Sustainable Procurement: Factors and Frameworks

This article explores the main factors influencing sustainable procurement in the private and public sectors. It provides a framework for understanding sustainable procurement and discusses the growing importance of this field. The article also highlights the need for further research and theory development in sustainable procurement.

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Running head: SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT
Sustainable procurement
Name:
Course:

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Scope of the review................................................................................................................3
1.2 Research question..................................................................................................................3
1.3 outline of the literature review...............................................................................................3
Second: Research methodology.......................................................................................................3
Third: Articles summary..................................................................................................................4
Third: Discussion.............................................................................................................................6
3.1 Sustainable procurement: a growing field.............................................................................7
3.2 Sustainable procurement framework.....................................................................................7
3.3 The focus of sustainability and triple bottom line (TBL) procurement sustainability...........7
3.4 Sustainable procurement in the public sector........................................................................8
3.5 Communication in supply chains...........................................................................................8
3.6 Procurement sustainability tensions (PSTs)..........................................................................9
3.7 Value creation through procurement.....................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Globalization of economic activities led to facilitated goods and materials movements
across supply chains. Organizations became able to produce high-quality products that are also
sustainable through adopting sustainable procurement strategies (Thakur, 2017). Also,
organizations are able to create value by gaining suppliers loyalty, considering procurement to be
a strategic issue that contributes to sustainability across the whole supply chain (Shah, Wahab, &
Tahir, 2016).
1.1 Scope of the review
Sustainable procurement was selected to represent the scope of the literature review due
to the increasing importance devoted by researchers, policymakers and business organizations to
sustainable procurement.
1.2 Research question
According to the examination of relevant literature, the research question is as follows:
"What are the main factors influencing sustainable procurement in the private and the public
sectors?"
1.3 outline of the literature review
The literature review covers eight relevant articles. A summary is provided to each of
them, then relations and differenced were declared. The major limitations of the selected articles
are also argued.

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Second: Research methodology
This literature review concerns with sustainable procurement, by conducting secondary
research and searching the relevant terms, including "sustainable procurement, sustainability and
green procurement". The considered academic journals are Journal of Purchasing & Supply
Management, Business Strategy and the Environment Journal, International Journal of
Production Economics, International Journal of Operations & Production Management,
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, International Journal of
Business Strategy, Journal of Cleaner Production and Technovation Journal. The selected
journals comply with the assignment rules, they are ranked (B &C) according to VHB‐
JOURQUAL3 ranking. The selected articles are eight articles that analyze various issues related
to sustainable procurement and add to the sustainability issues knowledge. The selected articles
are published between 2011 and 2019.
Third: Articles summary
The first article is taken from the Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, which is
ranked (B) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. It focuses on the analysis of sustainable
procurement growing role for purchasing managers and suppliers who seek to incorporate
corporate social responsibility within supply chains. The article investigates the trends in the
literature, challenges in methodologies and research gaps in order to direct the future research. It
proposes a framework for sustainable procurement across supply chains (Walker, Miemczyk,
Johnsen, & Spencer, 2012).

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The second article is published in Business Strategy and the Environment Journal which
is ranked (B) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. It investigates the role of procurement in
sustainability that requires policies to be extended beyond the boundaries of the organization and
to be incorporated across the whole supply chains. It analysis the impact of procurement
sustainability in making decisions that involve the triple bottom line (TBL) related elements with
respect to the suppliers. The results of the research survey revealed that only the environmental
aspect was considered by social housing implementation in the UK (Meehan & Bryde, 2011)'
The third article is published in the International Journal of Production Economics which
is ranked (B) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. The article investigates the relationship
between e-procurement and sustainable procurement in 2 initiatives of public sector. It
considered 250 public procurement practices across 20 countries. The researchers developed a
model to express the relationship between e-procurement and negotiation with suppliers and its
impact on sustainable procurement aspects (Walker & Brammer, 2012).
The fourth article is published in the International Journal of Operations & Production
Management which is ranked (B) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. It examines the
sustainable procurement practices in social housing. It analyses the existing regulations, network
structures and procurement consortia role in achieving sustainability in procurements (Meehan &
Bryde, 2015).
The fifth article is published in the International Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management which is ranked (B) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. It
investigates the relationship between procurement and managing stresses of adopting the TBL
sustainability activities. The authors adopt the integrative perspective in their investigation in
analyzing multiple case studies (Fayezi, Zomorrodi, & Bals, 2018).

