Exploring Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Social Network Perspective

Purpose The implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SCM) calls for an acknowledgement of uncertainty inherent in complex environment. Confucianist society forms social networks in Confucianist society, called guanxi networks, influence economic behaviours and business practices in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to explore how these social networks influence the implementation of sustainable SCM. In doing so, this study aims to critically investigate the constructs of guanxi networks, their impact on flow of supply chain capital and how this leverages the implementation of sustainable SCM. Design/methodology/approach Two systematic literature reviews are conducted to understand the constructs of social networks in Confucianist culture and their impacts on the flow of supply chain capitals. The reviews also analyse evidence related to the economic, social and environmental practices to reveal the current state of the literature and research gaps. Propositions and a framework are developed to support future research in this area. Findings The constructs of ganqing, renqing, xinren and mianzi in guanxi networks have expanded the contexts of social networks in Western literature. Guanxi networks increase the flow of supply chain capital and generate trust between players, thus enhancing capabilities to implement sustainable SCM. Guanxi networks also create the mechanism of network governance with which to increase sustainable SCM implementation under the institutional logics of sustainability. Research limitations/implications The conceptual framework and justification are based on the reviews of current studies in the field. Future empirical study is encouraged to test the propositions, both in Confucianist culture and other countries with culture of social networks. Originality/value Social networks are socially constructed concepts. The constructs of guanxi networks revealed in this study have developed the knowledge of Western-based social network theory. Besides, arguments from a social network perspective provide an alternative answer to explain increased behavioural commitment and companies’ investment in sustainable SCM. This study helps practitioners understand the logic of this social norm and to use it to maximise their operation outputs, including sustainable SCM implementation

Evolution of Supply Chain Collaboration: Implications for the Role of Knowledge

Increasingly, research across many disciplines has recognized the shortcomings of the traditional “integration prescription” for inter-organizational knowledge management. This research conducts several simulation experiments to study the effects of different rates of product change, different demand environments, and different economies of scale on the level of integration between firms at different levels in the supply chain. The underlying paradigm shifts from a static, steady state view to a dynamic, complex adaptive systems and knowledge-based view of supply chain networks. Several research propositions are presented that use the role of knowledge in the supply chain to provide predictive power for how supply chain collaborations or integration should evolve. Suggestions and implications are suggested for managerial and research purposes

A Conceptual Framework of Reverse Logistics Impact on Firm Performance

This study aims to examine the reverse logistics factors that impact upon firm performance. We review reverse logistics factors under three research streams: (a) resource-based view of the firm, including: Firm strategy, Operations management, and Customer loyalty (b) relational theory, including: Supply chain efficiency, Supply chain collaboration, and institutional theory, including: Government support and Cultural alignment. We measured firm performance with 5 measures: profitability, cost, innovativeness, perceived competitive advantage, and perceived customer satisfaction. We discuss implications for research, policy and practice

Supply chain uncertainty:a review and theoretical foundation for future research

Supply-chain uncertainty is an issue with which every practising manager wrestles, deriving from the increasing complexity of global supply networks. Taking a broad view of supply-chain uncertainty (incorporating supply-chain risk), this paper seeks to review the literature in this area and develop a theoretical foundation for future research. The literature review identifies a comprehensive list of 14 sources of uncertainty, including those that have received much research attention, such as the bullwhip effect, and those more recently described, such as parallel interaction. Approaches to managing these sources of uncertainty are classified into: 10 approaches that seek to reduce uncertainty at its source; and, 11 approaches that seek to cope with it, thereby minimising its impact on performance. Manufacturing strategy theory, including the concepts of alignment and contingency, is then used to develop a model of supply-chain uncertainty, which is populated using the literature review to show alignment between uncertainty sources and management strategies. Future research proposed includes more empirical research in order to further investigate: which uncertainties occur in particular industrial contexts; the impact of appropriate sources/management strategy alignment on performance; and the complex interplay between management strategies and multiple sources of uncertainty (positive or negative)

Robust Multi-Objective Sustainable Reverse Supply Chain Planning: An Application in the Steel Industry

