An Institutional Theory perspective on sustainable practices across the dairy supply chain

By Jane Glover, Donna Champion, Kevin Daniels, Andrew Dainty. 2014

496 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The need for sustainable practices in the food supply chain, particularly in the area of energy reduction, is becoming acute. The food industry currently has to contend with multiple competing pressures alongside the new challenges of sustainable production. We applied Institutional Theory to explore the role of supermarkets in the development of legitimate sustainable practices across the dairy supply chains. The paper focuses on dairy supply chain organizations and their consumption of energy. We conducted 70 semi-structured telephone interviews with various stakeholders across the supply chain. Findings revealed that the majority of actors in the supply chain identified supermarkets as the dominant player, and that the supermarkets exert pressure on other smaller organizations across the supply chain. Although some organizations wished to pursue a sustainable agenda through integrating new rules and legitimate practices within their own organization, the dominant logic appeared to be one of cost reduction and profit maximization. There was also evidence that supermarkets and other large organizations attempt to replicate publicly available information on green successes for image purposes. We conclude that the dominant logic of cost reduction is so well established that challenging the dominant logic may prove difficult. The challenge is therefore to complement the dominant logic with sustainable practices across the whole supply chain, a role Government needs to play. This will require a broader more systemic approach to encouraging sustainable practices including investment and financing practices, so that all members of the dairy supply chain can co-operate and contribute to energy reduction.

Subfields: Marketing, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f7814be43844fb76e99e53a89a84db698bdf22dd

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Citations in the corpus

Drivers of Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Identification and Classification (2019, methodology): “Our systematic literature review revealed that not all articles in the selected sample addressed the three sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental, social, and economic) of the TBL. Figure 6 depicts the findings and distribution of selected scientific journal articles in accordance with the t”
Coupling coordination between carbon emissions and the eco-environment in China (2020, background): “As mentioned above, coupling theory h as been widely studied in the fields of carbon emissions and the eco-environment, which, however, are independent of each other. No research has considered both of t hese fields simultaneously. Moreover, previous research was mostly limited to l oca areas. Altho”
Supply Chain Management for Improved Energy Efficiency: Review and Opportunities (2017, methodology): “…company Sustainable practices - - - QL AFAuxiliary services [49] Ahi et al., 2016 Literaturereview - - Sustainable practices - - 4 QL OF [50] Glover et al., 2014 Institutionaltheory - Dairy supply chain Sustainable practices - - - QL OF [51] Winkler, 2011 Qualitativeanalysis Logistic…”
A case analysis of a sustainable food supply chain distribution system—A multi-objective approach (2014, background): “The dairy industry is one such sector which is highly regulated and has been subjected to continued introduction of new environmental legislation in the last few years from both European and international directives (Glover et al. 2014).”