Sustainable Chain Management

This paper examines the concept of sustainable chain management using IBM and Walmart as case studies. It analyzes two research articles on the topic and discusses the implications for these organizations. The focus is on environmental and labor sustainability in the supply chain.

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Sustainable Chain Management
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Abstract
Procurement management is an important activity that is always incorporated in the life
cycle of a product. It must be involved because it is required in different stages where there is a
movement of raw materials and end products right from the producers, suppliers all the way to
the end consumers. In the procurement process, the supply chain should be sustainable because
all the businesses aspire for sustainability. In this paper, a critical study of the sustainability of
the supply chain of IBM and Walmart is done. This is done using two articles: 1) "Sustainable
human resource management with salience of stakeholders: A top management perspective" and
“Green supply chain management: A review and bibliometric analysis.” The information from
these articles can be of great contribution in understanding the concept of sustainability in the
procurement management and supplies process.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Comparative Summary of Research Articles...............................................................................................4
Comparative Case Analysis.........................................................................................................................6
Implications of the Research Articles..........................................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12
Appendices................................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Chain management is one of the most important activities in the production process. All
the organization must have a well-developed supply chain management because it plays a
significant role I the completion of the production cycle. Supply chain helps in the distribution of
the supplies that an entity uses as inputs or rather raw materials. For efficiency purposes, the
supply chain should be sustainable. Meaning, the management must adopt sustainable programs
to safeguard the environmental, economic, and social viability and impacts of the clients and
vendors. This paper uses IBM and Walmart as case studies to analyze the effectiveness of
sustainable chain management practices.
Comparative Summary of Research Articles
"Sustainable human resource management with salience of stakeholders: A top
management perspective" is an article that was written by Järlström, Maria, Essi Saru, and
Sinikka Vanhala and published by Journal of Business Ethics. The writers used the article to
study the role of sustainability in the supply chain management process. “Green supply chain
management: A review and bibliometric analysis”, on the other hand, is an article that was
written by Jabbour, Charbel José Chiappetta, and Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour and
published by the Journal of Cleaner Production. In this article, the main topic of study is the
sustainability of the supply chain management system. According to these studies, supply chain
management is a key component in the life cycle of a product. It can be much better if it is as
sustainable as possible. Therefore, whenever conducting any business activities, deliberate
measures must be taken to ensure that the business operations as sustainable in different aspects.
Despite exploring the topic of sustainable supply chain management, the articles have some
differences. The most outstanding difference is that two articles address different aspects of
supply chain management.

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The first article revolves around environmental management system sustainability.
Meaning, it focuses on environmental sustainability. It advocates for the compliance of the
environmental policies that are required in the corporate world today. Currently, the global
community has become vulnerable climate change (Fahimnia, Sarkis & Davarzani 2015). Since
climate change is mainly human-triggered, it can be addressed by adopting acceptable
environmental conservation and protection measures (Meixell & Luoma 2015). Therefore, to
achieve this, all the organizations must ensure that their supply chain is environmental-friendly at
all times. There are many ways through which this can be accomplished. Most importantly, the
production process should be pollutant-free. All the organizations should refrain from acts of
pollution because it contaminates the environment and makes it harmful and unsustainable.
Instead what needs to be done is to go green and embrace the usage of renewable energy sources
such as solar and wind (Calatayud, Mangan & Christopher 2019). Any form of environmental
degradation such as the discharging of untreated wastes to the nearby water bodies must also
stop.
The second article differs from the first one because it analyzes the concept of
sustainability from a different perspective. According to his article, sustainable supply chain
management not only involves the environmental conservation, but a strict observance of
sustainable labor practices. All the businesses depend to the employees because they are the
source of labor on which the business relies to manage its production process and day-to-day
operations (Järlström, Saru & Vanhala 2018). Therefore, even if many organizations have been
engaging in unlawful and unethical labor practices such as overworking, exploitation, poor
remuneration, and the hiring of minors, an entity that is committed to observing running a
sustainable business must refrain from such. It should ensure that that its supply chain is

