Grad Research Lens: The urgent need for sustainable SCM systems

The major challenges relating to issues of climate change and social responsibility faced by companies require immediate attention. An ever-growing number of scientific reports on sustainability at the global scale have helped inspire communities, stakeholders and the media around the world to, in turn, ask hard questions about business practices that aggravate environmental and social health. In this regard, academic communities also play an important role by researching why, when and how organizations embrace sustainable principles and practices.

The intricacies and complexities of supply chain management

As consumers, we are increasingly aware that the products and services we use have long and complicated global supply chains. These networks are intricately linked, impacting places and people who often remain invisible from our everyday lives. For example, mines for metals like tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold – ubiquitous materials for most devices we use every day – are often controlled by armed groups that violently exploit workers.

To address this, section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act requires public companies in the U.S. to check whether the metals they purchased were sourced from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo or adjoining countries known to be controlled by rebel groups and armies. As a follow-up, a Kim and Davis (2016) study found that of over 1300 filings (almost 80%!) could not determine the country of origin of their metals, while only 1% of companies could confirm their product to be conflict-free.

Another event that captured global attention was the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, killing 1133 people and injuring over 2000. The Rana Plaza building housed sub-contractors for clothing giants like Primark, J.C. Penny, Joe Fresh and Wal-Mart, raising questions about how long companies can simply pass on the risks related to unacceptable environmental and social standards in their extended supply chains. We need to further examine and address the current opaqueness and uncertainty existing in our supply chain systems.

Eliciting sustainable corporate practices

I worked for four years as a supply chain consultant for a European multi-national before starting the Master of Supply Chain Management program at the John Molson School of Business. This program helped me examine the complications, limitations and opportunities for collaboration with different partners to implement changes in the field in order to ensure the lowest environmental impact. Other than courses that helped me develop my optimization, modelling and simulations skills, I had the chance to engage with my professors and peers to contextualize and delve into real world problems.

My master’s research is grounded in management theory, looking at how certain governance mechanisms can elicit sustainable behaviours from multi-tier supply chains. Supply chains are usually long, which means that the companies we buy from have their suppliers, who in turn have their own suppliers, and so forth.

However, studies have predominantly focused on buyer-supplier relationships, which does not necessarily accommodate for the complexities in a practical setting. By considering a multi-tier network, the unit of analysis is extended to further understand this complexity, uncovering variables which affect environmental performance improvements.

Governance of such dispersed supply chains are extremely challenging, with the diversity of suppliers operating in different institutional contexts and under different constraints, while often lacking the capability to improve environmental or social performance on their own. However, field studies in the last few years have explored varying institutional contexts and conditions under which different governance mechanisms can improve the performance of supply chains.

While this kind of research drives the domain of multi-tier sustainable supply chains forward, I am attempting to contribute by drawing a few insightful findings using agent-based simulation. Agent based simulation is a new approach to studying an evolving phenomenon, comprising autonomous, interacting agents following their own set rules over time.

Although sustainability in the corporate realms has attracted generous academic interests in the last decade, we all have our individual part to play in our everyday choices. Small actions like using compost bins, supporting fair trade values or volunteering in various community engagements all count towards promoting best practices in ecological, economic and social sustainability.

Sustainability at Concordia

There are multiple opportunities for John Molson graduate students to get involved with sustainability principles and practices, helping them to engage in activities outside of the classroom. Sustainable Concordia, Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse, and the Waste Not, Want Not Compost Project are a few university initiatives actively working towards a more sustainable campus.

I had the amazing opportunity last year to participate in Sustainable Concordia’s summer advocacy course, an experiential curriculum teaching the principles of sustainability while fostering new relations among participants. The experience helped me understand the subject of sustainability from a practitioner’s perspective and be inspired by the diverse perspectives of the participants.  

I am also keeping my eye on Concordia’s interdisciplinary Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability, home of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, which offers other opportunities to engage in ongoing transdisciplinary sustainability studies that have a real impact!

Digging deeper

After finishing my master’s thesis this fall, I will start a PhD degree here at JMSB in Winter 2020. My research on sustainability in supply chain management introduced me to the broader subject of corporate social responsibility. There is an evolving body of knowledge on how social movements, regulatory pressures and other internal and external organizational factors affect corporate sustainability initiatives.  I will be focusing on few of these questions in my PhD degree in collaboration with Dr. Jeong and Dr. Lloyd in the Department of Management. I had the amazing chance of working with them and Dr. Shevchenko during the last two years as a research assistant, which has been intellectually stimulating and critically important to developing my research skills.

I’m sure the doctoral experience will be an extension of this auspicious John Molson journey, with more chances to learn, seek guidance, develop fruitful collaborations and, hopefully, build a career within Concordia's academic community.

For more information about John Molson's research-based graduate programs, connect with a recruiter or register for one of our information sessions.