Sustainable multi-tier supply chain management - case from Finnish food industry
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2017
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
87 + app. 5
Series
Abstract
This master’s thesis investigates sustainable supply chain management with a multi-tier focus. Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) covers three aspects of responsibility in a company and its operations, being environmental, social and economic responsibility. Recently, SSCM has been a popular research topic, although the focus has largely been on the first tier of suppliers, being the direct suppliers of the buyer company. Sustainability demands towards companies are growing which drives companies to manage the sustainability of their supply chain also further upstream than only their first suppliers. Therefore, this research has a multi-tier focus on sustainable supply chain management. The framework that is extended in this research is based on two studies, one is categorising the approaches companies take in implementing sustainability into their supply chain, and the other is analysing the different structures of supply chains. This research is a qualitative case study with case companies from the Finnish food industry. The multi-tier perspective is also visible in the choosing of the case companies as they are one retailer and two of its suppliers, being from two different tiers within the same supply chain. The primary data forms of 10 semi-structured interviews performed in the case companies for the purposes of this study during the year 2016. The secondary data is mainly publicly available archival material. The findings of this research link the sustainability implementation approaches used to the type of supply chain structures. The mandated approach for supplier management appears more common than the collaborative, supporting the suggestion of previous research. Also it seems to be most commonly implemented through giving the own first tier suppliers a mediating role. The major contribution to research is made by extending the theoretical framework used and suggesting an additional third approach for sustainability implementation. Furthermore, the findings underline strategic prioritization, as in supply chain, when moving towards further than first tier suppliers, the amount of suppliers quickly grows large. In addition, this master’s thesis contributes to research by providing a profound case study example on this still quite little researched topic. In the near future, companies are expected to increasingly manage the sustainability in their multi-tier supply chain, in which, the findings of this research give welcomed advice and examples for business leaders.Description
Thesis advisor
Quarshie, AnneKauppila, Olli-Pekka
Keywords
sustainable supply chain management, multi-tier supply chain, CSR in supply chain, socially responsible purchasing, environmental performance in supply chain