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sustainable when it comes to labor management (Silvestre 2015). Apart from refraining from
such acts, the organization should stop it collaboration with other entities that still violate labor
standards. At no any given time should such non-compliant suppliers be entertained.
It is evident, from the above researches, that sustainability is an issue that has become of
concern to many organizations. Ordinarily, all the organizations should engage in sustainable
business practices because it is what the laws and ethical standards permit. The supply chain
should be composed of the entities which are committed to observing environmental
sustainability. Meaning, whenever engaging in business activities, deliberate measures should be
taken to ensure that the environment is made as safe as possible (Su, Horng, Tseng, Chiu, Wu &
Chen 2016). Meaning, no matter the nature of business activities, there should be no room for
air, water, soil, and land pollution as well as the over-exploitation of energy and the natural
resources. At the same time, measures must be taken to implement right and acceptable labor
practices which can accommodate all the workers regardless of their diversities (Hackius &
Petersen 2017). This indicates that a sustainable supply chain revers environmental safety,
equality, fairness, accountability, and inclusivity.
Comparative Case Analysis
There are two cases that are analyzed in this paper. He first se involves IBM. The second
one involves Walmart. IBM and Walmart are multinational companies whose operations extend
beyond their countries’ borders. On its part, IBM- International Business Machines Corporation
is concerned about the provision of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services
to its global market. Walmart, on the other hand, deals in retail services-grocery stores,
departmental stores, and hypermarkets. The multinational nature of these companies has made it
necessary for them to partner with many stakeholders in their supply chain (Touboulic & Walker

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2015). However, this has not been all smooth because, as illustrated in the case studies, the two
multinationals have been facing a myriad of challenges in their supply chain management
system.
The information presented in the case study shows that IBM has been facing some
problems when it comes to the management of its supply chain system (Azadi, Jafarian, Saen &
Mirhedayatian 2015). The management of IBM is concerned about the irregularities in the
supply chain. It has expressed concern that there are some of its employees (mostly managers)
who engage in unethical supply chain activities such as the acceptance of late bids, canvassing,
bribery, cronyism, and the awarding of tenders to the companies with whom they associate. All
these are unethical because they encourage favoritism, discrimination, and inequality in the
market. However, the unfortunate thing is that the company is still concerned about
environmental unsustainability that, according to the management, has become a major issue of
concern (Khalid, Seuring, Beske, Land, Yawar & Wagner 2015). According to the available
information, IBM has been dealing with the suppliers who are not concerned about the
environment.
However, since IBM is committed to attaining the desired sustainability in its supply
chain, it has come up with measures to rectify the situation. On April 13, 2010, IBM came up
with a new policy that it had purposely formulated to tackle the problem of environmental
unsustainability in its supply chain. According to this policy, all the suppliers must abide by the
environmental standards irrespective of their geographical location. In order to instill the culture
of environmental sustainability, all the suppliers as well as their respective sub-contractors must
install the management system in their offices. The purpose of the system is to help in the
collection and sharing of enough data on all the environmental conservation initiatives taken by

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each of them. Since it is a must to do so, all the suppliers have no choice, but to comply with the
new standard by participating in the reduction of green gas emissions, energy usage, and the
management of wastes. Indeed, this is a brilliant idea because, if all the suppliers comply,
environmental sustainability will become a reality.
The case study on Walmart, on the other hand, indicates that environmental sustainability
is a challenging undertaking in the multinational. As clearly-illustrated in the case study, the
management of Walmart is also concerned about the unsustainability in its supply chain. Just like
IBM, Walmart is a multinational that sources for raw materials from very many suppliers-
thousands of them. Although each of these suppliers is required to engage in ethically acceptable
ad sustainable business activities, there are many of them which have been engaging in
environmentally-unsustainable practices. The management is aware that there are some suppliers
which engage in pollution, misuse of the waste materials, excessive usage of non-renewable
energy sources, and the release of green gases into the environment. This is quite unfortunate
because it demonstrates that the multinational has been tolerating unsustainable practices
irrespective of its commitments to help in the protection and sustainable usage of the resources
and environment in totality.
In order to address the problem of environmental unsustainability in its system, the
management of Walmart has come up with a plan. In its plan, Walmart indicated that it would
reform its policies and tailor them towards the enhancement of sustainable practices in its supply
chain. This, the organization plans to do by taking a number of steps. Most importantly, it plans
to lobby all its suppliers to refrain from unsustainable practices and instead focus on sustainable
practices. The goal of the initiative is to reduce the rate of carbon emission and enhance the
efficiencies in the utilization of energy resources. So, to succeed in reducing the green gas

