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The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic review of the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature in the principal logistics and supply chain management journals, across a 20‐year time frame.

The authors use a systematic literature review methodology. This methodology allows for the minimization of researcher bias and the maximization of reliability and replicability. The study's empirical validity is further enhanced by demonstrating high levels of inter‐coder reliability across families of codes.

The field of SSCM has evolved from a perspective and investigation of standalone research in social and environmental areas; through a corporate social responsibility perspective; to the beginnings of the convergence of perspectives of sustainability as the triple bottom line and the emergence of SSCM as a theoretical framework. While the SSCM research has become more theoretically rich and methodologically rigorous, there are numerous opportunities for further advancing theory, methodology, and the managerial relevance of future inquiries.

The trends and gaps identified through our analysis allow us to develop a cogent agenda to guide future SSCM research.

The current perspectives of SSCM hold important implications for managers, by directing limited resources toward projects which intersect environmental and/or social performance, and economic performance.

The paper provides a systematic, rigorous, and methodologically valid review of the evolution of empirical SSCM research across a 20‐year time period.

Researchers in supply chain transparency have called to expand the boundaries by disclosing various types of information to multiple stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of transparency about supply chain sustainability on consumers as critical stakeholders and investigate the effectiveness of message characteristics.

This study utilizes two scenario-based experiments grounded in a refurbished goods context: Study 1, which employs a 2×2 between-subject experiment investigates the effects of product type and sustainable information provision on consumers evaluations, and Study 2, which employs a 2×1 between-subject experiment examines the effects of sustainable information direction on consumer evaluations. A total of 348 participants were recruited from the Amazon M-Turk platform across the two experiments. Data are analyzed with regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and the Johnson–Neyman technique.

Contrary to prior research that assumes that refurbished products are associated with lower quality, quality perceptions are moderated by individuals’ environmental involvement (EI) and the information presented by the firm. More importantly, consumer evaluations are influenced by specific characteristics of sustainable supply chain messages: high EI individuals have higher willingness-to-pay a premium (WTPP) when the message is consistent with original beliefs (pro-attitudinal). In contrast to prior theory, there was no difference in the WTPP of consumers with high EI and low EI for counter-attitudinal messages.

The study shows that what to say, how to say it and to whom, are critical for firms who seek to nudge consumers to support their sustainable practices.

The value of communicating information on sustainability has been well established. However, little is known about such association when the information provided trades off environmental benefits and product quality. This research addresses the gap in a refurbished product context. The research studies the effect of sustainable supply chain transparency and message characteristics on stakeholders’ evaluations.

This study aims to empirically assess the influence of supply chain capabilities and total quality management on sustainable supply chain performance, factoring in the role of leadership and the moderating impact of institutional pressures.

The researchers designed a self-administered survey, garnering responses from 278 participants. Preliminary analyses addressed nonresponse bias, examining assumptions like homoscedasticity and data normality. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to ensure reliability and construct validity before hypothesis testing. Regression outcomes corroborate all posited assumptions, further strengthening the extant literature.

The research outcomes demonstrate the positive association between supply chain capabilities and TQM and sustainable supply chain performance, particularly under institutional pressure. Data from the cement manufacturing sector further corroborated these findings. This study lends empirical support to the tenets of institutional theory.

The presented model delineates how leadership impacts TQM and supply chain capabilities to amplify sustainable supply chain outcomes. Incorporating institutional pressure as a moderating variable introduces a fresh and enlightening dimension to the discussion.

The purpose of this paper is to understand communication pathways and factors that cause sustainability initiatives to become contagious from downstream to upstream members of a supply chain, which is termed sustainable supply chain contagion (SSCC).

This study takes an inductive, grounded theory approach, while utilizing established theories.

