Philipp C. Sauer, associate professor at EMSBS, recently published an article in International Journal of Operations and Production Management [CNRS cat. 2, FNEGE rang 2, HCERES cat. A].
The article, entitled "Supply chains' sustainability trajectories and resilience: a learning perspective in turbulent environments" was written in collaboration with Minelle E. Silva (Excelia Business School) and Martin C. Schleper (University of Sussex).
Abstract:
Purpose: While various supply chain (SC) sustainability investigations exist, their connection to supply chain resilience (SCRes) remains largely unexplored. To fill this gap, the authors answer the question: “How do firms' sustainability actions affect their SCs' resilience and sustainability trajectories in turbulent environments?" by exploring the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted 10 case studies in five industries located in six European countries. A total of 19 semi-structured interviews and relevant secondary data were collected and analyzed in reference to SC sustainability learning and the literature on SCRes approaches (i.e. engineering, ecological and social-ecological).
Findings: 31 SC actions referring to different sustainability dimensions were identified to map SCRes learning through a temporal, spatial and functional scale analysis. While five cases are related to an engineering approach focused on “bouncing back” to pre-pandemic goals, three cases were focused on “bouncing forward” as part of an ecological approach. Moreover, the authors identified the existence of two social-ecological resilience cases which developed long-term actions, updating functional set-ups transcending the SC level. The results furthermore illustrate an influence of the SCRes approaches on SC sustainability learning, generating three different paths: flat, flat ascending and ascending SC sustainability trajectories.