Literature review of drivers of sustainable supply chain management

Abstract

The incremental awareness regarding social and environmental issues has pushed organizations to adopt sustainable practices. Over the last few years, organizations are considered to be responsible for their business activities that affect the environment, society, and the economy of their own business as well as their supply chain participants. Different stakeholders pressurize organizations and their supply chains to follow sustainable actions in order to achieve sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) goals. However, not all stakeholders have the ability to force organizations to take sustainability initiatives. Some of them help organizations at least to be aware of sustainability issues such as media/press while others emphasize to adopt a certain level of commitment and implement sustainability goals such as NGOs, customers, government, shareholders, community activists, global competition, etc. This research paper aims to identify drivers that push organizations towards achieving sustainability in their operations. The systematic literature review of scientific journal articles has identified ”regulatory pressures” and ”market pressures” as the most frequently cited drivers for the implementation of sustainability initiatives.