Sustainable supply chain management: a modeling perspective

Nowadays, the integration of sustainability into supply chain management (SCM) is a key issue for ensuring corporate competitiveness in face of dynamic ecological and social environments. This paper reviews 185 journal publications of the last 20 years that formalize issues related to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in quantitative models. In a content analysis, modeling and SCM characteristics as well as sustainability and SSCM constructs are elaborated. The models are assessed numerically by counting frequencies of occurrence and by clustering the paper sample according to selected characteristics. The findings indicate that SSCM models predominantly focus on deterministic approaches and the integration of environmental aspects of sustainability while neglecting stochastic modeling techniques and the consideration of social factors. By now, comprehensive modeling approaches are most often employed on intra-organizational levels whereas broader application areas are assessed by less complex models. The integration of pressures and incentives of external stakeholders or the formalization of sustainable supplier management and sustainability risks are identified as future research perspectives. Furthermore, the interrelationships between the triple bottom line dimensions are to be scrutinized in greater detail in order to avoid focused optimization of selected sustainability criteria. Seven modeling guidelines are derived from the reviewed literature to facilitate future model-based SSCM research.