Evolution of sustainability in supply chain management: A literature review

Abstract

An ever-increasing demand for products and their consumption has put pressure on industrial output and their supply chains, and that demand has resulted in negative impacts on the environment and society. Increasing rates of pollution and environmental calamities caused by industrial production have urged several researchers and industry experts to work on Sustainable Production and Consumption issues within the context of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). This paper comprehensively covers the exponential growth of the topic through an evolutionary lens. This article attempts to understand the evolution of sustainability issues by analysing trends across industries, economies, and through the use of various methodologies. A comprehensive thematic analysis was performed on 1068 filtered articles from 2000 to 2015, highlighting the development and importance of the body of knowledge. The study proposes a conceptual framework to classify various factors along the triple bottom line pillars of sustainability issues in the context of supply chains. An in-depth study is conducted on 190 articles covering all pillars of sustainability (as per the proposed conceptual framework) on SSCM. We observe that studies focusing on all three dimensions of sustainability are comparatively scarce. More focus on industry-specific studies is required because problems addressing industries that are serious polluters, especially those in emerging economies, remains largely unaddressed. It is observed that the studies addressing social issues are scarce, and more focus is required on the measurement of social impacts along the supply chain. Finally, we propose future avenues to extend research on the SSCM domain while keeping in mind the need to address industry specific and economy specific problems from the triple bottom line perspective.