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Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 January 2023) | Viewed by 14079

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ray Qing Cao

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Guest Editor

General Business, Marketing, and Supply Chain Department, Marilyn Davies College of Business, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, Texas 77002, USA
Interests: supply chain management; social media research; business intelligence; strategic alignment; sustainability

Dr. Vicky (Ching) Gu

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Guest Editor

College of Business; University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, TX 77058, USA
Interests: project management; supply chain management; technology adoption; sustainability

Dr. Dara G. Schniederjans

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Guest Editor

College of Business, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA
Interests: supplier relationship management; green supply chain management; information systems; business ethics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, sustainability has emerged as an important business strategic outlook, expanding beyond organizational boundaries to include the supply chain (Silva et al., 2022). To become high performers in the new landscape, companies are driven to create new ways to demonstrate environmental and social responsibility, introducing innovation to business processes, management practices, products, and services (Array, 2021); hence, it has drawn much attention in today’s supply chain management research. Indeed, scholars have noted that sustainability performance is predicated concerning the development of increasingly efficient operations through optimizing resource usage and reducing waste, as well as developing new innovative capabilities and eco-friendly products (Wijethilake, 2017; Kusi-Sarpong et al., 2019; Tuni et al., 2020; Silvestre et al., 2021; Hasitha and Wijethilake, 2021). As such, there is a need for scholars and practitioners to understand how a myriad of supply chain operations affects a firm’s sustainability performance through promoting both efficiency and innovation; examples include network structure (Alinaghian et al., 2021), sustainability initiatives (Aray et al., 2021), sustainability control systems (Hasitha and Wijethilake, 2021), sustainable procurement and logistics (Kusi-Sarpong et al., 2019), sustainable planning strategies (Yi-Ning et al., 2020), sustainable supply chain strategies (Hong et al., 2009), and big data analytics (Schoenherr and Speier-Pero, 2015).

Objective

The aim of this Special Issue is to present original and high-quality research papers regarding achieving and maintaining supply chain sustainability. We welcome a wide variety of methodologies for this Special Issue, including empirical surveys, secondary data, case studies, bibliometric analyses, and narrative literature reviews, as well as conceptual papers.

Recommended Topics:

Topics to be discussed in this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

Role of information systems to enable supply chain sustainability;
Understanding the strategic value of big data analytics in achieving a sustainable supply chain;
Barriers to the effective implementation of sustainable supply chain management;
Role of supply chain strategies in achieving and maintaining sustainability;
Governance mechanisms and incentive systems to supply chain sustainability;
Adoption and diffusion of big data analytics in building supply chain sustainability;
Enhancing crisis management capabilities in obtaining a sustainable supply chain;
Leadership role in managing supply chain sustainability;
Application of a social network analysis approach in achieving and maintaining supply chain sustainability;
Impact of agility and lean manufacturing on a sustainable supply chain;
The relationship between supply chain sustainability and supply chain resilience;
Planning and control strategies on supply chain sustainability;
Relationship between green energy and sustainable supply chain.

Dr. Ray Qing Cao
Dr. Vicky (Ching) Gu
Dr. Dara G. Schniederjans
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

supply chain sustainability
sustainable supply chain
supply chain resilience
supply chain strategies
supply chain management

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1303 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prioritization of Supply Chain Capabilities Using the FAHP Technique

by Mahmoud Z. Mistarihi and Ghazi M. Magableh

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 6308; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076308 - 06 Apr 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1480

Abstract

With the great challenges that the latest pandemic (COVID-19) has imposed on manufacturing companies, the need to overcome and cope with such situations is becoming crucial. Supply chain resilience is one of the main aspects that enables manufacturers to cope with change and uncertainty; therefore, it is essential to develop the capabilities necessary to do so. This study aimed to ensure supply chain resilience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic through prioritizing main supply chain capabilities. After surveying (30) experts in supply chain from leading manufacturing companies in Jordan, a Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) analysis was conducted to prioritize main supply chain capabilities that were derived from the related literature. The results of this study showed that proactive capabilities, followed by reactive capabilities, were the most dominant capabilities that could ensure supply chain resilience, while efficiency-based capabilities were the least significant. Therefore, manufacturing companies should place their focus and emphasis on reacting to this pandemic in a more systematic manner. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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17 pages, 2873 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability in Supply Chains through Rapid Capacity Increases and Minimized Disruptions

by Pinyarat Sirisomboonsuk and James Burns

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5629; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075629 - 23 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1604

