SUSTAINABILITY ADOPTION THROUGH RELATIONSHIP MARKETING ACROSS SUPPLY CHAIN IN INDIAN FIRMS

Abstract

The concept of sustainability is frequently used in management and engineering research. Many international efforts including the Stockholm Conference (1972), World Conference on Economic Development (1987) and International Union for Conservation in Nature (IUCN) worked as a catalyst for the adoption and implementation of sustainability practices in business. A major breakthrough came in 1994 when Elkington introduced the three dimensions of sustainability: social, economical, and environmental. These dimensions are the most accepted across academia and industry. Business firms are crucial for the sustainable development of society since they consume a great quantity of natural and human resources and degrade the environment and human habitat directly or indirectly. Focal companies in the supply chain are putting efforts to extend sustainability practices towards supply chain partners. Yet there is the implementation issue of sustainability across supply chain. This raises many questions. First, how can supply chain partners and their top management be motivated to adopt sustainability practices? Second, how sustainability practices can be adopted across supply chain? Third, how buyer-supplier relationships can be used to develop sustainable supply chain? Fourth, what are the indicators of sustainability in a supply chain? For this purpose, many authors have published several conceptual studies. There are also few empirical studies mostly focusing on one dimension of the sustainability, either environmental or social. Most of these studies have been carried out in the developed countries and some of the work belongs to China also. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a proper model for a sustainable supply chain considering the buyer-supplier relationship in Indian context. Many studies have acclaimed that a relationship based supply chain is more sustainable. There are various enablers including the buyer-supplier relationship, expected benefits of sustainability adoption, and external influence that can help propagate sustainability across supply chain. Literature has indicated many buyer-supplier relationship strategies such as supplier selection on sustainability standards, performance review of suppliers, and supplier development activities. The main question that arises is how to select a relationship with every supply chain partner? Relationship marketing literature suggests that joint development and long term relationships are always not profitable. Relationship marketing literature also focuses on the benefits, opportunities, cost, and risk of a relationship. Hence, there is need to develop a relationship selection model for developing sustainable iv supply chain. The Indian automobile industry is becoming a global hub for the production and export of automobile products. India will become one of the biggest exporters of automotive components and finished automotive products very soon. The role of sustainable business practices cannot be ignored in the global supply chain. The present study evaluated the enablers of a sustainable supply chain, supplier selection model, relationship selection model, and role of the buyer-supplier relationship for developing a sustainable supply chain in the context of the Indian automobile industry. This study used both qualitative and quantitative studies. The main input and key findings of the present study are given below:  In this study a review and taxonomical and conceptual analysis of the available literature was presented. Different factors related to sustainability adoption across supply chain were derived from a further perusal of the present study.  After the identification of the enablers of a sustainable supply chain in the context of the Indian automobile industry, a qualitative model was developed to depict the interrelationships among enabler.  A supplier selection and order allocation model was developed using Fuzzy AHP and Fuzzy Multi-objective linear programming.  After developing a model for supplier selection for a sustainable supply chain, a qualitative model was developed for the relationship selection on the basis of benefits opportunities, cost and risk of relationship type. Final model has been developed and tested for the hypothesis using PLS 2.0M3