In the design of the supply chain, the use of the returned products and their recycling in the production and consumption network is called reverse logistics. The proposed model aims to optimize the flow of materials in the supply chain network (SCN), and determine the amount and location of facilities and the planning of transportation in conditions of demand uncertainty. Thus, maximizing the total profit of operation, minimizing adverse environmental effects, and maximizing customer and supplier service levels have been considered as the main objectives. Accordingly, finding symmetry (balance) among the profit of operation, the environmental effects and customer and supplier service levels is considered in this research. To deal with the uncertainty of the model, scenario-based robust planning is employed alongside a meta-heuristic algorithm (NSGA-II) to solve the model with actual data from a case study of the steel industry in Iran. The results obtained from the model, solving and validating, compared with actual data indicated that the model could optimize the objectives seamlessly and determine the amount and location of the necessary facilities for the steel industry more appropriately.This article belongs to the Special Issue Uncertain Multi-Criteria Optimization Problem

A conceptual framework for crop-based agri-food supply chain characterization under uncertainty

[EN] Crop-based Agri-food Supply Chains (AFSCs) are complex systems that face multiple sources of uncertainty that can cause a significant imbalance between supply and demand in terms of product varieties, quantities, qualities, customer requirements, times and prices, all of which greatly complicate their management. Poor management of these sources of uncertainty in these AFSCs can have negative impact on quality, safety, and sustainability by reducing the logistic efficiency and increasing the waste. Therefore, it becomes crucial to develop models in order to deal with the key sources of uncertainty. For this purpose, it is necessary to precisely understand and define the problem under study. Even, the characterisation process of this domains is also a difficult and time-consuming task, especially when the right directions and standards are not in place. In this chapter, a Conceptual Framework is proposed that systematically collects those aspects that are relevant for an adequate crop-based AFSC management under uncertainty.Authors of this publication acknowledge the contribution of the Project 691249, RUC-APS "Enhancing and implementing Knowledge based ICT solutions within high Risk and Uncertain Conditions for Agriculture Production Systems" (www.ruc-aps.eu), funded by the European Union under their funding scheme H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Esteso, A.; Ortiz Bas, Á.; Hernández Hormazabal, JE.; Fernández, A.; Garrido, A.; Martin, J.... (2021). A conceptual framework for crop-based agri-food supply chain characterization under uncertainty. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control. 280:19-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51047-3_2S1933280Taylor, D.H., Fearne, A.: Towards a framework for improvement in the management of demand in agri-food supply chains. Supply Chain Manage. 11, 379–384 (2006)Matopoulos, A., Vlachopoulou, M., Manthou, V., Manos, B.: A conceptual framework for supply chain collaboration: empirical evidence from the agri-food industry. Supply Chain Manage. 12, 177–186 (2007)Ahumada, O., Villalobos, J.R.: Application of planning models in the agri-food supply chain: a review. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 196, 1–20 (2009)Iakovou, E., Vlachos, D., Achillas, C., Anastasiadis, F.: A methodological framework for the design of green supply chains for the agrifood sector. Paper presented at the 2nd international conference on supply chains, Katerini, 5–7 Oct 2012Manzini, R., Accorsi, R.: The new conceptual framework for food supply chain assessment. J. Food Eng. 115, 251–263 (2013)Shukla, M., Jharkharia, S.: Agri-fresh produce supply chain management: a state-of-the-art literature review. Int. J. Oper. Prod. Manage. 33, 114–158 (2013)Lemma, Y., Kitaw, D., Gatew, G.: Loss in perishable food supply chain: an optimization approach literature review. Int. J. Sci. Eng. Res. 5, 302–311 (2014)Tsolakis, N.K., Keramydas, C.A., Toka, A.K., Aidonis, D.A., Iakovou, E.T.: Agrifood supply chain management: a comprehensive hierarchical decision-making framework and a critical taxonomy. Biosyst. Eng. 120, 47–64 (2014)Van der Vorst, J.G., Da Silva, C.A., Trienekens, J.H.: Agro-industrial Supply Chain Management: Concepts and Applications. FAO (2007)Hernandez, J., Mortimer, M., Patelli, E., Liu, S., Drummond, C., Kehr, E., Calabrese, N., Iannacone, R., Kacprzyk, J., Alemany, M.M.E., Gardner, D.: RUC-APS: enhancing and implementing knowledge based ICT solutions within high risk and uncertain conditions for agriculture production systems. In: 11th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, Valencia, Spain (2017)Miles, M.B., Huberman, A.M.: Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1994)Alemany, M.M.E., Alarcón, F., Lario, F.C., Boj, J.J.: An application to support the temporal and spatial distributed decision-making process in supply chain collaborative planning. Comput. Ind. 62, 519–540 (2011)Teimoury, E., Nedaei, H., Ansari, S., Sabbaghi, M.: A multi-objective analysis for import quota policy making in a perishable fruit and vegetable supply chain: a system dynamics approach. Comput. Electron. Agric. 