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emission by 20 million metric tons, all the contractors and the sub-contractors to ensure that
there is no any form of damages that result from the supply process. All the suppliers and sub-
contractors have a mandate to ensure that the entire supply chain process ranging from the
acquisition of the raw materials, production, distribution, consumption is environmentally-safe
and sustainable.
Based on all these information, this paper concludes that the unsustainability of the
supply chain is a reality in the two multinationals. At the IBM and Walmart, there are so many
suppliers which are not concerned about environmental sustainability. That is why pollution,
emission of green gases, and overutilization of the resources has become a major issue of
concern. However, the only recommendation that this paper gives is that the two multinationals
should be effective in the implementation of their sustainability plans. Reduction of green gas
emission is a brilliant idea that should be embraced in all these organizations. It can benefit them
a great deal and enable them to realize the goal of creating a clean and sustainable supply chain.
So, what the multinationals should do is to be keen on the implementation by encouraging
compliance and providing all the necessary human resources, monetary, and non-monetary
support to all its suppliers and the sub-contractors to ensure that they become sustainable in their
operations (Jaggernath & Khan 2015).
Implications of the Research Articles
The articles can be of great help when used in the promotion of sustainable supply chain
management practices. The management of IBM and Walmart can succeed in attaining
sustainability if they adopt the findings of the two studies. From the case studies presented, it is
obvious that sustainability has become a major issue of concern to these organizations. Both at
the IBM and Walmart, concerns are raised over unsustainable environmental management

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practices. Most of the stakeholders have been engaging in the violation of environmental
protection standards expected of them (Formentini & Taticchi 2016). So, rectify the situation and
become environmentally-sustainable and viable, the management of these organizations should
use the research findings and recommendations in the articles.
The management of Walmart, in particular, can benefit a great deal from the articles. The
first way through which the articles can benefit the company is that it can equip it with the
knowledge to use in attaining the environmental management sustainability in supply chain
system (Calatayud, Mangan & Christopher 2019). From the case study presented, it was
observed that the company has been facing serious environmental issues. As an established
organization, Walmart has an extensive network. It collaborates with many other firms that help
in enhancing its sustainability. Walmart should embrace sustainable environmental protection
policies to help in ensuring that there are no unnecessary cases of environmental degradation in
the organization (Abdel-Basset, Gunasekaran, Mohamed & Chilamkurti 2019). Apart from
stopping a partnership with the companies that do not comply with environmental protection
standards, Walmart should come up with stringent policies to safeguard its environment by
making it safe to the workers, clients, the public, and the surrounding environment. If the entire
supply chain is filled up with the organizations that comply with the environmental standards,
Walmart can attain the desired sustainability in its supply chain.
The other way through which Walmart can benefit from the articles that it can adopt
these of sustainable labor practices. A sustainable supply chain management involves many
things including the hiring, management and retention of the workers (Christopher 2016). A
clearly outline in the articles, a sustainable organization is, therefore, the one that engages in
lawful an ethical labor practices such as proper remuneration of the workers, transparency in the

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hiring process, equality, tolerance, empowerment, and appropriate reward and promotion of the
workers (Clauson, Breeden, Davidson & Mackey 2018). To be sustainable, Walmart should,
hence, do all these, comply with the standard labor regulations, and compel all its suppliers and
subsidiaries to do the same. Meaning, the organization should cease its partnership with any
entity that engages in unethical labor practices such as the hiring of the minors, gender inequality
in the workplace, exploitation of the workers, overworking of the employees, and many more
(Dubey, Gunasekaran, Papadopoulos, Childe, Shibin & Wamba 2017). Once all these are done,
the organization can become sustainable.
From the above analysis, it is evident that Walmart and IBM are some of the companies
that are concerned about sustainability. In their supply chain, the companies have raise concern
because many of the stakeholders have been found to be engaging in unsustainable practices
(Genovese, Acquaye, Figueroa & Koh 2017). The participation of different stakeholders in the
supply chain has been making the companies to engage in unsustainable practices. In this regard,
for a company like Walmart to be sustainable, it should ensure that it adopts the
recommendations made in the articles. Environmental sustainability is something that should not
be taken for granted because it means a lot for the organization (Kshetri 2018). The same applies
to labor sustainability because the workers also matter a lot. Therefore, to be sustainable, the
supply chain should be managed by formulating and adopting strict sustainability policies that
must be followed by every participant in the supply chain system.
Conclusion
Sustainability is a concept that should always be taken seriously by every organization. In
its supply chain, all the organizations should try as much as they can to be sustainable. The best
way to realize this is to embrace and comply with all the sustainability standards acceptable in

