This article aims to evaluate whether the enablers top and middle management support and strategic purchasing facilitate the development of sustainable supply chain practices, as well as the effect of the latter on competitive advantage. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the proposed model based on a sample from companies operating in Colombia. The main hypotheses of the research were supported, implying that a suitable combination between internal enablers and the adoption of sustainable supply chain practices is important to pursue competitive advantage. However, the hypothesis for the expected effect of environmental practices wasn’t supported, suggesting that there is a win-win perspective between social practices in supply chains and competitive advantage in the context of emerging economies. And the analysis of the non-supported hypothesis is one of the contributions of the article.

Introduction

Currently, businesses and their supply chains are challenged to pursue their objectives and conduct their operations in an increasingly open and unstable world (Winston, 2014). This scenario is particularly demanding when considering stakeholders’ requests for economic, social and environmental performance within focal firms’ supply chains (Seuring and Muller, 2008). These requests are relative to the application of sustainability to supply chains, that is, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) (Carter and Rogers, 2008). Recent literature suggests that in response to these requests, companies need to develop new specific capabilities (Bowen et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2013; Meixell and Luoma, 2015; Paulraj, 2011; Sarkis, 2012; Shi et al., 2012). The above considerations are particularly important for developing or emerging economies, where SSCM practices and corporate social performance have not been widely addressed by the academic and business communities, in comparison to studies conducted in developed countries (Jabbour et al., 2017; Fahimnia et al., 2015; Kusi-Sarpong and Sarkis, 2017; Mani et al., 2018; Silvestre, 2015a, b). Some of the factors that hinder the adoption of SSCM practices in developing countries are the high complexity and uncertainty of the business environment. In turn, these factors can be associated with institutional voids, corruption, poor infrastructure, poverty, inequality, and informal employment (Silvestre, 2015a). Thus, the study of SSCM in Latin America can address the need for empirical and theoretical work in a context that lacks proper research on the subject (de Morais, 2017, p. 33). In particular, empirical studies of specific enablers and outcomes of social sustainability adoption in developing countries remain rare (Köksal et al., 2018; Mani and Gunasekaran, 2018, p. 150). Consequently, this article aims to evaluate whether two enablers – top and middle management support, and strategic purchasing – facilitate the development of SSCM practices (considered organizational capabilities), as well as the effect of the latter on the CA of focal firms located in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. We intend to achieve these objectives by addressing the following research questions: RQ1: Do top and middle management support and strategic purchasing affect the adoption of SSCM practices in the context of a developing economy? RQ2: Does any competitive advantage accrue for firms that implement social and environmental supply chain management practices in the context of a developing economy?