93, 37–45 (2013)Kusumastuti, R.D., van Donk, D.P., Teunter, R.: Crop-related harvesting and processing planning: a review. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 174, 76–92 (2016)Zhang, W., Wilhelm, W.E.: OR/MS decision support models for the specialty crops industry: a literature review. Ann. Oper. Res. 190, 131–148 (2011)Grillo, H., Alemany, M.M.E., Ortiz, A.: A review of mathematical models for supporting the order promising process under lack of homogeneity in product and other sources of uncertainty. Comput. Ind. Eng. 91, 239–261 (2016)Blanco, A.M., Masini, G., Petracci, N., Bandoni, J.A.: Operations management of a packaging plant in the fruit industry. J. Food Eng. 70, 299–307 (2005)Grillo, H., Alemany, M.M.E., Ortiz, A., Fuertes-Miquel, V.S.: Mathematical modelling of the order-promising process for fruit supply chains considering the perishability and subtypes of products. Appl. Math. Model. 49, 255–278 (2017)Verdouw, C.N., Beulens, A.J.M., Trienekens, J.H., Wolferta, J.: Process modelling in demand-driven supply chains: a reference model for the fruit industry. Comput. Electron. Agric. 73, 174–187 (2010)Amorim, P., Günther, H., Almada-Lobo, B.: Multi-objective integrated production and distribution planning of perishable products. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 138, 89–101 (2012)Nahmias, S.: Perishable inventory theory: a review. Oper. Res. 30, 680–708 (1982)Mowat, A., Collins, R.: Consumer behavior and fruit quality: supply chain management in an emerging industry. Supply Chain Manage. 5, 45–54 (2000)Kazaz, B., Webster, S.: The impact of yield-dependent trading costs on pricing and production planning under supply uncertainty. M&SOM Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manage. 13, 404–417 (2011)Van der Vorst, J.G.: Effective food supply chains: generating, modelling and evaluating supply chain scenarios (2000)Fuertes-Miquel, V.S., Cuenca, L., Boza, A., Guyon, C., Alemany, M.M.E.: Conceptual framework for the characterization of vegetable breton supply chain sustainability in an uncertain context. In: 12th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, XXII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización, Girona, Spain, 12–13 July 2018Kummu, M., de Moel, H., Porkka, M., Siebert, S., Varis, O., Ward, P.J.: Lost food, wasted resources: global food supply chain losses and their impacts on freshwater, cropland, and fertiliser use. Sci. Total Environ. 438, 477–489 (2012)Hoekstra, S., Romme, J.: Integral Logistic Structures: Developing Customer-Oriented Goods Flow. Industrial Press Inc., New York (1992)Borodin, V., Bourtembourg, J., Hnaien, F., Labadie, N.: Handling uncertainty in agricultural supply chain management: a state of the art. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 254, 348–359 (2016)Handayati, Y., Simatupang, T.M., Perdana, T.: Agri-food supply chain coordination: the state-of-the-art and recent developments. Logist. Res. 8, 1–15 (2015)Mintzberg, H.: The Structuring of Organisations. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River (1979)Keuning, D.: Grondslagen Van Het Management. Stenfert Kroese, Houten (1995) (in Dutch)Esteso, A., Alemany, M.M.E., Ortiz, A.: Conceptual framework for designing agri-food supply chains under uncertainty by mathematical programming models. Int. J. Prod. Res. (2018)Backus, G.B.C., Eidman, V.R., Dijkhuizen, A.A.: Farm decision making under risk and uncertainty. Neth. J. Agr. Sci. 45, 307–328 (1997)Esteso, A., Alemany, M.M.E., Ortiz, A.: Conceptual framework for managing uncertainty in a collaborative agri-food supply chain context. In: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol. 506, pp. 715–724 (2017)Mundi, I., Alemany, M.M.E., Poler, R., Fuertes-Miquel, V.S.: Review of mathematical models for production planning under uncertainty due to lack of homogeneity: proposal of a conceptual model. Int. J. Prod. Res. (2019)Grillo, H., Alemany, M.M.E., Ortiz, A., De Baets, B.: Possibilistic compositions and state functions: application to the order promising process for perishables. Int. J. Prod. Res. (2019)Soto-Silva, W.E., Nadal-Roig, E., González-Araya, M.C., Pla-Aragones, L.M.: Operational research models applied to the fresh fruit supply chain. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 251, 345–355 (2016)Farahani, R.Z., Rezapour, S., Drezner, T., Fallah, S.: Competitive supply chain network design: an overview of classifications, models, solution techniques and applications. Omega 45, 92–118 (2014)Banasik, A., Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J.M., Kanellopoulos, A., Claassen, G.D.H., van der Vorst, J.G.: Multi-criteria decision making approaches for green supply chains: a review. Flex. Serv. Manuf. J. 1–31 (2016)Paam, P., Berretta, R., Heydar, M., Middleton, R.H., García-Flores, R., Juliano, P.: Planning models to optimize the agri-fresh food supply chain for loss minimization: a review. In: Reference Module in Food Science (2016)Soysal, M., Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J.M., Meuwissen, M.P., van der Vorst, J.G.: A review on quantitative models for sustainable food logistics management. Int. J. Food Syst. Dyn. 3, 136–155 (2012