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the corporate world. From the two case sties, it is evident that IBM and Walmart have lots of
loopholes in their supply chain system. The supply chain management system has been found to
be unsustainable because of the inefficiencies in the manner in which various suppliers have
been complying with the standard and acceptable environmental and labor standards aimed at
enhancing the culture of sustainability. The best strategy that this paper recommends is that the
management of the two multinationals should do everything within their capacity to attain a
sustainable supply chain at all times. Apart from engaging in right labor practices, the
organizations should create room for environmental conservation and also ensure that all the
partners do the same.

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References
Abdel-Basset, M., Gunasekaran, M., Mohamed, M. & Chilamkurti, N., 2019. A framework for
risk assessment, management and evaluation: Economic tool for quantifying risks in
supply chain. Future Generation Computer Systems, 90, pp.489-502.
Azadi, M., Jafarian, M., Saen, R.F. & Mirhedayatian, S.M., 2015. A new fuzzy DEA model for
evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness of suppliers in sustainable supply chain
management context. Computers & Operations Research, 54, pp.274-285.
Calatayud, A., Mangan, J. & Christopher, M., 2019. The self-thinking supply chain. Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal, 24(1), pp.22-38.
Calatayud, A., Mangan, J. & Christopher, M., 2019. The self-thinking supply chain. Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal, 24(1), pp.22-38.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Clauson, K.A., Breeden, E.A., Davidson, C. & Mackey, T.K., 2018. Leveraging blockchain
technology to enhance supply chain management in healthcare. Blockchain in Healthcare
Today.
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Papadopoulos, T., Childe, S.J., Shibin, K.T. & Wamba, S.F., 2017.
Sustainable supply chain management: framework and further research directions.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, pp.1119-1130.
Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J. & Davarzani, H., 2015. Green supply chain management: A review and
bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 162, pp.101-114.

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Formentini, M. & Taticchi, P., 2016. Corporate sustainability approaches and governance
mechanisms in sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production,
112, pp.1920-1933.
Genovese, A., Acquaye, A.A., Figueroa, A. & Koh, S.L., 2017. Sustainable supply chain
management and the transition towards a circular economy: Evidence and some
applications. Omega, 66, pp.344-357.
Hackius, N. & Petersen, M., 2017. Blockchain in logistics and supply chain: trick or treat?. In
Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL) (pp. 3-18).
epubli.
Jaggernath, R. & Khan, Z., 2015. Green supply chain management. World Journal of
Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 11(1), pp.37-47.
Järlström, M., Saru, E. & Vanhala, S., 2018. Sustainable human resource management with
salience of stakeholders: A top management perspective. Journal of Business Ethics,
152(3), pp.703-724.
Khalid, R.U., Seuring, S., Beske, P., Land, A., Yawar, S.A. & Wagner, R., 2015. Putting
sustainable supply chain management into base of the pyramid research. Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, 20(6), pp.681-696.
Kshetri, N., 2018. 1 Blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management objectives.
International

