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The purpose of this paper is to unpack tensions faced by procurement professionals as part of their triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability activities. The authors take an integrative perspective based on the procurement sustainability and organizational tensions literature, as well as stakeholder and institutional theory.

The authors use a multiple case study approach. Data are collected through multiple interviews and archival data from eight case companies in Australia.

The authors identify supply chain and company procurement sustainability tensions (PSTs) and explain their multi-level nature. The analysis also dissects the multi-stakeholder and multi-institutional environments where PSTs operate. The authors discuss such environments in terms of various temporal and spatial legitimacy contexts (LCs) that, through their assessment of institutional distance, can characterize the manifestation of PSTs.

The findings are instrumental for managers to make informed decisions when dealing with PSTs, and they pave the way for paradoxical leadership given the increasing importance of simultaneous development and balancing of TBL dimensions, as evidenced in this study.

This is one of the first studies to empirically investigate PSTs by drawing on an integrative approach to identify PSTs, and to discern various LCs that underpin stakeholder judgments of procurement’s TBL sustainability activities.

Research has not yet captured nor synthesized the supply chain (SC) adaptations exercised by various base of the pyramid (BoP) initiators for successful BoP business. This is a crucial shortcoming that the study has taken a step to address, with the aim of advancing theory in BoP supply chain management (SCM). The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The authors draw on Carter et al.’s (2015) theory of the SC and use a multi-method approach combining systematic literature review and embedded case studies based on the secondary data.

The authors compare BoP SC adaptations of MNCs, local companies, NGOs, social enterprises and governments and develop propositions. The authors find that SC adaptations exercised by BoP initiators are influenced by their sense making of institutional and agency drivers at the BoP, and contingent on whether the poor are engaged as recipients or value co-creators.

The authors develop a multi-initiator understanding of SC adaptations for BoP business. This is useful for BoP initiators who struggle to leverage their BoP business as well as for those who are considering entering the BoP. The authors offer these entities insights for aligning strategy and developing capabilities for BoP markets.

The authors develop an original model of BoP initiator-based configurations of SC adaptations for BoP business. As such, the authors contribute toward advancing BoP SCM theory and practice by mapping substantive concepts and their relationships associated with BoP SC adaptations.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the supply chain management literature by presenting the Australian practitioners’ perception of the role of relationship integration in developing supply chain agility and flexibility.

The research takes semi-structured, indepth interviews with ten operations and supply chain practitioners in the Australian manufacturing sector. A systematic qualitative data analysis approach grounded on cross-interview synthesis was used.

Findings contributed into understanding of the manufacturing companies’ implementation of relationship integration with respect to decision trade-offs involved in contract design. Moreover, the findings revealed the significant perceived importance and impact of relationship integration on supply chain agility and flexibility development. This was, however, found to be a function of things such as upstream or downstream focus and organisational size. These findings were expressed in terms of seven propositions.

Analysis of the interviews substantiates the criticality of informed allocation of resources to relationship-intensive activities and investments across the supply chain to develop agility and flexibility. International businesses can gain insights into Australian manufacturing businesses’ perception of relationship integration, which can be invaluable for strategic planning to develop agile and flexible supply chains with their Australian partners.

This paper takes an original approach to present operations and supply chain practitioners’ perception of manufacturing businesses’ use of relationship integration for supply chain agility and flexibility development.