Abstract

We examine the impediments to rapid recovery from a supply chain disruption through rapid supply chain growth in capacity. We explore how to minimize the effects of disruptions in supply chains that could be caused by pandemics, wars, supplier down times, absenteeism, distributor bottlenecks, etc. The tools we use include reliability theory, logic, simulation, and other methodologies. Our objective is to better understand supply chain disruptions and to propose solutions to the sustainability problems currently being experienced within supply chains. The authors use models to better comprehend how to avoid supply chain structures that are easily disrupted. Included among the findings are that disruptions cause the loss of production capacity; thus, the ability to rapidly increase production capacity in the same or other parts of the supply chain becomes paramount. Furthermore, structural redundancy can help alleviate the loss of capacity coming from a disruption. One purpose of the models is to foster a basic appreciation for the different lead times and fixed costs associated with capacity expansion of the various supply chain components. There are implications for where within the supply chain additional robustness and capacity are needed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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22 pages, 2536 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Resource Matching in the Supply Chain Based on Environmental Friendliness under a Smart Contract

by Jinyu Wei, Zihan Liang, Yaoxi Liu and Xin Yang

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1505; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021505 - 12 Jan 2023

Viewed by 1109

Abstract

This study aims to solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by industry through the upgrading and transformation of the supply chain, supply chain resource allocation, and related aspects. Specifically, environmental friendliness is added to the resource-matching problem of the cloud platform supply chain. Additionally, learning theory and dynamic evaluation systems are introduced when creating a preference sequence. The deferred-acceptance algorithm is used for matching. Finally, the automatic matching of blockchain smart contracts ensures the interests of both matching parties. Through the analysis of the example at the end of the study, we found that (1) the deviation table of demand side 5 and supply side 7 in the example shows that the deviation between demand side 5 as demand side and supply side 7 is only 11.55186, and the deviation between supply side 7 as demand side and demand side 5 is only 6.56778, and both sides form a high-quality pairing when matched with other partners. No excessive waste of its resources occurs. (2) Effectively ensure the openness and transparency of the supply chain production process; (3) The impact of environmental factors on enterprises is fully considered. In the analysis of the calculation cases, it can be found that demand side 10 has extremely high requirements for the environmental friendliness of its partners, and although supplier 2 has a very high preference for demand side 10, it is not successfully matched because the environmental friendliness of its own enterprise is not up to the standard, while supplier 1 has an environmental friendliness of up to 92 and is finally matched with Demand side 10; (4) Through the comparison test in the appendix, it can be found that the improved GS algorithm achieves the distinction between positive and negative partners. After multiple rounds of scoring, positive demand side 1, 3 was matched with positive supply side 2, 4, which can strengthen the enthusiasm of both partners and avoid negative cooperation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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19 pages, 1314 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coordinated Decision-Making in Embedded Supply Chain from a Sustainable Development Perspective

by Fang Dong, Chengdong Shi and Weitong Yu

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 443; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010443 - 27 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1187

Abstract

Government carbon policies and consumers’ preferences are forcing companies to reduce their carbon emissions. Due to financial and technical constraints, carbon-dependent manufacturers are seeking embedded services from energy service companies. By considering these government carbon policies and consumer preferences, this paper constructs a revenue-sharing contract and a two-part contract model for an embedded low-carbon service supply chain using the Stackelberg game to investigate the contractual coordination between the manufacturer and energy service company and their optimal decision making. The equilibrium decisions and the selection of contracts in the supply chain with different parameter levels were obtained. The model’s validity was verified through numerical simulation analysis, and the impacts of the main parameters on the equilibrium decisions and expected utility for the supply chain were analyzed. The results showed that both contracts would enable manufacturers and low-carbon service providers to achieve profit maximization goals when the parameters meet certain constraints. Changes in consumers’ low-carbon and low-price preferences can cause manufacturers to change their business strategies. In addition, the level of technology of ESCOs affects the selection of the type of contract between manufacturers and energy service companies. The findings described in this paper can provide management insights for manufacturers regarding carbon reduction in practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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21 pages, 2092 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prediction of Supply Chain Financial Credit Risk Based on PCA-GA-SVM Model

by Meiyan Li and Yingjun Fu

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16376; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416376 - 07 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1599

Abstract

Supply Chain Finance (SCF) is a new type of financing business carried out by commercial banks on the basis of supply chain management, which effectively promotes the healthy development of the supply chain. As the most typical mode of SCF, accounts receivable financing mode can use the part of accounts receivable occupying working capital for financing, which is widely used. In order to effectively manage the credit risk in the Supply Chain Finance and maintain the healthy operation of the supply chain, this paper proposes a supply chain financial credit risk prediction model based on PCA-GA-SVM. First, principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimension of the original index system, and then genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the parameters of support vector machine (SVM). Finally, the principal components selected by PCA are input into the GA-SVM model for training, and the final prediction model is established. The running results show that the prediction performance of PCA-GA-SVM model is better than that of SVM and GA-SVM models. It has a good generalization ability, which can be used as a reference for commercial banks to improve the credit risk management ability of Supply Chain Finance and is conducive to the sustainable development of supply chain finance business. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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15 pages, 851 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Can Supplier Concentration Improve Corporate Risk Taking? Moderating Effects of Digital Transformation

by Yuanxi Yang and Jingxian Guo

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11664; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811664 - 16 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2409

