۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review

۳- Research methodology

۴- Application of the SCS decision support framework to apparel industry in Bangladesh

۵- Discussions and implications

۶- Conclusions

References

Abstract

In todays’ dynamically changing environment and competitive landscape, organisations are adopting sustainable practices for attaining long-term economic viability. However, there is a misalignment between sustainable practices and organisations’ strategies and capabilities, especially when sustainability requirements of the stakeholders changes over time. Grounded in dynamic capability view (DCV), this paper addresses the changes in supply chain sustainability requirements of stakeholders in the context of sourcing products from apparel manufacturers in a low cost country Bangladesh. To this end, this study develops a decision support (DS) framework for supply chain sustainability (SCS) that identifies and prioritises optimal strategies for SCS in a dynamic environment. This study adopts a mixed method approach, with the qualitative approach being a field study, and the quantitative approach using fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (QFD) integrated optimisation technique. Our DS framework addresses the stakeholders’ sustainability requirements over time in the context of a case company. The findings show that concomitant with the changes in the stakeholders’ priorities of the sustainability requirements, the organisational sustainability practices, strategies and capabilities also change over time. The SCS DS framework brings a richer conceptual understanding of the dynamic changes in stakeholder requirements and allow managers to choose and select optimal strategies and make astute decisions whilst balancing the economic, social and environmental viability simultaneously.

Introduction

The global textile and apparel industry is at a crossroads. It is a three trillion dollar industry … The flipside of this growth ….has been a broadening and deepening track record of poor working conditions and heavy pollution. The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in April 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh jolted to life widespread and increasingly prolonged scrutiny of the industry. This incident has brought longstanding questions to the forefront over how to bridge the gap between economic viability and social and environmental performance. (Martin 2013; p. 2). Clearly, the issues highlighted by Martin (2013) prevail in both a quintessential global industry and one that is inescapably labour intensive (such as the apparel industry) (Islam and Deegan 2008, Ahmed and Peerlings 2009). These issues are heightened in low-cost developing economies who not only face the difficult task of complying with stakeholder requirements but also face the balancing act of economic, social and environmental issues (Pagell and Wu 2009). Compliance of such issues is even more difficult for low-cost country manufacturers noting that shortage of resource is one of the prime constraints in implementing supply chain sustainability (SCS) strategies (Ageron et al. 2012; Muduli and Barve 2012; Welford and Frost 2006).