Making Sustainability Sustainable
Journal of Supply Chain Management, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2016, Forthcoming
35 Pages Posted: 18 Dec 2015
Date Written: December 16, 2015
Abstract
The vast majority of research and practice regarding sustainable supply chains has followed an instrumental logic, which has led firms and supply chain managers to place economic interests ahead of environmental and social interests. Evidence that firms are attempting to become less unsustainable is mounting, but compensating practices such as offsetting a supply chain’s negative impact on the environment and society do not create truly sustainable supply chains. This conceptual paper seeks to move the field from the question of how can firms merely diminish environmental or social problems to how supply chains can become truly sustainable. To that end, we review the major weaknesses in previous logics and develop an Ecologically Dominant logic where environment and social interests supersede economic interests. To encourage a wider adoption of our perspective, the paper illustrates how the Ecologically Dominant logic can advance practice and research. We do this by providing examples drawn from practice and our previous research and by offering propositions to encourage future research.
Keywords: sustainability; environmental issues; social responsibility; human judgment and decision making
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