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Journal of Information Management, 39, pp.80-89.
Meixell, M.J. & Luoma, P., 2015. Stakeholder pressure in sustainable supply chain management:
a systematic review. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management, 45(1/2), pp.69-89.
Silvestre, B.S., 2015. Sustainable supply chain management in emerging economies:
Environmental turbulence, institutional voids and sustainability trajectories. International
Journal of Production Economics, 167, pp.156-169.
Su, C.M., Horng, D.J., Tseng, M.L., Chiu, A.S., Wu, K.J. & Chen, H.P., 2016. Improving
sustainable supply chain management using a novel hierarchical grey-DEMATEL
approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, pp.469-481.
Touboulic, A. & Walker, H., 2015. Theories in sustainable supply chain management: a
structured literature review. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management, 45(1/2), pp.16-42.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: Article 1
Sustainable Human Resource Management with Salienceof Stakeholders: A Top Management
Perspective
Maria Ja ̈ rlstro ̈ m1•Essi Saru2•Sinikka Vanhala3Received: 8 May 2015 / Accepted: 21 August
2016ÓSpringer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract
The present paper analyses how top managersconstruct the meaning of sustainable human
resourcemanagement (HRM) and its responsibility areas and howthey identify and prioritize
stakeholders in sustainableHRM. The empirical data were collected as part of theFinnish HR
Barometer inquiry. A qualitative analysisreveals four dimensions of sustainable HRM: Justice
andequality, transparent HR practices, profitability, andemployee well-being. It also reveals
four broader respon-sibility areas: Legal and ethical, managerial, social, andeconomic. Contrary
to the prior green HRM literature,ecological responsibility was largely ignored. The studyalso
reveals a wide range of stakeholders, specifically,owners, managers, employees, customers, and
employeerepresentatives, as well as their special roles and require-ments for sustainable HRM.
These findings contribute tothe literature of sustainable HRM by illustrating thedimensions and
broader responsibilities of sustainableHRM as seen by top managers. Their conceptions of sus-
tainable HRM are largely neglected in the prior literaturedespite their crucial role in legitimating
HRM and thussustainable HRM in companies. These results alsocontribute to the theory of
stakeholder salience (identifi-cation and prioritization of stakeholders) in the sustainableHRM
context from the viewpoint of top managers.KeywordsGreen HRMHRMSustainable
HRMStakeholdersQualitative approachIntroductionBased on the foundation of business ethics
debates, cor-porate social responsibility (CSR) and the ethical aspects ofhuman resource
management (HRM) have receivedincreasing attention among scholars (Cooke and He2010;de
Gama et al.2012; Gond et al.2011; Greenwood2013;Morgeson et al.2013; Waldman and
Siegel2008). Thisattention is mainly due to the growing interest of differentstakeholders in
corporate-level issues, such as the treatmentof employees, environmental pollution, and
financialtransparency. In CSR statements, companies try to definewhat responsibilities
businesses need to fulfil (Jamali2008). Correspondingly, the economic, legal, ethical,
andphilanthropic (or discretional) responsibilities of CSR havebeen identified (Carroll1991).
While most research onCSR and sustainability has focused on the macro level ofanalysis (see
Morgeson et al.2013), Jamali et al. (2015,p. 126) suggested that ‘‘HRM can potentially provide
apromising managerial framework that can support organi-zational efforts in translating CSR
strategies into practicalmanagerial actions and outcomes’’. A relatively newresearch area of
sustainable HRM has also appeared(Clarke2011; Ehnert2009a; Ehnert et al.2014), namely,one
that connects corporate sustainability to HRM prac-tices to explore the role of HRM in
integrating generalcorporate sustainability practices and strategies within&Maria Ja ̈ rlstro

