IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v28y2019i8p1619-1631.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Product chain collaboration for sustainability: A business case for life cycle management

Author

Listed:
  • Hanna Nilsson‐Lindén
  • Magnus Rosén
  • Henrikke Baumann

Abstract

Life cycle management (LCM) is frequently described as a holistic sustainability perspective along the product chain. It has mainly been a company internal practice. However, recent developments reveal a new type of LCM where companies collaborate in product‐chain‐specific initiatives. This raises questions concerning why corporations extend “corporate LCM” toward “product chain LCM”. Here, we explore rationales and challenges for corporations engaging in one such coalition: The Sustainable Transport Initiative. The study covers five companies in different product chain positions and practitioners in different corporate functions. The results show a broad range of rationales for engaging in product chain LCM, related both to self‐interest and a shared interest in the product chain. The importance of the “business case,” both for the individual companies and the product chain, is identified. The importance of sustainability managers as actors and as facilitators in discussions between managers from different corporate functions is also identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanna Nilsson‐Lindén & Magnus Rosén & Henrikke Baumann, 2019. "Product chain collaboration for sustainability: A business case for life cycle management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 1619-1631, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:28:y:2019:i:8:p:1619-1631
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2388
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2388
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2388?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rodrigo Lozano, 2015. "A Holistic Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Drivers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 32-44, January.
    2. Joanne Meehan & David Bryde, 2011. "Sustainable procurement practice," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 94-106, February.
    3. Lassi Linnanen, 1995. "Life cycle management: Integrated approach towards corporate environmental issues," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 117-127, July.
    4. Stefan Gold & Stefan Seuring & Philip Beske, 2010. "Sustainable supply chain management and inter‐organizational resources: a literature review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 230-245, July.
    5. Professor Richard Welford, 1993. "Breaking the link between quality and the environment: Auditing for sustainability and life cycle assessment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(4), pages 25-33, December.
    6. Frank Boons & Marjolein Berends, 2001. "Stretching the boundary: the possibilities of flexibility as an organizational capability in industrial ecology," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 115-124, March.
    7. Susanne Freidberg, 2017. "Big Food and Little Data: The Slow Harvest of Corporate Food Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(6), pages 1547-1547, November.
    8. Robert Handfield & Robert Sroufe & Steven Walton, 2005. "Integrating environmental management and supply chain strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Frank de Bakker & André Nijhof, 2002. "Responsible chain management: a capability assessment framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 63-75, January.
    10. James A. Fava, 1997. "LCA: Concept, Methodology, or Strategy?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 1(2), pages 8-10, April.
    11. J. S. Golden & V. Subramanian & J. B. Zimmerman, 2011. "Sustainability and Commerce Trends," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(6), pages 821-824, December.
    12. Susanne Freidberg, 2017. "Big Food and Little Data: The Slow Harvest of Corporate Food Supply Chain Sustainability Initiatives," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(6), pages 1389-1406, November.
    13. Walter J. V. Vermeulen & Stefan Seuring, 2009. "Sustainability through the market - the impacts of sustainable supply chain management: introduction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 269-273.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chauhan, Chetna & Kaur, Puneet & Arrawatia, Rakesh & Ractham, Peter & Dhir, Amandeep, 2022. "Supply chain collaboration and sustainable development goals (SDGs). Teamwork makes achieving SDGs dream work," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 290-307.
    2. Anna M. Walker & Alberto Simboli & Walter J. V. Vermeulen & Andrea Raggi, 2023. "A dynamic capabilities perspective on implementing the Circular Transition Indicators: A case study of a multi‐national packaging company," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2679-2692, September.
