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

The application of social marketing in promoting sustainable transportation

The traditional approach of dealing with transportation issues appears to be insufficient in bringing about sustainable urban traffic, as it does not take into account complex psychological processes assisting people in making their travel choices. New approaches are required to raise the effectiveness of transportation policies, by facilitating higher levels of public acceptance and engagement in promoted activities. The current thesis aims to assist policy-makers and program-designers in making transportation systems more sustainable by employing a social marketing approach. It provides an in-depth understanding of what social marketing is, demonstrates its advantages over the traditional transportation planning process, and explores its successful application in Lund and Malmo, located in the south of Sweden – two of the leading European cities in sustainable transportation systems

Overview of sustainability initiatives in European food retail sector

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of sustainability practices in food retailing sector. Report is structured to reflect on overall sustainability trends among European food retailers, outline drivers and barriers to address sustainability issues in retailer’s supply chain operations and provide classification of sustainability initiatives undertaken by EU retail organizations that could be classified as forerunners in environmental field. Proposed classification embraces wide range of initiatives targeted towards greening particular aspects of business activities in upstream and downstream supply chain, as well as in-shop. Furthermore, analysis of initiatives is undertaken to reflect on how widespread different sustainability activities among retail organizations. Eventually, drawing on examples of ‘best practice’ among European forerunners, recommendations for retailers and policy-makers are provided on how to further sustainability work in food supply chain

Greening food supply chains: Analyzing the potential role of retailers in triggering/ensuring environmentally and socially responsible production of food

In order to meet the unprecedented challenge of feeding an increasing population while curbing associated environmental impacts a fundamental change in the current food system is required. Such a shift needs an active facilitator who could set and implement the sustainability agenda in the food supply chain. Recently, it has been argued that retailers might become a vital agent of change towards sustainability due to their size, consolidation of the bargaining power and strategic positioning at the intersection between different supply chain players (Ytterhus, Arnestad et al. 1999; Durieu 2003; SustainableDevelopmentCommission 2008; CIAA 2009) This paper presents the initial results from an ongoing study which focuses on sustainable supply chain management within the food retail sector. The study is designed to describe and analyse the practice of retailers that are designed to trigger and/or ensure environmentally and socially responsible production of food. The study is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS), and the ambition is to provide knew knowledge of relevance to the retail sector and it’s stakeholders. Consequently we are not only interested in practices but also to understand the potential of retailers to exercise influence and control upstream in the supply chain, the challenges associated with such endeavors, and the influence of key contextual factors which may facilitate or thwart attempts at addressing environmental and social aspects in the upstream supply chain

Enablers to implement sustainable initiatives in agri-food supply chains

yesDue to rapid agricultural industrialization, increased global food demand, and, increasing concerns related to food quality and safety, the concepts of sustainability and supply chain transparency are becoming critically important to the agriculture and agri-food sector. The new focus on sustainability performance objectives emphasizes the effective utilization and consumption of natural resources to balance ecological, economic and societal aspects of agri-food businesses. The management of sustainability adds a new demand on business managers who often have small profits and receive stringent requirements from large powerful customers and retailers. In this paper, we recognize and analyze the key enablers in implementing sustainable initiatives for Agri-Food Supply Chains (A-FSCs). Ten important sustainability driven enablers were considered from a rigorous literature review and phase of expert consultation. The identified enablers were then analyzed using a combined Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) - fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) based framework. The ISM approach enabled an appreciation of the contextual relationships among the enablers and to classify the enablers based on their driving and dependence potential. The fuzzy DEMATEL technique supported the determination of the influential and influenced enablers and also to categorize them into cause and effect groups. An empirical case study, drawn from a vegetable and fruit retail supply chain in India, is used to focus and test the applicability of the proposed research framework. The paper facilitates professional management practice and researchers to uncover and explore the enablers for the real execution of sustainability oriented initiatives in the agri-food business sector

Sustainable purchasing in food retail: inter-organisational management to green food supply chains

Despite the perceived role of retailers to realize corporate supply chain responsibility, retailers face a number of structural and managerial challenges to effectively influence the sustainability parameters in upstream supply chain. At the same time, research that touches upon implementation of sustainable sourcing by food retailers is limited leaving aside the inter-organisational managerial implications for influencing and ensuring sustainability compliance of suppliers products and operations. The aim of current paper is to analyze and explain the inter-organizational governance approaches by food retailers to effectively influence and coordinate sustainability issues arising in the upstream supply chain. The paper is of relevance for retailers who aim to implement sustainability in food supply chains. It informs retail practitioners about the choice of inter-organisational management approaches that are better fitted to deliver sustainability outcomes depending on the specificities of the purchasing context. The paper also contribute to policy-makers understanding of challenges which food retailers face in the process of greening food supply chains

Sustainable Purchasing in Food Retailing : Interorganizational Relationship Management to Green Product Supply

Stakeholders’ demands for product sustainability redefine the focus of corporate purchasing strategies from the traditional concern with financial performance to considerations of ‘triple bottom line’ viability. This adds to the complexity of managing interorganizational relationships and poses a question regarding corporate ability to effectively leverage suppliers over environmental and social performance of supplied goods. Since it is not clear what type of purchasing relationship is more favorable for greening a product supply, the current paper aims to investigate how food retailers manage their relationships with suppliers in order to influence the environmental and social performance of procured goods and improve the availability of sustainably produced supply. The research is based on two case studies of Swedish supermarkets and supplementary semi-structured interviews with Swedish, British and Danish supermarkets. The results of the study contribute to the existing body of academic knowledge in the field of sustainable supply chain management by developing a typology of sustainable purchasing relationships with detailed insights into the nature of collaborative practices, structure of incentives, sustainability ambition, and approaches to verification of compliance. The study has also revealed the dependence of sustainable purchasing relationships on the characteristics of the procurement context, namely the presence of well-established sustainability certification schemes, perceived by purchaser's situation with availability of sustainability certified supply and purchaser's interpretation of the state of power dependence in relationships with suppliers

Drivers and Constraints for food retailers to foster sustainable consumption by developing sustainable product assortment

Food retailers might foster consumption of sustainable products by influencing both demand and supply-side characteristics, as they represent the main marketing channel of food products in most of European countries. However, only few European retailers are actively engaged in activities of sourcing and promoting more sustainable products, with current share of sustainable food in the retail assortment still being at the marginal level. At the same time, recent research has revealed that sustainable consumer choices are stimulated by the availability of sustainable product offerings: the higher the availability, the higher is consumer uptake of sustainable products. In the light of aforementioned challenge, provision of sustainable product assortment seems to be at heart of retail strategy to foster more sustainable consumption of food. However, development of sustainable assortment on behalf of retailers might be constrained by the number of factors which influence the conditions of sourcing and marketing of sustainable goods. Current paper aims to provide a systematized overview of driving and constraining forces for retailers to encourage consumption of more sustainable products by increasing share of these products in retailer’s assortment. Wide range of regulatory, market, resource and social factors/pressures are presented and analyzed. As an outcome, a number of most critical factors which encourage and hinder the retailer’s initiatives to offer more sustainable products are discussed. This contributes to better understanding of strategies which both retailers and policy-makers will have to undertake with aim to encourage more sustainable products and therefore stimulate more sustainable choices on behalf of consumers