17̈
[e-mail] [e-mail]
[e-mail]1University of Vaasa, Post Box 700, 65101 VAASA,
Finland2Turku School of Economics, University of Turku,20014 TURUN YLIOPISTO,
Finland3Aalto University School of Business, Post Box 21230,00076 AALTO, Finland123J Bus
EthicsDOI 10.1007/s10551-016-3310-8
organizations (Ehnert et al.2016). Hence, sustainableHRM seeks to develop sustainable business
organizationsand create sustainable HRM systems in thoseorganizations.The research on
sustainability in HRM covers numerousrelated topics, such as sustainable HRM
(Ehnert2009a,b;Zaugg et al.2001), socially responsible HRM (Cohen2010;Cohen et al.2012;
Hartog and Muller-Camen2008), greenHRM (Jabbour and Santos2008; Jackson and
Seo2010;Jackson et al.2011; Renwick et al.2008,2013,2016), andstrategic environmental HRM
(Egri and Hornal2002). Theplurality of the concept and its theoretical frameworks can atleast be
partially explained by the short history of the sus-tainability debate. The following original and
broad defini-tion for sustainable HRM was recently presented by Ehnertet al. (2016, p. 3;
Ehnert2009a):...the adaption of HRM strategies and practices thatenables the achievement of
financial, social andecological goals, with an impact inside and outside ofthe organization and
over a long-term time horizonwhile controlling for unintended side effects andnegative
feedback.This definition is open to multiple goals and complexrelationships between HRM
systems and their internal andexternal environments (e.g. Schuler and Jackson2014)leading one
to the so-called open-system model of HRMwith HRM stakeholders (Beer et al.2015).The
stakeholder approach within HRM addresses theissue regarding to whom business or HRM is (or
should be)responsible (Freeman1984; Freeman et al.2004). A widelycited theory of stakeholder
salience deals with the identi-fication of key stakeholders based on the attributes (legit-imacy,
power, and urgency) possessed by thesestakeholders (Mitchell et al.1997). Despite this
recentinterest in stakeholders by HRM scholars (Beer et al.2015;De Prins et al.2014;
Ehnert2009a; Guerci et al.2014;Jackson and Schuler2003; Slack et al.2015), stakeholdertheory
still remains almost absent from the theoreticaldiscussions on HRM and sustainable HRM (e.g.
Guerciet al.2014; Van Buren III and Greenwood2011). Corre-spondingly, there is a lack of
knowledge on stakeholdersalience in the HRM context. For instance, Guerci et al.(2014, p. 218)
claim that a stakeholder perspective ‘‘pre-sents a potential new insight in developing a deeper
levelunderstanding of sustainability and sustainable develop-ment’’. Accordingly, one reason for
invoking the stake-holder perspective in HRM is to confer legitimacy. Likeother management
systems in an organization, the HRMsystem needs to consider its stakeholders in order to
beperceived as legitimate (Guerci and Shani2013,2014;Jackson and Schuler2003; Ulrich and
Brockbank2005).Clearly, HRM can serve multiple stakeholders (e.g.employees, customers,
and society), not just the owners ofcompanies (Beer et al.2015; Lindstro ̈ m and
Vanhala2013;Mariappanadar2003). Therefore, sustainable HRM hasresponsibilities to fulfil
towards its stakeholders and aresponsibility to satisfy the expectations of all
keystakeholders.The purpose of this research effort then is to increase theknowledge of
sustainable HRM, its definition, and its keystakeholders as perceived by top managers. In order
toexamine this research theme, this study used qualitativedata collected from 538 top managers.
Our two researchquestions are as follows:(RQ1) How do top managers construct the concept
ofsustainable HRM and(RQ2) How do they relate sustainable HRM to itsstakeholders?Top

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managers were selected as the target group owing totheir critical role inlegitimatingHR practices,
allocatingresources, and influencing within-group agreement in theorganizational hierarchy
(Bowen and Ostroff2004). Further,it is the role of these managers to interact with all stake-
holders of the company (Jackson and Schuler2003). Thefindings contribute to the literature on
sustainable HRM byillustrating the dimensions and broader responsibilities ofsustainable HRM
as seen by top managers, whose concep-tions of sustainability in HRM are often neglected in
priorliterature in spite of the crucial role they play in legitimatingHRM and thus sustainable
HRM inside companies. There-fore, we continue the research stream that has
investigatedsustainability reporting practices by the world’s largestcompanies (Ehnert et al.2016)
by including the HRM per-spective in that stream. These findings also contribute to thetheory of
stakeholder salience (Mitchell et al.1997)byidentifying those stakeholders in a sustainable HRM
contextfrom the point of view of top managers.The paper begins by describing the scope of
sustainableHRM, and how it adds new elements to the mainstreamdiscussion of unitary and
pluralist HRM (see De Prins et al.2014). The second part of the paper focuses on the priorHRM
and stakeholder literature. Then we present the dataand methodology for this research effort,
after which theempirical results are illustrated. The paper ends with adiscussion and conclusions.
Limitations of the paper andfuture research prospects are also discussed.The Scope of
Sustainable HRMThis section focuses on the emerging research field that issustainable HRM.
There are several academic roots forsustainability in HRM, and many research areas andM. Ja ̈
rlstro ̈ m et al.123
Appendix 2: Article 2
Green supply chain management: A review and bibliometric analysis
Behnam Fahimniaa,n, Joseph Sarkisb,1, Hoda Davarzanic,2aInstitute of Transport and Logistics
Studies, The University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, AustraliabFoisie School of
Business, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA 01609-2280, USAcDiscipline of Business
Analytics, The University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, Australiaarticle infoArticle
history:Received 21 July 2014Accepted 7 January 2015Available online 23 January 2015
Keywords:Green supply chainEnvironmental sustainabilityBibliometricsLiterature
reviewNetwork analysis
Abstract
The emergentfield of green supply chain management has been rapidly evolving with a
geometricgrowth in the number of academic publications in thisfield. A number of literature
reviews have beenpublished focusing on specific aspects of green supply chain management
such as performancemeasurement, supplier selection/evaluation, analytical modeling efforts, and

