To what extent a sustainable supply chain could be built through relationship approach

Zhou, Ming (2014) To what extent a sustainable supply chain could be built through relationship approach. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Purpose- Increasingly, companies are aiming to buy and supply products and services sustainably. Therefore, building a sustainable supply chain (SSC) management system is very important for current supply chain management. However, in reality, current method of building SSC is challenged in many ways. A new method of approaching supply chain sustainability should be proposed. Relationship approach is proposed under such situation. However, a buying company is with different relationship towards its suppliers, and so is supplier. The relationship between different types of buyer and supplier indicate different chances of ensure supply chain sustainability. This paper is aiming to firstly, propose a new method to build SSC; secondly, evaluate the chances of building SSC between buyer and supplier.



Design/methodology/Approach- A model regarding to evaluate the opportunity of building SSC is created through studying others’ theories and framework. In order to test this model, a case study is performed on a scenario created based on one buyer in UK and one supplier in China. Through interviews with companies, first handed data is collected. And second handed data was collected from websites and internet. Based on collected information and data, a buyer and supplier model is able to build in this paper to form a scenario for analysis that what if the buy-sell relationship occurred in this supply chain, to what extent the SSC could be built.

Findings- It is proposed that trust, sharing and resource fitness are the three key determinants for the relationship between buyer and supplier. To obtain high degree of trust, sharing and resource fitness is highly appreciated regarding supply chain sustainability. Analysis is performed on these three determinants to understand the relationship between buyer and supplier, and assess the chance of forming their SSC. In addition, due to current buyer-concentrated CSR relationship is with many challenges, a new supplier-concentrated sustainable supply chain building method is explored.

Research Limitation- this model built in this paper could be further explored through real case studies in different industry.

Value- this paper draws on theories and existing SSC management literature to develop method regarding SSC building, and a framework to evaluate the opportunity of companies to build SSC with suppliers.

Item Type: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Keywords: sustainable supply chain building, supplier and buyer relationship, sustainable development, supply chain management, UK retailer, Chinese supplier, pharmaceutical industry, case study, trust, sharing, resource fitness.
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 23 Dec 2021 14:16
Last Modified: 23 Dec 2021 14:16
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/27152

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