Empirical research on sustainable supply chains: IJPR’s contribution and research avenues

Abstract

This paper reviews the empirical research pertaining to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) published in the International Journal of Production Research (IJPR). The review allows an assessment of IJPR’s contribution to the empirical SSCM literature and its shortcomings. One of the key shortcomings was the relatively small number of papers that address the social dimension of SSCM. An avenue for potential and fruitful research is proposed building on the notion of network capital. Research questions that can lead to the application of network capital are presented to spark more research on the social dimension of SSCM for prospective contributors to IJPR.

Keywords:

• sustainable supply chain
• environmental management
• corporate social responsibility
• environmentally friendly manufacturing
• environment

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

1 The three special issues were: ‘Sustainable Design and Manufacture’ (2007), ‘Sustainable Supply Chain and Reverse Logistics’ (2012), and ‘Green Manufacturing’ (2015).