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The sixth article is published in the International Journal of Business Strategy, which is
ranked (C) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. The article investigates the value creation
process of procurement. It argues buyers biasness towards value transformation at the
transactional level. Also, it assumes that the value capture of procurement is hard to be sustained
in the high competitive environment (Philippart, 2016).
The seventh article is published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, which is ranked (B)
according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. This paper examines the supplier relationship
management that considers formal supplier engagement programs. It investigates the carbon
footprint caused by food supply chains and efforts of socially responsible retailers to reduce
emissions through formal supplier engagement programs (Tidy, Wang, & Mark, 2016).
The eights article is published in the Technovation Journal, which is ranked (C)
according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking. The article investigates the increasing information
dissemination about using public procurement as a tool of innovation policy. It provides a
literature review that covers the issue of innovation in public procurement, including green and
sustainable public procurement (Obwegeser & Muller, 2018).
Third: Discussion
The definition of sustainable procurement by Walker, et. al. (2012) and Walker &
Brammer (2012), defines it to be a combination of sustainable development objectives that are
achieved through the process of procurement and supply. He argues the consistency between
sustainable procurement and sustainable development.
Fayezi, Zomorrodi, & Bals (2018), developed the concept of procurement sustainability
tensions (PST). They defined it to be the tensions that might negatively affect the TBL

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sustainability issues of the procurement process. The major purpose of PSTs occurs from the
interactions between the research on procurement sustainability and tensions.
3.1 Sustainable procurement: a growing field
Walker, et. al. (2012), argues that sustainable procurement is an emerging issue that gains
the attention of researchers and policymakers. The authors provided statistics that illustrate their
ideas of the growing importance of sustainable procurement by revealing the journals that
published special issues about it.
Meehan & Bryde (2011), argue that the concern about sustainable procurement takes
place at the global level, especially the multinational organizations that tend to apply it in
practice due to the increasing customer pressure for sustainability. Customers focus is narrow
and concerns with recycling, waste management and reverse logistics.
3.2 Sustainable procurement framework
Walker, et. al. (2012), developed a framework to reveal the relationship between
sustainable procurement and aspects that affect it, including economic, environmental and social
factors. They argue the lack of theoretical analysis that closely investigates sustainable
procurement practice.
3.3 The focus of sustainability and triple bottom line (TBL) procurement sustainability
Meehan & Bryde (2011), investigated the complex issue of transforming the
sustainability issues into procurement strategies that could be implemented and focus on the
TBL. They argue that both the economic and social factors should take the same attention like
the environmental factor. Meehan & Bryde (2015), also investigated the relationship between
TBL and sustainable procurement in terms of economic profits, planet and people. They argue

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that purchasing managers should extend their traditional consideration to include profits, people
and planet when making the purchase decision. They assume that the TBL exceeds the
traditional organization concern of profitability to include collaboration with multiple
stakeholders, the matter that increases complexity.
In addition, Fayezi, Zomorrodi, & Bals (2018), argue that procurement sustainability
requires supply chain management of upstream to foster the TBL performance.
3.4 Sustainable procurement in the public sector
Walker & Brammer (2012), considered sustainable procurement policies in the public sector.
This subject is relatively less investigated by researchers compared with the private sector. The
authors agree with Walker, et. al. (2012), that there is a need for theory development and testing
the practices of sustainable procurement. Meehan & Bryde (2015), assume that consortia and
networking are popular in the public sector. They are able to influence commercial efficiency
within the supply networks. Consortia negotiate the components of the agreement with suppliers
on behalf of a public organizations. The authors adopted the coopetition strategy of cooperating
with competitors. It is considered an emerging concept and it is influenced by network dynamics.
They incorporated coopetition strategy in social housing sustainable procurement.
Obwegeser & Muller (2018), consider the public procurement to be a driver for
innovation. They argue that the procurement of information systems effectively (POISE) is an
innovative process that contains information about purchases. It requires the users to specify
their needs based on organizations' strategies and at the same time, they should comply with the
system requirements in order not to duplicate efforts.

