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This study aspires to empirically evaluate the effect of firm‐specific resources and/or capabilities on sustainable supply management (SSM) and sustainability performance. Specifically, enviropreneurship and strategic purchasing are, respectively, recognized as firm‐specific capabilities and resources that are fundamental to pursuing sustainable supply practices. SSM is forwarded as a key relational capability that can result in significant improvements in organizational sustainability. Using data collected from 145 U.S. firms and advanced structural equation modeling approaches, a number of direct, mediation and moderation effects are hypothesized and tested. Five of the six proposed hypotheses were found to be significant, providing strong support for the significant role that internal resources/capabilities can play in managing sustainable supply practices as well as organizational sustainability. Surprisingly, the hypothesis suggesting that strategic purchasing could moderate the relationship between enviropreneurship and SSM was found to be insignificant. This result suggests that managers need to realize that a strategic purchasing function alone cannot help in achieving the lofty goals of sustainability. On the contrary, the prime objective of firms must be to nurture an enviropreneurial orientation within their organization. Further implications for future research and practice within SSM are offered.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how supply chain integration capabilities inform green design strategy adoption and whether green design strategy can lead to higher levels of environmental and economic performance. Design/methodology/approachA survey-based approach was used to empirically test the study hypotheses. Based on 216 usable responses collected from automakers around the globe, the authors compared the results from two different data groups (i.e. Chinese firms vs Western firms) using the structural equation modeling approach. FindingsIn the Chinese context, both internal and external supply chain integration capabilities are significantly related to the successful adoption of a green design strategy. However, the relationships are not significant in Western context. Green design is found to positively impact environmental performance in both contexts; however, no significant relationship is revealed between green design and economic performance in either context. Finally, environmental performance was found to have a significant and positive impact on economic performance in both contexts. Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional survey design that was focused only on the auto industry may affect the inferences of causality and generalizability of this study. Practical implicationsManagers should understand their specific organizational context first, and then strategically develop their external and internal supply chain integration capabilities to maximize their green design efforts for improved environmental performance. Companies can be certain that the more gains made in environmental management, the more economic returns can be expected. Originality/valueThis research contributes to the existing resource-based view literature by linking supply chain integration capabilities to green design strategy adoption in different organizational contexts. It also sheds a light on the association between green design and different performance dimensions and adds value to the current debate on the association between environmental performance and economic performance.

Purpose – There is only limited knowledge about the performance benefits of the alignment of sustainability-related upstream and downstream collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the deviation from an optimal profile of supply chain collaboration and its detrimental effect on sustainability performance as well as market performance. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyze the deviation from an optimal profile of supply chain collaboration and its detrimental effect on sustainability as well as market performance. Using data collected from 259 European manufacturing firms and advanced structural equation modeling approach, the authors empirically test a number of direct, mediation, and moderation effects. Findings – The study shows that an alignment between supply chain initiatives does pay off. Furthermore, the results show that the effects of alignment on performance measures are mediated by the firm's internal sustainable production. Research limitations/implications – The paper provides research limitations and implications as part of the research. Practical implications – The paper also offers important conclusions for practitioners. Particularly the paper shows that sustainable supply chain collaboration needs to be operated at an ideal profile in collaboration with advanced internal practices to generate improved performance. Originality/value – This work is differentiated from earlier work through the joint consideration of alignment of supply chain collaboration for customers and suppliers, providing in combination with mediation analysis new nuances to the field of sustainable supply chain management.

The paper investigates national/regional power generation expansion planning for medium/long-term analysis in the presence of electricity demand uncertainty. A two-stage stochastic programming is designed to determine the optimal mix of energy supply sources with the aim to minimise the expected total cost of electricity generation considering the total carbon dioxide emissions produced by the power plants. Compared to models available in the extant literature, the proposed stochastic generation expansion model is constructed based on sets of feasible slots (schedules) of existing and potential power plants. To reduce the total emissions produced, two approaches are applied where the first one is performed by introducing emission costs to penalise the total emissions produced. The second approach transforms the stochastic model into a multi-objective problem using the ϵ-constraint method for producing the Pareto optimal solutions. As the proposed stochastic energy problem is challenging to solve, a technique that decomposes the problem into a set of smaller problems is designed to obtain good solutions within an acceptable computational time. The practical use of the proposed model has been assessed through application to the regional power system in Indonesia. The computational experiments show that the proposed methodology runs well and the results of the model may also be used to provide directions/guidance for Indonesian government on which power plants/technologies are most feasible to be built in the future.

