Sustainability Strategies in Supply Chain Management

230 Pages·2017·2.41 MB·English

Georgia Southern University
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Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of
Spring 2014
Sustainability Strategies in Supply Chain Management
Amit Arora
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SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

by

AMIT ARORA

(Under the Direction of Gerard J. Burke)
ABSTRACT
Managers no longer view sustainability of organizations only in terms of
profitability and economic growth of shareholders. Various competitive pressures are
forcing managers to broaden the scope of sustainability to include explicit environmental
and societal objectives too. These pressures are emanating from various sources such as
depleting natural resources, regulatory policies from governments, erratic weather cycles,
demanding customers and brand damage due to exposure about poor working conditions
in supplier factories located in other countries. This dissertation consists of three essays
that contribute to the practice and literature of strategic sustainable supply chain
management by examining its four aspects: measure, manage, mitigate, and market. The
purpose of this dissertation is to utilize a multi-method approach and multiple secondary
data sources to examine sustainable supply chain management from a strategy point of
view.
Three separate but connected studies form the core of this dissertation. Chapter
Two of this dissertation proposes a framework of seven market-oriented sustainability
strategies by objectively analyzing sustainability reports of leading organizations of four
industry sectors using structured content analysis and linear programming techniques.
Chapter Three utilizes linear aggregation methodology and data envelopment
analysis to form a sustainability index comprising of various sustainability indicators in
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logistics and shipping services industry. This index may be used as a decision making
tool by managers to evaluate sustainability efforts of their organizations and also to
benchmark their sustainability performance over the competition.
Chapter Four examines the sources of differential environmental performance of
manufacturing facilities using risk screening environmental indicators database and
Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation procedure. The results provide support that
resource-based view explains the maximum differential environmental performance of
firms as opposed to industry-based view or institutional theory.

INDEX WORDS: Market-oriented sustainability, Sustainable supply chain management,
Structured content analysis, Linear Programming, Linear aggregation, Data envelopment
analysis, Cross-classified models, Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation.

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SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
by
AMIT ARORA
B.S., Aligarh University, India, 1997
M.S., Indian Institute of Technology, India, 2006

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSPHY
STATESBORO, GEORGIA
2014

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© 2014
AMIT ARORA
All Rights Reserved
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SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
by
AMIT ARORA

Dissertation Committee Chair: Gerard J. Burke
Committee: Ednilson Bernardes
Alan Mackelprang
Christopher Boone

Electronic Version Approved:
May 2014
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DEDICATION

This dissertation is dedicated to my lovely wife, Anshu, who has been a constant source
of strength throughout this long journey.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“If this was easy, everybody would do it”. These words of encouragement by my
dissertation committee chair, Dr. Jerry Burke, kept me going through my dissertation journey. I
owe this dissertation to Dr. Burke who has had a profound influence on me during my PhD
studies at GSU. He is my mentor, advisor, guru, philosopher and a great friend. No words are
enough to express my gratitude towards him. He has always believed in me and stood by me
whenever I needed him.
I am thankful and deeply indebted to my dissertation committee – Dr. Ed Bernardes, Dr.
Alan Mackelprang, and Dr. Christopher Boone, who supported and helped give direction and
shape to my dissertation. I am grateful to all faculty and staff members of College of Business
Administration especially operations management, logistics and marketing for their continued
invaluable support during my PhD program. I am also grateful to my fellow colleagues – PhD
students who have been a source of strength for me to carry on the tough journey of a PhD
program.
I wish to thank my dear wife, Anshu who has been a constant source of strength and
inspiration; my wonderful sons, Aryaman and Amay; my parents; my father-in-law; my sister
and her family; and my friends for their invaluable support and encouragement during the past
few years. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. D.P. Kothari, my mentor in India, who always
believed that I will be successful in my endeavor.
Above all, I would like to thank God, the invisible hand for giving me the mental and
physical strength to never give up.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. 7

LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 11

LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... 14
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 15
Focus of the Dissertation ................................................................................ 20
Concept of “Sustainability” and Sustainable Supply Chain Management ..... 22
Chapter 2: Strategy Framework of Market-oriented Supply Chain
Sustainability .................................................................................................. 26
Chapter 3: Benchmarking Approaches for an Integrated Index for Triple
Bottom Line Performance: Cases of the Big Three Firms in the Logistics
and Shipping Services Industry ...................................................................... 28
Chapter 4: Environmental Risk Performance of Manufacturing Facilities:
Plant, Firm, Industry and State Regulatory Effects ........................................ 30
2 STRATEGY FRAMEWORK OF MARKET-ORIENTED SUPPLY CHAIN
SUSTAINABILITY .................................................................................................... 33
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 33
Conceptual Background ................................................................................... 37
Research Method .............................................................................................. 41
Data Collection ........................................................................................... 43
Structured Content Analysis ....................................................................... 46
Results: Market-oriented Supply Chain Sustainability Strategies ................... 67
Summary and Implications of Strategies .......................................................... 73
Managerial Implications ............................................................................. 74
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Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 75
3 BENCHMARKING APPROACHES WITH AN INTEGRATED INDEX FOR
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE PERFORMANCE: COMPARISONS OF THE BIG
THREE FIRMS IN THE LOGISTICS AND SHIPPING SERVICES INDUSTRY . 78
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 78
Theoretical Foundation ..................................................................................... 82
Research Methodologies .................................................................................. 84
Data Collection ............................................................................................ 85
Linear Aggregation Method: Qualitative Numerical Approach .................. 87
Model Development..................................................................................... 88
Implementation of Linear Aggregation Model ............................................ 94
Data Envelopment Analysis: Quantitative Numerical Approach .............. 103
Model Development................................................................................... 104
Data Analysis and Results of DEA Model ................................................ 108
Discussion and Conclusions ........................................................................... 119
4 ENVIRONMENTAL RISK PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING
FACILITIES: PLANT, FIRM, INDUSTRY AND STATE REGULATORY
EFFECTS .................................................................................................................. 123
Introduction .................................................................................................... 123
Theoretical Foundation ................................................................................... 124
Data Sources and Variables ............................................................................ 126
Non-Hierarchical Data Structures .................................................................. 129
Markov Chain Monte Carlo Estimation Procedures ...................................... 130
Diagnosis and Results .................................................................................... 133
Implications and Conclusions ........................................................................ 138
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