge can influence the attraction and retention of online customers.

Originality/value

This study integrates pricing and LSQ research to assess the black box of consumer purchase behavior. This is one of the first studies to empirically contrast the effects of last mile pricing strategies on consumer expectations and perceptions of LSQ.

The impact of multinational corporations’ socially responsible supplier development practices on their corporate reputation and financial performance

Purpose

In the literature on sustainable supply chain management, the social pillar of sustainability has received relatively little attention, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the impacts of supplier development practices on suppliers’ social performance. Furthermore, the impact of suppliers’ social performance on MNCs’ social performance was investigated and corporate reputation was proposed as a potential explanation for the relationship between MNCs’ social and financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were obtained from a survey of 141 multinational companies (MNCs) in Malaysia which were listed in the Federation of Malaysia Manufacturers’ directory 2017. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that among the four proposed practices, supplier development and supplier collaboration have significant effects on suppliers’ social performance and consequently on the multi-national companies’ social performance. According to these results, multi-national companies’ corporate reputation mediates the relationship between their social and financial performance.

Practical implications

These results will be useful in helping managers of MNCs to realize that simply monitoring suppliers and giving them incentives are not effective ways of enhancing social responsibility among suppliers; instead, supplier development and collaboration such as technical support and training are needed.

Originality/value

The results extend the literature on socially responsible supplier development practices by testing empirically the impacts of four popular practices in the literature and showing that supplier monitoring and incentives have no effect.

Motives, processes and practices of sustainable sourcing: a literature review

Purpose

This paper aims to attempt to examine pressures, incentives, processes and practices used for sustainable sourcing. Further, it also proposes a framework to provide a composite method for monitoring and controlling the sustainability aspects of supply management. This would enable suppliers to consider buyers’ requirements, translate these into suitable strategies, assess suppliers’ capabilities and also judge the impact of these strategies on suppliers.

Design/methodology/approach

This study opts for literature review as a method. In total, 150 research papers in peer-reviewed English language journals were reviewed to examine the pressures, incentives, processes and practices used for sustainable sourcing.

Findings

This study attempts to answer the “why”-, “what”- and “how”-related questions about sustainable sourcing. It is observed that research in sustainable sourcing is multileveled and involves various functional departments in a firm. It is diverse and fragmented and is more concentrated on certain geographic areas, industries and methodologies.

Practical implications

This study can be helpful to both researchers and practicing managers. It provides a snapshot of the work done on sustainable sourcing, which can be used as a base for research addressing specific aspects of sustainable sourcing or for building strategies related to sustainable sourcing.

Originality/value

This study takes the present reviews available in the literature forward and provides a generic view of sustainable sourcing and proposes a composite method for monitoring and controlling the sustainability aspects of supply management. It attempts to consolidate the diverse literature presently available on sustainable sourcing.

Conflict minerals traceability – a fuzzy set analysis

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate legal effects on social sustainability practices at buying firms. The US Dodd-Frank Act has forced listed companies to determine the degree to which their products contain conflict minerals (CM). The research question this study seeks to answer is the following: which factors influence a company’s ability to determine the provenance of its inputs?

Design/methodology/approach

The study examines secondary data in the form of CM reports of 50 US listed firms for two consecutive years using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach.

Findings

This study identifies different configurations of stakeholder salience and firm resources that lead individual companies to achieve high levels of traceability. Findings show that firms’ CM governance mechanisms are a key determinant in the firms’ capacity to meet regulatory traceability requirements. Further, the authors find that both the presence and absence of specific stakeholder pressures and firm resources can lead to traceability. Findings also suggest that firms can achieve traceability without any pressure from stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications

The study investigates the practices of individual firms that are subject to the Dodd-Frank Act, rather than adopting a supply chain-wide perspective. Further, proxies had to be used to measure several constructs because of reliance on firms’ reporting, which implies that the study did not account for certain behavioral factors that influence traceability.

Practical implications

This study provides managers of both resource-rich and less resource-rich firms with possible pathways for achieving CM traceability.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the field of sustainability by providing exploratory insights into the antecedents of traceability and deriving theoretical propositions to guide further research. The authors apply fsQCA to investigate secondary data over multiple years, thus using a novel configurational methodology.