Building sustainable global supply chains

Dr. Stephen BrammerProfessor of Strategy and Associate Dean for Research, Warwick

Business SchoolCo-authors: Drs. Stefan Hoejmose and Andrew Millington, University of

Bath

Four key questions

1. What are the main issues, drivers and motivators identified in the research?

2. What does the data suggest most firms are doing to manage these issues? What risks does such an approach entail?

3. What practices characterize cutting-edge approaches to sustainable global supply chains?

4. What conditions contribute to the attainment to sustainable global supply chains?

Data analyzed in our research

The most prominent issues

Sources of pressure

Motivations for managing global supply chains sustainably

Sustainable global supply chains: Common “baseline” practices

Shortcomings of baseline practices

• Un-negotiated expectations lack legitimacy

• Codes of conduct are static and unresponsive

• Third-party certification is costly• Monitoring and auditing

undermine trust

Sustainable global supply chains: Best practices

Conditions supporting improved supply chain practice

Conclusions

• Managing a global supply chain sustainably is a complex and multifaceted task

• The most common practices identified in our research provide a useful first step, but suffer from some inherent limitations

• More ambitious “best practices” address these limitations but require more integrated consideration of the relationship between a firm’s strategy, operations, and partnerships