The decision to implement a sustainability initiative depends on the business case for the organization. Importantly, the findings outline several network and communication factors that overcome the weak business case and, therefore, foster SSCC. Based on these findings, a communication network model of SSCC is outlined. Network factors include the contagion pathways, the role of sustainability and top management teams and communication channels. Communication factors include the alignment of sustainability initiatives with departmental objectives, the articulation of goals and assuring the endurance of a sustainability initiative.

Managers can utilize the proposed model to create conditions that strengthen the business case of a proposed sustainability initiative, thus fostering SSCC. The presented findings reveal different tactics that can assist organizations in communicating sustainability initiatives in a persuasive manner, to permit the proliferation of sustainability across the supply chain.

This research enables a multilevel examination of the factors influencing SSCC.

This study aims to examine the obstacles and approaches to achieving sustainable development in India’s cement solid and hollow brick production business, with a specific emphasis on incorporating the triple bottom line (TBL) concept into strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Using the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA)–weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) approach, the study prioritized 11 economic, 9 environmental and 14 social sustainability indicators based on information collected from literature and expert opinions.

The study provides valuable insights into the difficulties encountered by SMEs while implementing strategies that focus on the TBL. By putting emphasis on the sustainability criteria, the key areas that require attention to promote sustainability get identified and addressed.

The study’s focus on SMEs in this industry limits its generalizability. To have a more complete picture, future studies may include many areas.

The identified and prioritised sustainability characteristics help small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) design strategies to address sustainable development concerns. The research findings could also inform policymakers and regulatory bodies about the challenges faced by SMEs in the cement and brick production sector regarding sustainability. It could highlight the need for supportive policies and regulations to promote sustainable practices and incentivize SMEs to adopt the TBL approach. The paper can offer practical insights for SME owners and managers on integrating sustainability principles into their business strategies. Actionable recommendations and best practices for enhancing environmental performance, social impact and economic viability within the context of cement and brick production are outlined.

TBL policies improve the sustainability and profitability of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and promote environmentally and socially responsible practices that benefit the industry and society. The research paper may facilitate greater engagement and collaboration among various stakeholders involved in the cement and brick production industry, including SMEs, larger corporations, government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities. This cooperative approach can encourage open communication, the establishment of trust and coordinated actions to tackle sustainability challenges, ultimately improving social cohesion and collaboration.

This study provides new and valuable insights by investigating the development of TBL strategies in SMEs in the cement solid and hollow brick manufacturing sector in India. The utilization of the SWARA–WASPAS technique brings novelty to research on sustainable development in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative integration method based on decision-theoretic rough set and the extended VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) methods to address the resilient-sustainable supplier selection and order allocation (SS/OA) problem.

Specifically, a two-stage approach is designed in this paper. First, the decision-theoretic rough set is employed to calculate the rough number for coping with the subjective uncertainty of data and assigning the weights for a resilient-sustainable evaluation criterion. On this basis, the supplier resilient-sustainable performance is ranked in combination with the extended VIKOR method. Second, a novel multi-objective optimization model is proposed that applies an improved genetic algorithm to select the resilient-sustainable supplier and allocate the corresponding order quantity under a multi-tier supplier network.

The results reveal that joint consideration of resilience and sustainability is essential in the SS/OA process. The method proposed in this study based on decision-theoretic rough sets and the extended VIKOR method can handle imprecise information flexibly, reduce information loss and obtain acceptable solutions for decision-makers. Numerical cases validate that this integrated approach can combine resilience and sustainability for effective and efficient SS/OA.

This paper provides industry managers with a new perspective on SS/OA from a resilience and sustainability perspective as a basis for best practices for industry resilience and sustainability. The proposed method helps to evaluate the resilient-sustainable performance of potential suppliers, which is applicable to solving real-world SS/OA problems and has important practical implications for the resilient-sustainable development of supply chains.

The two interrelated priorities of resilience and sustainability have emerged as key strategic challenges in SS/OA issues. This paper is the first study of this issue that uses the proposed integrated approach.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a low carbon culture (LCC) adoption model for gaining the right carbon capabilities by integrating the dimensions of flexibility or control and external or internal of competing values framework (CVF) with that of level of carbon emission (LCE).