Risk assessment and relationship management: practical approach to supply chain risk management

The literature suggests the need for incorporating the risk construct into the measurement of organisational performance, although few examples are available as to how this might be undertaken in relation to supply chains. A conceptual framework for the development of performance and risk management within the supply chain is evolved from the literature and empirical evidence. The twin levels of dyadic performance/risk management and the management of a portfolio of performance/risks is addressed, employing Agency Theory to guide the analysis. The empirical evidence relates to the downstream management of dealerships by a large multinational organisation. Propositions are derived from the analysis relating to the issues and mechanisms that may be employed to effectively manage a portfolio of supply chain performance and risks

A network approach to overcoming barriers to market engagement for SMEs in energy efficiency initiatives such as the Green Deal

The Green Deal (GD) was launched in 2013 by the UK Government as a market-led scheme to encourage uptake of energy efficiency measures in the UK and create green sector jobs. The scheme closed in July 2015 after 30 months due to government concerns over low uptake and industry standards but additional factors potentially contributed to its failure such as poor scheme design and lack of understanding of the customer and supply chain journey. We explore the role of key delivery agents of GD services, specifically SMEs, and we use the LoCal-Net project as a case study to examine the use of networks to identify and reduce barriers to SME market engagement. We find that SMEs experienced multiple barriers to interaction with the GD such as lack of access to information, training, and confusion over delivery of the scheme but benefited from interaction with the network to access information, improve understanding of the scheme, increasing networking opportunities and forming new business models and partnerships to reduce risk. The importance of SMEs as delivery agents and their role in the design of market-led schemes such as the GD are discussed with recommendations for improving SME engagement in green sector initiatives

A Systematic Review of Blockchain Literature in Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Identifying Research Questions and Future Directions

Potential blockchain applications in logistics and supply chain (LSCM) have gained increasing attention within both academia and industry. However, as a field in its infancy, blockchain research often lacks theoretical foundations, and it is not clear which and to what extent organizational theories are used to investigate blockchain technology in the field of LSCM. In response, based upon a systematic literature review, this paper: (a) identifies the most relevant organizational theories used in blockchain literature in the context of LSCM; and (b) examines the content of the identified organizational theories to formulate relevant research questions for investigating blockchain technology in LSCM. Our results show that blockchain literature in LSCM is based around six organizational theories, namely: agency theory, information theory, institutional theory, network theory, the resource-based view and transaction cost analysis. We also present how these theories can be used to examine specific blockchain problems by identifying blockchain-specific research questions that are worthy of investigation