Supply chain sustainability: A risk management approach

Abstract

This paper develops an operational perspective of supply chain sustainability, by considering it as a risk management process. It explores the nature of sustainability-related supply chain risks, distinguishes them from typical supply chain risks and develops an analytical process for their management. An empirical study is conducted to generate insights about how sustainability-related risks should be managed in an integrated way. A mixed method approach is adopted for data collection and analysis. Through an extensive literature review and personal interviews, 30 risks across the three main pillars of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) are identified first. A large survey across different industrial sectors and two exploratory empirical case studies in two textile manufacturing companies are subsequently conducted to assess and analyse several dimensions of sustainability-related risk. The failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) technique is utilised to assess the relative importance of the selected risks, to identify their potential causes and effects and test potential correlations between the identified risks. Based on the findings of the study, risk treatment strategies are proposed for all the identified sustainability-related supply chain risks. The findings show that endogenous environmental risks are perceived to be the most important across different industries and the interconnectedness between several sustainability-related risks is very high. This points to the need for integrated sustainability risk management approaches to facilitate the development of effective sustainable strategies.