How does it pay to be green and good? the impact of environmental and social supply chain practices on operational and competitive outcomes

Abstract

Although much has been written about whether it pays to be green, few researchers ask does it pay to be good and fewer still offer insights into which practices pay and which do not. This chapter addresses a key missing link in supply chain management by identifying which environmentally and socially sustainable supply chain management practices impact the operational and competitive outcomes of firms. The research literature has presented a diverse catalogue of measures of supply chain sustainability practices. In this chapter we have consolidated and synthesised existing measures in an effort to test the relationship between established sustainability practices and outcomes which allow firms to create a business case for both environmental and social sustainability practices. In doing so, we arrived at four environmental and four social supply chain sustainability practices with similar themes: Monitoring; management systems; new product and process development; and strategy re-definition. A key outcome of this examination is that social sustainability practices pay more than environmental sustainability practices. This finding suggests that it might be advantageous for companies to invest their resources in social new product and process development as well as social supply chain re-definition focusing on social issues and in environmental monitoring and developing new environmental products and processes.