Understanding the Inter-connectedness between Resilience and Sustainability in Supply Chain Context

Dear Colleagues,

Supply chain disruptions are becoming increasingly complex and interconnected, creating significant bottlenecks and issues not only for the physical aspects of supply chains but also disrupting the environmental and social goals of organisations, together referred to as the triple bottom line, i.e., profit, planet and people (Seuring & Müller, 2008). During the last two decades, scholars have placed significant emphasis on exploring supply chain resilience as the incidence of disruptive events significantly increased (for example, the recent outbreak of COVID-19) (Carla, Martin, & Andrea, 2014; Patrinley et al., 2020). Supply chain resilience entails an ability to plan supply chain design and strategies in anticipation of adversity and to respond rapidly and, ideally, transition towards a more favourable state (Tukamuhabwa, Stevenson, Busby, & Zorzini, 2015).

Similarly, the research on sustainability has attracted growing interest from scholars because creating sustainable supply chains—and demonstrating responsibility for the triple bottom line—is a prime strategic objective of organisations (Fahimnia & Jabbarzadeh, 2016; Negri, Cagno, Colicchia, & Sarkis, 2021; Zare Mehrjerdi & Shafiee, 2020; Zavala-Alcívar, Verdecho, & Alfaro-Saíz, 2020). Sustainable supply chain management is defined as managing firms’ resources, such as material, information and capital, in a supply chain context while adhering to three fundamental sustainability dimensions, i.e., economic, environmental and social, with the aim of satisfying customer and stakeholder requirements. Given the complexity of the supply chain in today’s global environment, the requirements and expectations from customers and stakeholders are that supply chains shift towards being both sustainable and resilient.

Considering the changing needs of stakeholders and customers, the research community has started exploring how sustainability and resilience influence and shape each other (Fahimnia, Sarkis, & Talluri, 2019). While the recent focus has been on exploring these concepts together, both theoretical and empirical investigations on integrating sustainability and resilience are at relatively early stages in their development (Fahimnia & Jabbarzadeh, 2016; Fahimnia et al., 2019; Ivanov, 2018). Most of the theoretical and empirical advancements in these two research areas have resulted from explorations of these areas in isolation (Fahimnia et al., 2019). Interestingly, the underlying question is to what extent these two concepts complement each other while reducing potential contradictions. For example, improving sustainability might lead supply chains to reduce stock levels which, in some cases, compromises the ability to effectively respond to and manage disruptions in supply chains (Negri et al., 2021). In other cases, however, disruptions such as COVID-19 may require organisations to look for supply chain opportunities that are sustainable while showing resilience in facing disruptions (Negri et al., 2021; Sarkis, Cohen, Dewick, & Schröder, 2020).

Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to address questions related to sustainable and resilient supply chains and especially how these two areas complement each other. This is an emerging area for research calling for updated perspectives, theory, conceptual frameworks, managerial tools, strategies, and operational practices. Potential topics for the Special Issue include but are not limited to the following:

• Integrating sustainability and resilience in the supply chain
• Supply chain sustainability sparks resilience and recovery
• Robust and resilient supply chain design and operation
• Performance measurement for resilient and sustainable supply chains
• Post-COVID-19 resilient supply chains
• Advances in sustainable logistics
• Business models for sustainable and resilient supply chain
• Drivers and obstacles for creating sustainable supply chain management
• Agility and responsiveness in supply chain management
• Sustainable supplier selection
• Sustainable production and inventory management
• Sustainable and resilient logistics network design

  Reference

  Carla, R. P., Martin, C., & Andrea, L. D. S. (2014). Achieving supply chain resilience: the role of procurement. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 19(5/6), 626-642.

  Fahimnia, B., & Jabbarzadeh, A. (2016). Marrying supply chain sustainability and resilience: A match made in heaven. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 91, 306-324.

  Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., & Talluri, S. (2019). Design and Management of Sustainable and Resilient Supply Chains. IEEE transactions on engineering management, 66(1), 2-7.

  Ivanov, D. (2018). Revealing interfaces of supply chain resilience and sustainability: a simulation study. International Journal of Production Research, 56(10), 3507-3523.

  Negri, M., Cagno, E., Colicchia, C., & Sarkis, J. (2021). Integrating sustainability and resilience in the supply chain: A systematic literature review and a research agenda. Business Strategy and the Environment.

  Patrinley, J. R., Berkowitz, S. T., Zakria, D., Totten, D. J., Kurtulus, M., & Drolet, B. C. (2020). Lessons from Operations Management to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Medical Systems, 44(7), 1-2. doi:doi:10.1007/s10916-020-01595-6

  Sarkis, J., Cohen, M. J., Dewick, P., & Schröder, P. (2020). A brave new world: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for transitioning to sustainable supply and production. Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, 159, 104894.

  Seuring, S., & Müller, M. (2008). From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16(15), 1699-1710.

  Tukamuhabwa, B. R., Stevenson, M., Busby, J., & Zorzini, M. (2015). Supply chain resilience: definition, review and theoretical foundations for further study. International Journal of Production Research, 53(18), 5592-5623.

  Zare Mehrjerdi, Y., & Shafiee, M. (2020). Multiple-sourcing in sustainable closed-loop supply chain network design: Tire industry case study. International Journal of Supply and Operations Management, 7(3), 202-221.

  Zavala-Alcívar, A., Verdecho, M.-J., & Alfaro-Saíz, J.-J. (2020). A conceptual framework to manage resilience and increase sustainability in the supply chain. Sustainability, 12(16), 6300.

Dr. Muhammad Umar
Dr. Rabia Ijaz
Dr. Rizwan Ahmad
Guest Editors

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• integrating sustainability and resilience in the supply chain
• supply chain sustainability sparks resilience and recovery
• robust and resilient supply chain design and operation
• performance measurement for resilient and sustainable supply chains
• post-COVID-19 resilient supply chains
• advances in sustainable logistics
• business models for sustainable and resilient supply chain
• drivers and obstacles for creating sustainable supply chain management
• agility and responsiveness in supply chain management
• sustainable supplier selection
• sustainable production and inventory management
• sustainable and resilient logistics network design