Creating Competitive Advantage through Sustainable Supply Chains: A Theoretical Framework for the Assessment of Practices, Dynamic Capabilities, and Enterprise Performance of Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

The continuous enhancement and network complexity of Global supply Chains (G-SC)are accentuating the need of incorporating social, economic and ecological dimension (Also known as Triple- Bottom Line (TBL)) in strategic planning. Therefore, the blending business aims with Sustainable Supply Chain Management (S-SCM) practices and dynamic capabilities has steadily increased in improving the firm’s performance. In this paper an attempt is made to conceptualize a scale for measuring the Sustainable- supply chain management (S-SCM) practices, development of sustainable capabilities of manufacturing firms while evaluating the performance of the organization on TBL. Based on systematic review, the researchersh as identified five major determinants of S-SCM practices, namely Supply-Chain Coordination & Trust (S-CCT); Supply-Chain Learning (S-CL); Supply-Chain Continuity(S-CC); Supply-Chain Orientation(S-CO) and Supply -Chain Risk Management(S-CRM) and further additional five determinants were identified as Supply-Chain Dynamic Capabilities (S-CDC): Knowledge generation and absorptive capacity of the firm (KG-AC);Demand-0rientation(D-O), Innovative-Ability(I-A), Renovation Ability(R-A) and Social Network enhancement-Ability (SNE-A).Further three determinants of S-SCM performance namely Environmental-Performance (E-P); Social-Performance (S-P) and Economic- Performance(E-P) are identified. In order to collect data from 172 automobile and electronic goods companies in India, a research survey was being carried out. The SEM measurement and Structural Model Analysis was carried to find the association between the three determinants. The result of the analysis makes a significant contribution to SCM literature. The research outcomes of this research aim to enable practitioners to design execute and monitor the different elements of S-SCMfirm level activities, its dynamic capabilities and assess the effect of these activities on the firms’ operational efficiency.