Exploring trade-offs between basic and advanced sustainable supply chain practices among consumer electronics: a social media analytics approach

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores the sustainable supply chain trade-offs in the electronics industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a social media analytics approach and analyses Twitter posts from August 2017 to December 2021. Thematic analysis is applied to discover the pattern in sustainable supply chain trade-offs based on the consumers' perceptions. In addition, a chi-square test was used to measure whether a relationship exists between product groups and sustainable supply chain perceptions.

Findings

The results indicate that environmental practices are the most frequent topic among consumers on social media. Further, although basic sustainable supply chain practices are prioritised in the environmental aspect, advanced sustainable supply chain practices take precedence over basic ones in the social dimension. The result from the chi-square independence test reveals that there is no significant relationship between different products and perceptions of consumers except for economically advanced sustainable supply chain practices.

Practical implications

The main implications of the present study are to offer a fast and efficient method to marketers and companies for discovering customer perceptions. In a way, they can identify where the quality of practices needs to improve in their supply chains to gain customer satisfaction. Additionally, the authors suggest industries declare their trade-off preferences between sustainable supply chain practices transparently.

Originality/value

The findings extend the abundance of sustainable supply chain literature by identifying the sustainable supply chain trade-offs among consumer electronics. Also, the reason for customers' dissatisfaction is provided. In the end, six propositions are presented based on the explorations.

Citation

Mirzaei, S., Shokouhyar, S. and Shokoohyar, S. (2023), "Exploring trade-offs between basic and advanced sustainable supply chain practices among consumer electronics: a social media analytics approach", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 1398-1421. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-03-2021-0191