This study reviewed literature related to low carbon supply chain, CVF and carbon capabilities to synthesize currently available frameworks for assessing culture and carbon-related insights. Based on these insights, this study proposes the carbon culture adoption model and presents some research propositions.

This study has extended categorization of culture suggested in CVF from four categories to eight distinct categories by adding “LCE” as a third dimension. The new categories of carbon culture are: “Red,” “Antagonist,” “Obligatory,” “Early Adopter,” “Follower,” “Transitive,” “Pragmatist” and “Green.” This categorization of organizations would help in selecting appropriate low carbon practices (LCPs).

This study presents purely conceptual framework with some research propositions which needs to be empirically tested.

Organizations can formulate right policies for low carbon capabilities based on the LCC of their supply chain.

With increasing awareness about environment across stakeholders, organizations around the world are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprints. The extent of reduction in carbon footprints depends on the right capabilities across the supply chain which in turn depends on selection of the right combination of LCPs based on the supply chain culture.

In recent years, a number of researchers have attempted to make an integration of sustainability with supply chain risk management. These studies have led to valued insights into this issue, though there is still a lack of knowledge about the mechanisms by which sustainability-related issues are materialized as risks in the supply chain management.

The paper aims to provide a comprehensive framework to evaluate the sustainability risk in the supply chain management mechanism. To do so, a novel approach using the double normalization-based multiple aggregation (DNMA) approach under the intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) environment is extended to identify, rank and evaluate the sustainability risk factors in supply chain management.

To provide comprehensive sustainability risk factors, this study has conducted a survey using interview and literature review. In this regard, this study identified 36 sustainability risk factors in supply chain management of the manufacturing firms in five different groups of risk, including sustainable operational risk factors, economic risk factors, environmental risk factors, social risk factors, and sustainable distribution and recycling risk factors. The results of this paper found that the poor planning and scheduling was the important sustainability risk in supply chain management of the manufacturing firms, followed by the environmental accidents, production capacity risk, product design risk and exploitative hiring policies. In addition, the results of the study found that the extended approach was effective and efficient in evaluating the sustainability risk factors in supply chain management of the manufacturing firms.

Three aggregation methods based on the normalization techniques are discussed. A DNMA method is proposed under intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs). To propose a broad procedure for identifying and classifying sustainability risk factors (ESFs) in supply chain management. To rank the sustainability risk factor, the authors utilize a procedure for evaluating the significance degree of the sustainability risk factor in supply chain management.

Most scholars acknowledge the role of firm-stakeholder relationship for enabling corporate sustainability (CS), but existing literature tends to apply a superficial understanding of interaction. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge by challenging classical stakeholder theory with fundamental insights from the IMP perspective, which in turn leads to a deeper conceptualization of interactive CS.

A typology framework is developed through an abductive research design grounded in the concepts of actors, resources, and activities. The authors illustrate the potential of the framework through a longitudinal case study. The empirical case revolves around an initiative for recycling of plastic material in a partly beforehand established supply chain, and the study reveals three main findings.

First, recycling solutions can result in major technological challenges. For example, using recycled material can jeopardize industrial quality standards. Second, third-party stakeholders represent critical knowledge and competence that can remedy technological challenges. Finally, R&D projects are important means for developing firm-stakeholder relationships.

The paper introduces IMP concepts to the CS debate, which can illuminate the emerging literature on tensions and paradoxes related to CS phenomena. Further research is needed on the role of non-business actors as capacity generators for social and environmental change in traditional business networks.

The proposed framework can be used to analyze why some stakeholders (individuals and groups) turn into contributing actors in inter-organizational relationships, while others remain latent.

This paper illustrates the usefulness of actor bonds, resource ties and activity links as explanatory concepts. Moreover, developed relationships in terms of collaboration and networks represent a capacity to change, which is overlooked in current CS debates.