Sustainable supply management: An empirical study

Sustainable business development has received much attention over the past decade owing to the significant attention given by governments and both profit and not-for-profit organizations to environmental, social and corporate responsibility. The emergence of a changing economic order has also made companies around the world seriously think about manufacturing and service sustainability. Global markets and operations have prompted companies to revisit their corporate, business and functional strategies in addition to focusing on outsourcing, virtual enterprise and supply chain management. Sustainability research on supply management has received limited attention. Nevertheless, considering the physically disbursed enterprise environment, supply management is critical for organizational competitiveness. Realizing the importance of sustainability in supply management, an attempt has been made to develop a theoretical framework and then to study the framework by means of an empirical study using perceptions and practices of selected French companies. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions are reported. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.