Abstract

The competitive and cooperative relationships between suppliers and enterprises have important implications for enterprise strategy and operational decisions. Using data from listed manufacturing companies in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of supplier concentration on corporate risk taking and its underlying mechanism. The results support the cooperative view of industrial organizations in a supply chain, which states that the higher the supplier concentration, the greater the level of corporate risk taking. The results are robust to various measures of the supplier concentration (Supply), sample selectivity bias, and endogeneity tests. This paper also shows that digital transformation has a moderating effect on supplier concentration and corporate risk taking. The supplier concentration can significantly increase risk taking in companies that have implemented digital transformation, while the effect is not significant in companies that have not implemented digital transformation. The conclusions drawn from this study provide practical guidance on industrial organization relationship coordination and digital transformation, suggesting that the implementation of digital transformation can help a firm to establish and consolidate a good relationship with suppliers and improve operational efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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18 pages, 892 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dual-Channel Retailer’s Multi-Period Inventory and Pricing Policy with the Quantity-Sales Mode

by Ling Zhao, Jun Liu, Minghua Xiong and Anquan Zou

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11660; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811660 - 16 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1146

Abstract

This paper investigates a dual-channel retailer’s inventory and pricing integrated decision-making problem over multiple periods. The quantity-sales mode is adopted in the online channel while the unit-sales mode is used offline. The customer demand of each sales channel is stochastic, and depends on visit costs, customer return costs, sales modes and pricing levels. To achieve the long-term profit maximization, the dual-channel retailer needs to optimize the pricing levels of both channels and the ordering quantity. For this problem, we first formulate a stochastic dynamic programming model, and then prove the joint concavity and the supermodularity of the objective function. With these properties, the optimality of the base-stock policy is proved, and the optimum price policy is characterized. Specifically, if the retailer’s optimum stock is neither too low nor too high, both sales channels need to be operated simultaneously, otherwise, only operating one channel is optimal. The online price is invariant with the retailer’s stock level while the offline price is decreasing in the retailer’s stock level. Finally, numerical results show that the quantity-sales mode, dual-channel sales model, and the multi-period dynamic decisions could benefit the dual-channel retailer. In addition, influences of cost parameters on the total profit are verified numerically. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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26 pages, 3438 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Green Credit Financing and Emission Reduction Decisions in a Retailer-Dominated Supply Chain with Capital Constraint

by Jingna Ji, Dengli Tang and Jiansheng Huang

Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10553; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710553 - 24 Aug 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1519

Abstract

In the context of low-carbon transformation, many small and medium-sized suppliers face financial difficulties. How to encourage and motivate capital-constrained suppliers to implement low-carbon strategies has become an important problem. There is a lack of quantitative research on green financing problems in the supply chain, especially considering the bank’s green credit financing (GCF) with discounted interest rates related to a low-carbon level. This paper formulates a Stackelberg game model to analyze the green financing and emission reduction decisions of a retailer-dominated supply chain consisting of one capital-constrained supplier and one capital-sufficient retailer. The retailer’s environmental purchasing requirement is considered. The result shows that the retailer’s procurement requirement cannot always motivate the capital-constrained supplier to improve their emission reduction rate. The mixed credit mode, which includes the bank’s GCF and the retailer’s partial prepayment, can help relieve the financing pressure of the capital-constrained supplier. It is found that the GCF at a discounted interest rate can effectively improve the supplier’s emission reduction enthusiasm. This paper tries to provide some meaningful insights for the government and supply chain members when making sustainable strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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15 pages, 6561 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Supply Chain Risk Diffusion Model Considering Multi-Factor Influences under Hypernetwork Vision

by Ping Yu, Peiwen Wang, Zhiping Wang and Jia Wang

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8420; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148420 - 09 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1310

Abstract

Considering the problem of risk diffusion in increasingly complex supply chain networks, we propose using the supply chain risk diffusion model, under the hypernetwork vision, to study the influence of certain factors on risk diffusion, including the herd mentality, self-vigilance, talent recruitment, and enterprise management. First of all, the state transition probability tree is constructed to represent the state transition of each enterprise, then the Microscopic Markov Chain Approach (MMCA) is used to analyze the scale of risk spread, and the diffusion threshold of risk is discussed. We find that the herd mentality, self-vigilance, talent recruitment, and enterprise management will effectively curb the spread of risks. Directly recruiting talents and strengthening enterprise management is more effective than increasing vigilance. This study helps professionals to understand the mechanism of risk diffusion, and it provides effective suggestions on how to suppress risk diffusion in the real world. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Achieving and Maintaining Supply Chain Sustainability)

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