Collaborative and sustainable supply chain practices: a case study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore sustainability and collaboration in supply chain (SC) management designs and to develop a sustainable supply chain design (SCD) model. Design/methodology/approach - First, a literature review of the principal theories and SC management approaches is discussed. Second, the development of a sustainable SCD model is described and explained. Third, the results and the operationalization of the model, which incorporates sustainable procurement elements based on the results of interviews from a case study, are outlined. Findings - A framework is proposed to provide managers, practitioners and academics with a practical solution to make sustainable SC decisions in a more structured and consistent manner. Originality/value - The paper presents a currently discussed problem about the design of differentiated supply chains to avoid or offset the effects of allocation issues in the electronic marketplace. Although past literature reviews provide valuable results, they were based upon the assessment of supply chain decisions failing to consider the sustainable corporate social responsibility and the interaction criteria. The findings from this study highlight the importance of addressing supply chain decisions in a structured manner and prioritize the development of dynamic capabilities to improve the firm’s ability to reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments and reinforce a collaborative SC management system with third parties.