Sustainable procurement: a review and future research directions

Abstract

Sustainable procurement has become a crucial strategy for attaining the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite the growing emphasis on the concept, understanding the development of sustainable procurement over the last two decades remains limited. This paper offers a comprehensive examination of sustainable procurement, outlining significant research topics, leading authors, relevant countries, and notable publications in the discipline. Nineteen (199) publications from 2004 to 2024 were retrieved from Scopus following the PRISMA protocol. Bibliometric analysis is utilised, followed by the construction of clusters through co-citation analysis. The clusters are analysed to identify emerging themes and potential areas for further research. The co-citation analysis identifies five distinct clusters of research themes: sustainable procurement practices and drivers, environmental management and performance in procurement, sustainable public procurement and implementation challenges, green procurement strategies and supplier management, and sustainable procurement adoption and influencing factors. Publications have been sourced exclusively from one database. Only publications from relevant academic journals have been utilised for the bibliometric analysis. Only articles with high citation counts were selected for co-citation analysis and cluster formation. The analysis of the identified clusters delineates study domains for further exploration aimed at improving the understanding of sustainable procurement and implementing its practices to achieve sustainability..