Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of supply chain integration (SCI) in improving sustainability management practices (SMPs) and performance. Design/methodology/approach – Based on data collected from 931 manufacturing firms in multiple countries and regions, the authors conducted a structural equation modeling analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings – The findings suggest that supplier and customer integration are vital enablers for both intra- and inter-organizational SMPs. The results also reveal that both intra- and inter-organizational SMPs are significantly and positively associated with sustainability performance (i.e. economic, environmental and social performance) and function as complements to jointly enhance environmental and social performance. Originality/value – This study incorporates SCI into the sustainability literature, providing a new perspective on sustainability and supply chain management research.

Introduction

Over the past few decades, as firms have vigorously pursued competitive advantages within the turbulent global business environment, the importance of sustainability to a firm’s bottom line has steadily grown (Kleindorfer et al., 2005; Lubin and Esty, 2010). Commensurate with the increasing importance of sustainability, supply chain researchers have examined whether extending sustainability issues into a firm’s supply chain (which is beyond its internal operations) is a crucial step in improving its sustainability performance (Beske and Seuring, 2014; Seuring and Müller, 2008; Winter and Knemeyer, 2013). In this regard, given the complex and global nature of sustainability issues, one of the expanding areas of interest has been whether companies understand the importance of collaboration within their supply chains (Kiron et al., 2015). Because there are three dimensions to supply chain integration (SCI) (i.e. internal, supplier and customer integration) that comprise strategic collaboration with internal and external supply chain partners (Flynn et al., 2010; Bill et al., 2016), SCI may play an important role in improving sustainability management practices (SMPs) and performance. Despite the growing research on sustainable supply chain management, it is still unclear how manufacturing firms cooperate with supply chain partners to achieve their desired sustainability performance. Several sustainability studies have examined external pressure as a main driver of firm sustainability (Dimaggio and Powell, 2000; Liu et al., 2010; Sarkis et al., 2010). However, little research has been conducted on how manufacturers adopt SCI activities to facilitate their SMPs and enhance their sustainability performance. Research has investigated the positive influence of customer integration (Gelhard and von Delft, 2016), supply management capabilities (Bowen et al., 2001) and strategic purchasing in supply management (Paulraj, 2011) on SMPs or sustainability performance, indirectly representing a possible link between SCI and sustainability. This study recognizes the need to further investigate the interrelationship between internal and external SCI and a firm’s supply chain activities to improve sustainability. It is important to explore a research framework within which SCI is a valuable enabler of a firm’s sustainability practices and performance. This study thus seeks to answer the following research questions: RQ1. How do the three dimensions of SCI influence SMPs? RQ2. How do SMPs influence manufacturing firms’ sustainability performance? By answering these important questions, this study, which extends sustainability research into supply chains, makes the following contributions. First, it provides new perspectives from which to understand the important role of SCI in improving intra- and inter-organizational SMPs and sustainability performance. Second, it provides practical insights into the ways manufacturers successfully implement SCI and SMPs to achieve their desired sustainability performance.