Improving sustainability performance through supplier relationship management in the tobacco industry

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how tobacco manufacturing companies can improve their sustainability performance via effective supplier relationship management (SRM). Design/methodology/approach: This study has adopted a single case study of an international tobacco company. The primary data involved semi-structured interviews with participants from the case company who are familiar with sustainable SRM in the tobacco industry and are engaging in various techniques to improve sustainability performance. Findings: The drivers for sustainable SRM commonly identified in literature are observable within the case company. There is also clear evidence of integrating sustainability in its SRM processes. However, the perception of sustainability as a requirement to meet stringent regulations limits its scope and drive in pursuing sustainable SRM. It has also limited supplier sustainability evaluation and performance metrics. Furthermore, the findings of this paper reinforce the importance of a procurement team’s ability to work with other functional teams in implementing sustainable SRM. The findings also contribute to the emerging literature on the impact of sustainability on supplier segmentation and multi-tier supplier management. Research limitations/implications: This study provides insight into the varying SRM methods used in the tobacco industry to ensure compliance and improve sustainability performance. However, further research is required to explore the generalisability of the findings of this study derived from a single case study. Originality/value: The tobacco industry is an under-researched industry, particularly in terms of sustainable operations and supply chain management practices. The findings of this study seem to be relevant to those comparable industries with stringent regulations as well

Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Food Retailing : Insights into corporate practice of managing supplier relationships

Addressing sustainability concerns in supply chain operations can be a matter of long-term business survival for food retailers. However, regardless of whether it is perceived as a risk or market opportunity, acting across the value chain to address unsustainable production and consumption practices has been a constant challenge. This thesis investigated the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices in food retailing as a strategy to create environmentally and socially responsible food supply chains. These practices include ways of managing supplier relationships and associated institutions (third-party sustainability certification and mechanism of private eco-branding) to promote a sustainably produced product supply. SSCM practices have been investigated among Swedish and West European food retailers known for their active engagement with sustainability initiatives in their supply chains. The overarching research design can be best described as a multiple embedded case study design, with 28 semi-structured interviews serving as a primary source of empirical evidence. The study develops a dynamic and contextual perspective on the SSCM phenomenon, building on insights offered by the New Institutional Economics theory and a broader field of institutional analysis, as well as perspectives offered by a Dynamic Capabilities theory. This moves research in the field of SSCM away from simple inventories of SSCM practices towards more theory-building. More specifically, this study demonstrates that corporate choice of relationship management practices with suppliers and associated institutions, with the aim of influencing and controlling product compliance with environmental and social criteria, depends on: 1) the contextual realities of the broader institutional field, 2) the specificity of the supply chain/transactional context, 3) the interplay between these two contexts, and 4) the design of the existing sustainability certification schemes. This study confirms the role of third-party sustainability certification as a vital market institution for faciliating retailer engagement with SSCM practices. However, it also provides evidence that existing sustainability certifications do not always enable retailers to develop sustainability-based supply chains in a competitive and low-risk manner. Consequently, retailers work to develop novel institutions, such as private eco-branding and retail-driven certification schemes. These schemes have greater impact on the availability of a green product supply than when only existing third-party certification institutions are used. Both private eco-brands and novel certifications provide opportunities for developing dynamic capabilities and thereby a sustained competitive advantage.However, in developing novel institutions, retailers still rely heavily on existing third-party sustainability certifications, utilising auditing procedures and tacit knowledge associated with certification development. Based on these findings it is suggested that multiple certification schemes are not necessarily problematic. They may even be advantageous from a SSCM perspective, in that retailers may be encouraged to engage with greening their product supply

Job profiling: How artificial intelligence supports the management of complexity induced by product variety

Firms and supply chains (SC) increasingly are forced to customise products and optimise processes since today’s markets are, on average, more demanding in terms of both costs and customer satisfaction. Generally, when product variety (PV) increases not only improves sales performance, since products offered better fit customers’ expectations, but also increases the complexity in SC processes management, rising operational costs. For that reason, accurate management of product diversity is a fundamental point for the brands' success, which is why it is going to be investigated in that project. Moreover, firms’ managers apply strategies to mitigate or accommodate this complexity, avoiding the customer satisfaction and cost trade-off to remain competitive and survive. However, we were wondering if it is enough. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged to stay. Digitalisation era, data availability, and the improvement in computing power have boomed AI’s potential in improving systems, controlling processes, and tackling complexity. These strengths are suitable to help managers not only to tackle the complexity arising from PV but also to boost the supply chain performance (SCP

Drivers of changing supply chain capability expectations in the online retail sector: the role of sales transactions.

