Mimicking natural ecosystems to develop sustainable supply chains

Autor: Damien Power, Richard Gruner
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Engineering
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
CORPORATE SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY
Strategy and Management
Supply chain
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
GREEN
Context (language use)
010501 environmental sciences
Ecological systems theory
01 natural sciences
Sustainable supply chain design
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
0502 economics and business
THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
General Environmental Science
Industrial ecology
Ecosystems principles
Theory development
Renewable Energy
Sustainability and the Environment
business.industry
05 social sciences
Environmental resource management
RESILIENCE
Intergradation
Conceptual framework
Sustainability
Corporate social responsibility
CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK
RESOURCE-BASED VIEW
business
050203 business & management
Zdroj: Journal of Cleaner Production. 149:251-264
ISSN: 0959-6526
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.02.109
Popis: For most firms, the development of sustainable supply chain practices remains challenging. Using a theory-building approach, we develop a theory of socio-ecological intergradation to provide managers with guidance in mimicking natural ecosystems to develop more local and thus sustainable supply chains. Socio-ecological intergradation refers to the gradual merging of social (organizational) and ecological (environmental) systems to shift a firm's focus from global supply chain optimization to building more regionally bound, socio-ecologically connected operations. Drawing on the natural and industrial ecology literature, the paper identifies five principles that mimic natural ecosystems and increase the environmental sustainability of supply chains, including the ecological systems they ultimately depend on. The paper further illustrates what these principles mean in both an environmental and a supply chain context and how, in concert, they can lead toward more sustainably designed and managed supply chains. In building a theory of socio-ecological intergradation, this research is one of the first attempts to apply ecological principles to supply chains, creating synergy and dialogue between the sustainable supply chain management, business ethics, and industrial ecology disciplines. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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