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some others with broaderareas of focus. This paper presents a thorough bibliometric and network
analysis that provides insightsnot previously fully grasped or evaluated by other reviews on this
topic. The analysis begins byidentifying over 1000 published studies, which are then distilled
down to works of proven influence andthose authored by influential investigators. Using
rigorous bibliometric tools, established and emergentresearch clusters are identified for
topological analysis, identification of key research topics, interrela-tions, and collaboration
patterns. This systematic mapping of thefield helps graphically illustrate thepublications
evolution over time and identify areas of current research interests and potential directionsfor
future research. Thefindings provide a robust roadmap for further investigation in
thisfield.&2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Contents1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 1022. Green supply chain management
definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 1023. Research methodology and initial data
statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 1033.1. Defining the appropriate search
terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 1033.2. Initial search results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1033.3. Refinement of the search
results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 1033.4. Initial data
statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1033.5. Data
analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044. Bibliometric analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044.1.
Author influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054.2. Affiliation
statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054.3. Keyword
statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065. Network analysis of publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065.1. Citation
analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.2. PageRank analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.3. Co-citation
analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085.3.1. Data clustering: topical literature classification . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085.3.2. Dynamic co-
citation
analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 110Contents lists available atScienceDirectjournal
homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpeInt. J. Production

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Economicshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2015.01.0030925-5273/&2015 Elsevier B.V. All
rights reserved.nCorresponding author. Tel.:þ61 2 91141801.E-mail
addresses:[e-mail](B. Fahimnia),[e-mail](J.
Sarkis),[e-mail](H. Davarzani).1Tel.:þ1 508 831 4831.2Tel.:þ61 2 9514
3612.Int. J. Production Economics 162 (2015) 101–114
6. Conclusions and directions for future
research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .
110Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 1121. IntroductionSupply chain and operations management has matured from afield
that myopically addressed only operational and economicmatters to one that comprehensively
considers the broader environ-mental and social issues that face organizations of today.
Thesuccessful integration of economic,environmental and social sustain-ability goals has been at
the forethought of leading supply chain andoperations management. This emergentfield has been
growing for atleast 20 years and is well into its third decade of investigation.Corresponding to a
global trend, the concept of green and sustainablesupply chain management has received more
attention in the pastdecade and garnered emerging clusters of research in this area.A number of
literature reviews on green and sustainable supplychain management have been completed in the
past few years.Some of these reviews have been general and comprehensivelycovered entirefield
(Seuring and Müller, 2008; Srivastava, 2007),whilst others have focused on specific aspects such
as perfor-mance measurement (Taticchi et al., 2013), supplier selection ingreen supply chains
(Igarashi et al., 2013) or analytical models forgreen supply chain management (Brandenburg et
al., 2014;Govindan et al., in press). These reviews have identified varioustopical issues covered
within the emergent research literature.They have been relatively straightforward in their
analyses, pro-viding summary aggregate statistics of the number of papers andtopical areas
(Brandenburg et al., 2014). Each study has providedinsight into thefield, but additional analysis
of this literature usingrigorous bibliometric tools can provide further insights not pre-viously
fully grasped or evaluated.Network analysis through bibliometric tools can prove powerfulfor
identifying established and emerging topical areas. It can alsohelp identify the clusters of
research and researchers showing howthe various areas of thought may have emerged based on
author andinstitutional characteristics. Identifying the more influential research-ers within the
clusters sets the stage for determining additionalemergent studyfields through capturing of more
recent topicscovered by these researchers. This paper presents a comprehensiveevaluation of
thefield, focusing on forward green supply chainpractices, starting with a pool of over 1000
published studies andfiltering this pool to more influential works and investigators.Using
rigorous bibliometric tools, a comprehensive network analysis(e.g. citation and co-citation
analyses) is completed andfive majorclusters of research are identified. These algorithmically
identifiedclusters set the stage for topical classification of the published modelsand further
investigation of the evolution of these clusters over years.From these results additional insights
are also gained on the currentresearch interests and potential directions for future research.The
remainder of the paper begins with an overview of greensupply chain management inSection