Online retailers have created new demands and opportunities for their supply chain providers. This paper reports on a five year UK-based study of this market space, whose logistics needs are in part provided by third party e-fulfilment organisations (3PEFs), businesses offering traditional and innovative services specifically to online retailers. To establish links between 3PEF capabilities and online retailer needs, the Croom e-Business Maturity Model is used to map core 3PEF capabilities and in this way link 3PEF offerings to supply chain needs of theircustomers. Over the five years of the study, it is observed that a significant trigger for developing new capabilities is embedded in sales transactions. A model is presented to explain how customer expectations are transformed in these same sales transactions, and application of this model in a wider logistics context is also suggested

Connecting the dots in infrastructure development and management: The Africa agenda for new innovation

It is widely accepted that the growth and prosperity of nations is dependent on economic infrastructure. Infrastructure is constituted by cyber-physical systems that enable communications (e.g. postal, telephone and internet) as well as transportation (e.g. road, water, air), energy (e.g. electricity and gas) and other utilities (e.g. drinking water and waste) (Chandler, 1977; NAO, 2013). It provides the basis for economic growth and prosperity through the provision of essential services that enable economic and social activity. As a result, it delivers significant benefits, both directly through the services it delivers, and indirectly through the impact of those services on the rest of the economy (Nightingale et al 2016). However, these benefits come at a cost. Infrastructure is expensive to build, operate and maintain. The provision of infrastructure involves degradation and the consumption of natural ecosystems, displacement of local communities, CO_{2} emissions, noise and pollution. Infrastructure is typically long-lived and the costs of poor choices and mistakes can affect future generations. This is especially prominent with politically motivated infrastructure investment decisions, which have a lifespan that coincides with electoral cycles. To complicate matters further, the costs and benefits of infrastructure provision fall unequally across society in a way that benefits a minority (usually local to the area of infrastructure development) although the distribution of costs are more widely spread (for example in investments funded by taxes) (ibid). In this context, infrastructure investment decisions are not only complex they are inherently political

Multi-objective optimisation of dynamic short-term credit portfolio selection :the adoption of third party logistics credit for financing working capital contrained small and medium sized enterprises in supply chains

PhD ThesisMany companies, especially small and medium sized enterprises, are faced with liquidity problems. The shortage of working capital in their businesses has prevented supply chains from achieving effectiveness and efficiency in management. Although they can access short-term loans from banks and suppliers, the willingness of these credit lenders to lend short-term capital is often restricted by the fact that they cannot monitor whether or how their customers will use the loans according to the agreements. In many cases, this fact makes it difficult for capitalconstrained companies to obtain sufficient working capital from existing funding sources. A business practice called Integrated Logistics and Financial Service has been developed, which can improve banks’ monitoring of how their loans will eventually be used via the alliance of third party logistics companies and banks. The emergence of credit offered by third party logistics companies (termed as 3PLC) provides more choices for working capital constrained companies. Following on traditional bank overdrafts and trade credit, the new 3PLC became the third type of credit available to short-term working capital constrained companies. A new issue arising from this situation is how a working capital constrained company can determine a credit portfolio from multiple working capital sources. Current studies of credit portfolio management are still silent in considering 3PLC. Moreover, limited studies have integrated credit portfolio management into material flow management in supply chains. In light of the aforementioned discussions, this thesis aims to optimise dynamic credit portfolio management in supply chains to achieve the different business objectives of working capital constrained companies. To achieve the above aims, this thesis firstly applies an analytic hierarchy process and linear programming model to optimise a single objective. It applies the analytic hierarchy process to evaluate the concerns of working capital-constrained companies in selecting credit. These concerns are identified through a thorough literature review focusing on the considerations of small and medium sized enterprises’ in borrowing short-term credit. The analytic hierarchy process has been applied to determine the priority of the identified concerns and the preferences of borrowers for bank overdrafts, trade credit and 3PLC. A linear programming model has been developed based on the results obtained from the analytic hierarchy process model. It determines the maximum borrowing amount for a given period from multiple credit sources. To reflect the complexity of working capital constrained companies borrowing credit, thisthesis has extended the model from single objective optimisation to multiple objectives optimisation. Consequently, a goal-programming model has been developed. This model provides the solution of optimizing two business objectives including overall cost and backorder penalty cost minimization. Numerical examples have been conducted to test and analyse all the mathematical models. This thesis contributes the following aspects: 1) the new 3PLC together with bank overdraft and trade credit have been considered into credit portfolio management; 2) borrower’s concerns and credit preferences relating to the three types of credit have been identified and evaluated; 3) mathematical models have been developed for credit portfolio selection over multiple periods

Disentangling decarbonisation ambidexterity: an analysis of European companies

Corporate strategies to tackle climate change have become a topic of much debate. Yet, limited attention has been paid to understanding how companies exploit and explore decarbonisation opportunities. We posit that the risks imposed by climate change and the opportunities that emerge under such a context require companies to develop a decarbonisation ambidexterity capability to reconcile the exploration of more radical, long-term eco-innovation opportunities, while also being eco-efficient in their current activities. Based on the ambidexterity literature, we ask: How do companies explore and exploit to reduce their carbon footprint? Through an inductive analysis of the climate change reports of 410 European companies from different sectors, we identify seven core exploitative and explorative initiatives adopted by companies in response to climate change. We argue that, to reach the established targets, companies must adopt multiple initiatives focused on both exploring new knowledge and technologies and exploiting improvements in existing routines and processes, and we show how companies have combined these efforts

Managing and measuring sustainability performance of supply chains

Sustainable development from an industrial perspective has extended beyond organisational boundaries to incorporate a supply chain approach. This paper provides a framework which can assist focal companies in development of sustainable supply chains. The literature related to sustainable supply chain evaluation is reviewed incorporating concepts from four organisational theories including the resource based, institutional, stakeholder and social network perspectives to illustrate key drivers and enablers of sustainability initiatives in the supply chain. A conceptual multidimensional framework is then developed which can serve as a tool for research scholars and supply chain practitioners in identifying and assessing various economic, environmental and social performance indicators