    3. Guia Bianchi & Francesco Testa & Sara Tessitore & Fabio Iraldo, 2022. "How to embed environmental sustainability: The role of dynamic capabilities and managerial approaches in a life cycle management perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 312-325, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. André Tchokogué & Jean Nollet & Nathalie Merminod & Gilles Paché & Véronique Goupil, 2018. "Is Supply's Actual Contribution to Sustainable Development Strategic and Operational?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 336-358, March.
    2. Joana M. Comas Martí & Ralf W. Seifert, 2013. "Assessing the Comprehensiveness of Supply Chain Environmental Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 339-356, July.
    3. Guia Bianchi & Francesco Testa & Sara Tessitore & Fabio Iraldo, 2022. "How to embed environmental sustainability: The role of dynamic capabilities and managerial approaches in a life cycle management perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 312-325, January.
    4. Natasja Börjeson & Magnus Boström, 2018. "Towards Reflexive Responsibility in a Textile Supply Chain," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 230-239, February.
    5. Andrew Ngawenja Mzembe & Adam Lindgreen & François Maon & Joëlle Vanhamme, 2016. "Investigating the Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Tea Supply Chain: A Case Study of Eastern Produce Limited in Malawi," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(3), pages 165-178, May.
    6. Fracarolli Nunes, Mauro & Lee Park, Camila & Shin, Hyunju, 2021. "Corporate social and environmental irresponsibilities in supply chains, contamination, and damage of intangible resources: A behavioural approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    7. Kjell Mårtensson & Karin Westerberg, 2016. "Corporate Environmental Strategies Towards Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 1-9, January.
    8. Abdul Majid & Muhammad Yasir & Muhammad Yasir & Asad Javed, 2020. "Nexus of institutional pressures, environmentally friendly business strategies, and environmental performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 706-716, March.
    9. Jolien Grandia & Dylan Voncken, 2019. "Sustainable Public Procurement: The Impact of Ability, Motivation, and Opportunity on the Implementation of Different Types of Sustainable Public Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    10. Nelly Oelze & Stefan Ulstrup Hoejmose & Andre Habisch & Andrew Millington, 2016. "Sustainable Development in Supply Chain Management: The Role of Organizational Learning for Policy Implementation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 241-260, May.
    11. T. O'Shea & J. S. Golden & L. Olander, 2013. "Sustainability and Earth Resources: Life Cycle Assessment Modeling," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(7), pages 429-441, November.
    12. Jesús Morcillo-Bellido & Luis Isasi-Sanchez & Isabel Garcia-Gutierrez & Alfonso Duran-Heras, 2021. "Model Based Analysis of Innovation in Sustainable Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Koster, Mieneke & Vos, Bart & Schroeder, Roger, 2017. "Management innovation driving sustainable supply management," Other publications TiSEM f62cc559-4219-4b1e-82e2-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Stefan Seuring & Martin Müller, 2008. "Core issues in sustainable supply chain management – a Delphi study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(8), pages 455-466, December.
    15. Liu, Yang & Zhu, Qinghua & Seuring, Stefan, 2017. "Linking capabilities to green operations strategies: The moderating role of corporate environmental proactivity," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 182-195.
    16. Kumar Verma Bhupendra & Shirish Sangle, 2017. "What Drives Successful Implementation of Product Stewardship Strategy? The Role of Absorptive Capability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 186-198, May.
    17. Mark P. Sharfman & Teresa M. Shaft & Robert P. Anex, 2009. "The road to cooperative supply‐chain environmental management: trust and uncertainty among pro‐active firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, January.
    18. Felippe Santos & Rodrigo Lozano & Maria Barreiro-Gen, 2024. "Analysing the drivers for sustainable public procurement," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 966-979, December.
    19. Jesús Morcillo-Bellido & Alfonso Duran-Heras, 2020. "Sustainability Governance Mechanisms in Supply Chains: An Application in the Retail Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    20. João Tomaz Simões & Jakson Renner Rodrigues Soares & Xosé M. Santos, 2023. "A Conceptual Framework Proposal Regarding the Engagement of Hotels in the Modern Fight against Unsustainable Food Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-20, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:28:y:2019:i:8:p:1619-1631. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.