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3.5 Communication in supply chains
Walker & Brammer (2012), argue the importance of communication with suppliers to
achieve sustainable procurement. Also, they consider the inter-firm trust to be an important
factor in maintaining cooperative supply chain environmental management.
Tidy, Wang, & Mark (2016), argue that supplier engagement is a process similar to the concept
of supplier relationship management (SRM) found in academic literature. The main linkage
between the two concepts is that the relationship should be based on trust and fairness.
3.6 Procurement sustainability tensions (PSTs)
Fayezi, Zomorrodi, & Bals (2018) concerned with the TBL sustainability activities, by
considering the tensions faced by the procurement professionals. The authors argue that the
concept of procurement sustainability tensions (PSTs) was not discussed in specific in the
previous literature and it represents and interaction between procurement sustainability and
organizational tensions literature. They followed the integrative perspective of procurement
sustainability and tensions that take place in organizations. In addition, they incorporated the
stakeholders' theory in their analysis because it identifies the conflicting requirements of various
stakeholders. The theory analyses the different attributes of stakeholders, including buyers,
suppliers, communities, contractors, shareholders, government organizations, NGOs, media and
other functional areas. Also, it considers how they can eliminate tensions related to TBL
procurement sustainability. Stakeholders have a powerful impact, but they lack legitimacy. The
dependent stakeholders enjoy legitimacy and urgency without power.
3.7 Value creation through procurement
Philippart (2016), investigated the relationship between organization shareholder's
perception of value maximization and the procurement perspective. The investigation results

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revealed that the procurement culture is the major driver of value creation. There are many
factors that lead organizations to consider suppliers to be a sustainable resource. These factors
are related to the organization ability to acquire resources and manage them. According to the
resource-based view (RBV) theory, organizations' ability to utilize and manage rare resources
enables it to create a competitive advantage that generates value to the organization, enable it to
outperform its competitors and gain a leading market position. Accordingly, suppliers are not
included in the RBV theory because they are not considered to be a rare resource or non-
substitutable.
There is a major weakness among the selected academic articles, which is related with
the inability of the researchers to develop a theory that investigates and tests the sustainable
procurement practices as argued by Meehan & Bryde (2015), Walker & Brammer (2012) and
Walker, et. al. (2012). Despite the efforts made by Fayezi, Zomorrodi, & Bals (2018) to develop
the concept of procurement sustainability tensions (PSTs), they did not develop a new theory.
Conclusion
There is a consistency between sustainable procurement and sustainable development.
Buyers are biasness occurs at the transactional level towards value transformation. Procurement
sustainability tensions are the tensions that might negatively affect the TBL sustainability issues
of the process of procurement. Sustainable procurement takes place at the global level, especially
the multinational organizations that tend to apply it in practice due to the increasing customer
pressure for sustainability.
Public procurement is a driver for innovation through POISE that represents an
innovative process; it contains information about purchases. The investigation of sustainable

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procurement is a continuous process by researchers, policy makers and business. The researchers
seek a theory that develops and tests sustainable procurement.
There are different aspects that affect the sustainable procurement, including
stakeholders' requirements, environmental, social, economic and technological factors.This
research is limited to investigating the literature concerning sustainable procurement during 2011
and 2019. The investigated papers are ranked (B &C) according to VHB‐JOURQUAL3 ranking.
The reviewed articles are high quality articles, but they lack the development of a new theory
that could be used in practice.

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References
Fayezi, S., Zomorrodi, M., & Bals, L. (2018). Procurement sustainability tensions: an integrative
perspective. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management,
48(6), 586-609.
Martin, T., Xiaojun, W., & Mark, H. (2016). The role of supplier relationship management in
reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions from food supply chains. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 112, 3294-3305.
Meehan, J., & Bryde, D. (2011). Sustainable procurement practice. Business Strategy and the
Environment, 20, 94–106.
Meehan, J., & Bryde, D. (2015). A field-level examination of the adoption of sustainable
procurement in the social housing sector. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, 35(7), 982-1004.
Obwegeser, N., & Muller, S. (2018). Innovation and public procurement: Terminology,
concepts, and applications. Technovation, 74(75), 1-17.
Philippart, M. (2016). The procurement dilemma: short-term savings or long-term shareholder
value? Journal of Business Strategy, 37(6), 10-17.
Shah, M., Wahab, S., & Tahir, M. (2016). Customer-supplier relationship management
performance model for SMEs: The integration of financial and technology strategy.
Advances in Business Research International Journal, 2(2), 17-26.
Thakur, F. (2017). Various aspects of UK-Greece food supply chain. IOSR Journal of Business
and Management, 19(10), 51-57.

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Walker, H., & Brammer, S. (2012). The relationship between sustainable procurement and e-
procurement in the public sector. Int. J. Production Economics, 140, 256–268.
Walker, H., Miemczyk, J., Johnsen, T., & Spencer, R. (2012). Sustainable procurement: Past,
present and future. Journal ofPurchasing&SupplyManagement, 18, 201–206.