This paper facilitates an in-depth view of the transformation needed for the transition from traditional to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM)—by delineating its elemental aspects. Taking an organizational unit of analysis perspective, this conceptual review seeks to characterize the fundamental nature of complexities inherent in the transformation, and thereby seeks to explicate the elemental nature of organizational efforts responsible for shaping sustainable supply chains. The findings outline intriguing mechanisms for explaining the complex and endless nature of the transformation for organizations. This discourse also involves the proposition of two novel concepts applied in this context: the SSCM Forcefield and Differential Efforts in SSCM. While the former represents the intricate interplay between organizational efforts and organizational complexities in absorbing SSCM practices in the supply chain routines of an organization, the latter reflects the value of additional efforts above and beyond what is required in existing supply chain routines, to facilitate the integration of a desired SSCM practice into routines. The findings show how the force-field impedes an organization’s progress in SSCM and how differential effort allows an organization to overcome the force-field, extending theoretical frameworks and offering valuable guidance for practicing managers. Overall, the research strengthens the conceptual foundation of SSCM theory by explicating the under-explored aspects involved in an organization’s progressive journey toward SSCM. Further, it is a first attempt to outline the organizational implications of the SSCM journey.

Introduction

With sustainability having become a mainstay in our contemporary business environment, the transformation of an organization’s traditional supply chain management (SCM) approaches into sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is a journey that has become paramount. However, some organizations have yet to undertake this journey, while others that have started it are underestimating its complexity. This calls for the need to further strengthen the conceptual foundation of SSCM theory, so as to better understand the complex dynamics ingrained in the journey of SSCM (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017; Gold and Schleper, 2017; Markman and Krause, 2016; Pagell and Shevchenko, 2014; Quarshie et al., 2016; Roy et al., 2018b). Within this context, complexity can be defined as the ambiguity encountered in deriving schemata to encapsulate regularities associated with an emerging subject that advocates a paradigm shift (Anderson, 1999). The complexities associated with SSCM have been emphasized by a few select works in the SSCM literature. It was most explicitly called out by Silvestre (2015), who notes that “sustainable supply chains are not a destination, but rather a journey because as supply chains move toward more sustainable practices they go through a complex, dynamic, and evolutionary learning process” (p. 157). Despite this realization, the literature lacks an in-depth understanding of the complex nature associated with the transformation toward SSCM.