Sustainable Supply Chain Management In China

In the 21 st century, economic globalization and corporate competition, enterprises in pursuit of higher economic goals process, often ignore environmental and social responsibility. Currently, resources and environment and social issues have become increasingly prominent, the concept of sustainable development emerged. In 2012 the Eighteenth Congress of the Communist Party of China, the report proposes the construction of five in one overall layout, especially the sustained and healthy economic development, based on balance, coordination, and sustainability; to build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society; to adhere to the people-centered the core position, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable basic requirements. Chinese government put forward the strategic development requirements of economic sustainability, evironmental sustainability and social sustainability.Supply chain enterprises pursuit of their own development, but also pay more attention to the economic, environmental and social benefits overall facing adjustment. Introducing the concept of sustainable development into the supply chain in order to maximize the overall effectiveness of the pursuit of "sustainable supply chain management" is consistent with this trend. Supply chain management focus on business performance from a single economic performance, towards the development to pay attention to the economic, environmental and social aspects, which requires companies to establish a reasonable operational mechanism and management in the supply chain management. Therefore, the effective management of sustainable supply chain is very important for business performance, which becomes important indicators of corporate sustainability.The thesis studies the factors of sustainable supply chain management and its influence on suppliers and business performance in China. Based on a questionnaire survey data of 172 companies, an empirical analysis using PLS-structural equation model is conducted. The empirical study consists of three parts.The first part(chapter IV of the thesis) studies antecedents of sustainable supply chain management practices. Firstly, this part determines the meaning and dimensions of sustainable supply chain management practices by the large number of literatures, including corporate environmental management, corporate social responsible management, supplier monitoring and assessment, supplier cooperation four parts. Next, according to the TOE model framework, this part identifies management practices related factors, namely, technical factors, organizational factors and environmental factors. The empirical results show that the technical level, enterprise technology has a positive impact on the ability of corporate environmental management practices and social responsible management practices. Organizational level, senior managers, business scale, sustainable supply chain management implementation time have a positive impact on corporate environmental management practices and social responsible management practices, supplier monitoring and assessment, and supplier cooperation. Business ownership, the relevant certifications affect environmental management practices and social responsible management practices. Environmental dimension, the legal environment and supervision, customer demand has a positive impact on corporate environmental management practices and social responsible management practices. Competitive pressure has a positive impact on supplier monitoring and assessment and supplier cooperation.The second part(Chapter V of the thesis) studies the influence of sustainable supply chain management practices on firm performance, by resource-based theory, respectively on corporate economic performance, environmental performance and social performance. Further, this part analyses the relationship between corporate environmental performance and social performance and economic performance. The empirical results show that corporate environmental management practices and social responsible management practices have a positive impact on corporate environmental performance and social performance; supplier cooperation has a positive impact on corporate environmental performance; corporate environmental performance and social performance has a positive impact on corporate economic performance.The third part(Chapter VI of the thesis) studies on the sustainable management mechanism for suppliers of sustainable supply chain management. First, this part clearly analyzes the meaning and dimensions of sustainable supply management, including supplier monitoring and assessment and supplier cooperation. Next, from the perspective of companies and suppliers, this part identifies antecedents of the sustainable supply management practices. Finally, based on the transaction cost theory and resource-based theory, this part researches the impact of two dimensions of sustainable supply management practices on the suppliers’ environmental and social performance, further explores two aspects of supplier performance impact on each of the three aspects of corporate performance. The empirical results show that the strategic partnership and the suppliers’ sustainable commitment has a positive impact on supplier monitoring and assessment; supplier monitoring and assessment have a positive impact on supplier cooperation; supplier monitoring and assessment have a positive impact on supplier environmental and social performance; supplier cooperation have a positive impact on the supplier environmental performance. Supplier environmental performance has a positive impact on corporate environmental performance and economic performance; supplier social performance has a positive impact on corporate social performance and economic performance.This study contributes to important theoretical significance and application value. Conclusions provide theoretical foundations and practical instructions for sustainable supply chain management in China.