SUMMARY The advent of vertical disintegration coupled with the globalization of markets has brought about increased attention to how firms coordinate flow of materials and information across their supply chain partners. The current research explores the impact of strategic buyer–supplier relationships and information technology on a firm's external logistics integration and agility performance using data collected from over 200 firms. The proposed structural equation model reveals that strategic buyer–supplier relationships and information technology engender external logistics integration, which in turn, affects agility performance of firms. Furthermore, information technology moderates the link between buyer–supplier relationships and logistics integration. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

PurposeThe past decade has seen substantial changes in how organizational leaders work with external stakeholders to improve innovation performance. As leaders have encouraged the extensive involvement of suppliers and customers into the innovation process this has led to the formation of supplier innovation triads that are often governed by a portfolio of strategic alliances. The purpose of this paper is to explore how leaders’ inter-firm relationships and strategic alliances influence the development of supplier innovation triads.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of firms in the Toyota supplier association is constructed from multiple data sets, including the Japan Patent Office, BoardEx and S&PCapitalIQ. The authors test the hypotheses using multivariate techniques, moderation analysis and endogeneity tests.FindingsThe results indicate that leadership relationships to Toyota and its suppliers have a positive effect on the formation of supplier innovation triads. The authors find that firm–external leadership relationships and alliance partner diversity have differential moderating effects on how customer and supplier leadership relationships could be used to build supplier innovation triads.Research limitations/implicationsThe results focus on the firms within the Toyota supplier association, and this limits the paper’s generalizability. Although patent data provide a detailed information resource, it do not capture all collaborations.Originality/valueThe authors expand the leadership literature by undertaking one of the first studies of inter-firm leadership relationships and their differential effects on innovation triads. The authors contribute to the literature by exploring the antecedents and moderating factors that influence buyer–supplier–supplier triads within an innovation setting.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the role that communication, trust and digital transformation can play in the relationship between joint problem-solving and supply chain resilience. More specifically, the authors try to examine the possibility of digital transformation as a replacement for trust within a joint problem-solving context.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument was developed and administrated to manufacturing firms within the United Kingdom and the United States. Based on data collected from 291 senior managers, multiple linear regressions were conducted through a customized process model to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results point to the actual impact of digital transformation being far more complicated than the initial benefits that it appears to bring within a supply chain. Thus, technology is only effective when applied within the right context. The authors showcase that the trio of digital transformation, trust and joint problem-solving can be highly valuable to establish supply chain resilience and that further investigation on the interrelationships between these concepts is warranted.Practical implicationsManufacturing firms that aim to adopt new technologies should not consider advanced digital technologies as an alternative to trust. While digital transformation can improve resource sharing and integration, governance mechanisms–such as trust–will remain the cornerstones of strategic supplier relationships. Therefore, supply chain partners must strive to achieve a balance between trust and the right type of digital technology.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the growing literature focusing on the role that digital transformation can play in developing supply chain capabilities. It adds an early empirical insight on the role of technology and governance in joint problem-solving and supply chain resilience.

Many researchers believe the tremendous industrial development over the past two centuries is unsustainable because it has led to unintended ecological deterioration. Despite the ever-growing attention sustainable supply-chain management (SSCM) has received, most SSCM research and models look at the consequences, rather than the antecedents or motives of such responsible practices. The few studies that explore corporate motives have remained largely qualitative, and large-scale empirical analyses are scarce. Drawing on multiple theories and combining supply-chain and business ethics literature, we purport that instrumental, relational, and moral motives are behind a firm's engagement in SSCM practices. Specifically, we examine the links between corporate motives, SSCM practices, and firm performance. Using a sample of 259 supply-chain firms in Germany, we empirically test five hypothesized relationships. Our results reveal that relational and moral motives are key drivers, and that firms exhibiting high levels of moral obligations tend to outperform those primarily driven by amoral considerations. Findings of this study contribute to multiple literatures espousing sustainability management and can help policy makers, stakeholder groups, and scholars develop more robust strategies for encouraging firms to practice SSCM.

Using a sample of multinational firms in Germany, we develop and empirically examine a model to test the effects of ethical climate and its antecedents on purchasing social responsibility (PSR). Our results show different effects of benevolence dimensions of ethical climate on PSR: employee-focused climate has no effect, but community-focused climate is a significant driver of PSR. The results also show that top management ethical norms and code of conduct implementation impact PSR directly as well as indirectly through ethical climate.

PurposeWhile the significance of organizational resources and capabilities is widely discussed, little is known about their interrelationships as well as benefits for firms that are involved in coopetitive relationships. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance effects of entrepreneurial orientation, strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity as well as their complementarity effects on operational and innovation performance for firms involved in horizontal coopetitive relationships.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon the resource-based-view, dynamic capabilities and the relational view theories, this study forwards numerous hypotheses between the constructs of interest. The proposed hypotheses are tested utilizing survey data collected from 313 horizontal coopetitive relationships.FindingsThe results clearly suggest that entrepreneurial orientation, strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity could positively impact innovation and operational performance outcomes independently. In addition, the authors also find strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity to have differential moderating effects on the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and the performance outcomes.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that although strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity could lead to performance benefits independently, when it comes to coopetitive relationships, the use of both these capabilities may not substantially increase the positive impact of entrepreneurial orientation on performance outcomes. Specifically, given that these capabilities could intensify competitiveness as well as hostility between partners, they seem to affect the firm's performance differently.