21
2explaining how thefieldhas been defined and reviewed in the past.Section 3introducesthe
structured methodology used to identify and further refine theliterature that will be reviewed and
evaluated in this study. Somegeneral observations are also made inSection 3before presentinga
detailed analysis using BibExcel and Gephi bibliometric networkanalysis tools inSections 4 and
5. An evaluation of the results witha critical analysis is presented inSection 5.Section
6summarizesthe results, presents some limitations of this study, and discussesopportunities for
future research.2. Green supply chain management definitionThe concepts of supply chain
management and environmentalmanagement as strategic organizational practices to gain
competitiveadvantage have been receiving increased attention especially duringthe period of the
late 1980s and early 1990s. However, the relativeimportance of these strategic practices can be
easily traced back to theearly periods of the environmental management movement of thelate
1960s (Sarkis et al., 2011). It was not until formalization of thefield in the mid 1990s that
investigations started to become moreestablished (Seuring and Müller, 2008). Since these early
beginnings,as we shall see in our literature review, there has been a geometricgrowth (upwardly
increasing, nonlinear growth) in academic pub-lications in thisfield. The topic has never been
more important, bothfrom a practitioner and from a research perspective. Recent
practicalevidence is provided from the latest United Nations Global Compactsustainability
survey of major companies. The survey emphasized thatmanaging the sustainability of supply
chains is one of four key issuesfor diffusing corporate sustainability (United Nations, 2013b).
Not onlyare environmental sustainability (greening) issues a concern, butburgeoning issues
related to social sustainability have been gainingin importance (Sarkis et al., 2010; Seuring and
Müller, 2008).A consensus definition for green and sustainable supply chainsdoes not exist. In
fact, a review paper focusing purely on defini-tions for green and sustainable supply chains
found a total of 22definitions for green and 12 definitions for sustainable supplychain
management (Ahi and Searcy, 2013). This issue alone makesa literature review on this topic a
non-trivial exercise due to themany definitions that do exist. Part of this difficulty is thedefinition
of a supply chain and where the boundaries are to bedrawn (Sarkis, 2012). Whether terms such
as logistics, reverselogistics, purchasing, and procurement are to be consideredsynonyms for
supply chain management is another point ofconfusion. Similarly, whether definitional
boundaries are affectedby the inclusion of upstream and downstream partners in thesupply chain
is another concern in determining the search terms.To help bound the scope of our research, we
focus our review onforward supply chains, leaving reverse logistics and closed-loopsupply
chains outside the scope of this study.Comprehensive reviews of the green and sustainable
supplychain management studies have been recently completed(Benjaafar et al., 2013;
Brandenburg et al., 2014; Seuring, 2013b;Tang and Zhou, 2012; Varsei et al., 2014). Their focus
has been onshowing the growth of thefield, identifying the research gaps, andspecific areas of
research interest. The linkage of the literatureacross authors, topics, andfields has been
completed throughcontent analysis and descriptive statistics. A more thorough net-work analysis
is missing in these reviews. A network analysis isvaluable for mapping the scope and structure of
the discipline,identifying the most authoritative papers, and discovering keyclusters of research.
Without a thorough network analysis, deter-mining these factors is less precise and more
subjective. Theproposed network analysis in this paper provides the opportunityto objectively
identify the clusters of research streams within thegreen supply chain management literature,

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graphically illustratethe evolution of thefield over time, and identify the areas ofcurrent research
interests, and potential directions for futureresearch. This paper complements the published
reviews on theB. Fahimnia et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 162 (2015) 101–114102