TITLE:
Level of Integration among Supply Chain Members in Moving towards the Adoption of Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Ethiopian Manufacturing Industries
AUTHORS:
Assefa Balda, Rajwinder Singh
KEYWORDS:
Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Integration, Collaboration, Manufacturing
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.10 No.7,
July
22,
2020
ABSTRACT: Sustainability is a multi-dimensional combination that enlarges the economic bottom line notion that focuses on efficiently and effectively usage of resources and realizing a return on investments, by adding social considerations and promoting superior ecological responsibility. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of integration among supply chain members in moving towards the adoption of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). In order to address this objective, descriptive research design was used based on cross-sectional survey. The data were collected through survey questionnaires from the top and middle-level managers of the sample firms. These sample firms were selected by proportional stratified sampling technique. From each sample firms three respondents were selected by using purposive sampling technique. Accordingly, valid data were collected from 420 participants from 146 large-scale manufacturing firms using self-administered questionnaires. The major findings are: despite to its limitation on jointly anticipating and developing plans for tackling potential problems on SSCM (environmental, social, and economic) large-scale manufacturing firms in Ethiopia were found highly integrated internally via information system and that enabled them to share up-to-dated information within firms. A strong level of integration with downstream supply chain members on strategic partnership, and in sharing adequate and quality information was also found. Integration on both suppliers and customers’ involvement on environmental and social related issues of SSCM was found weak. On average the grand mean score value revealed that the level of integration among supply chain members in moving towards the adoption of SSCM for both external and internal was found moderate. Therefore, it can be concluded that the level of integration either externally or internally seems that the commitment of supply chain members (firms) is more on addressing their business or economic than environmental and social aspects of SSCM.