Gender diversity for sustainability management: developing a research agenda from a supply chain perspective

ABSTRACT

Gender diversity (GD) is an issue that must be addressed for the sustainable development of businesses. Research is lacking on GD in the sustainability management of supply chains (SMSCs). This study addresses the potential impact of GD on SMSCs. A literature review methodology is used to review academic and professional articles over three decades. The findings show that some studies have examined GD and supply chain management (SCM) but the focus has tended to be on the challenges encountered by women in SCs, such as women as victims, but not women as potential change actors. In contrast, sustainability management literature invokes the importance of GD and the specificities women managers can bring to firms’ performance. A research agenda is proposed in this study by combining outcomes from both fields. It implies there is an important space to fill, especially concerning the environmental and social impacts GD may have on SMSCs.

RÉSUMÉ

La diversité de genre (DG) est une question clé du développement durable des entreprises. La recherche sur la DG fait défaut dans la gestion de la durabilité des supply chains (SCs). Cette étude porte sur l’impact potentiel de la DG sur les SCs durables. Une revue de la littérature est menée sur les publications des trois dernières décennies. Elle montre que les recherches ont examiné la DG et le supply chain management, mais que l’accent a eu tendance à être mis sur les défis rencontrés par les femmes en tant que victimes, mais pas les femmes en tant qu’acteurs du changement. A l’inverse, la littérature sur la gestion de la durabilité invoque l’importance de la DG et les spécificités que les femmes cadres peuvent apporter aux performances des entreprises. Un programme de recherche est donc proposé en combinant les résultats des deux domaines.

KEYWORDS:

• gender diversity (GD)
• supply chain management (SCM)
• corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• sustainability management
• research agenda

MOTS CLÉS:

• Diversité de genre (DG)
• supply chain management (SCM)
• responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE)
• gestion de la durabilité
• programme de recherche

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. French law number 2011–103 imposes a compulsory ratio of 40% of the underrepresented gender as of 1 January 2017 for companies on the stock exchange and for companies with more than 500 employees (JORF 2011). As of 2020, this obligation will also concern companies with fewer than 500 employees (JORF 2011).

2. http://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/terms/women.html (accessed 7 September 2020).

3. https://hbr.org/2011/02/social-progress-economic-succe (accessed 3 March 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Salomée Ruel

Dr Salomée Ruel holds a PhD in management sciences. She is an associate professor in supply chain management and information systems management at Kedge Business School Marseille (France) and belongs to the CSR excellence centre. Her research focuses on supply chain strategy, inter-organisational relations, information systems, dynamic capabilities (agility, resilience, visibility, viability) and gender diversity in SCM. She is the treasurer of the AIRL-SCM Scientific Association. email: [email protected]

Morgane Fritz

Dr Morgane Fritz holds a PhD in sustainability management in supply chains from the University of Graz (Austria) and is an associate professor at Excelia La Rochelle Business School (France). She participated in several European and Austrian research projects on topics such as sustainability assessment in global supply chains, sustainable business models and the recycling of critical raw materials. Her research activities and interests have led to numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reports for industry, in collaboration with other international researchers. She also acts as a reviewer and guest editor for several academic journals.

Nachiappan Subramanian

Prof. Nachiappan Subramanian (Nachi) is a professor of operations and logistics management and supply chains at the University of Sussex UK. He has 22 years of teaching experience in the UK, China, Australia and India and two years as a consultant. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) UK and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. He has published 100 peer-reviewed research papers in the leading operations management journals. His research areas are technology interventions in supply chains, sustainable supply chains (environmental and social/humanitarian issues), risk and resilience, and performance measurement.