Sustainable supply chain management drivers and outcomes: an emphasis on strategic sustainability orientation in the food industries

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the quick increase of population, degradation of the environment and social disparity moving towards sustainability is an indispensable issue. Aside from this importance, paying attention to sustainability provides opportunities for firms to be innovative. Previous studies largely focused on identifying drivers that enhance the firm capacity to innovate new products and services. However, less attention has been paid to sustainability orientation as a direct driver of a firm’s innovativeness leading towards long term business performance. In this study, sustainable supply chain drivers, strategic sustainability orientation and firm performance have been evaluated. The mediating concepts such as corporate environmental management and corporate social responsibility impacting the relationship between strategic sustainability orientation and firm performance have been tested too. The results illustrate that employees’ motivation and managerial attitude have positive impacts on strategic sustainability orientation and on the other hand strategic sustainability orientation with the mediating roles of corporate environmental management and corporate social responsibility has a positive effect on firm performance. This study was conducted on 120 Iranian companies that are active in food industries by using the SEM method.