Supply chain agility and sustainability performance: A configurational approach to sustainable supply chain management practices

The sustainable supply chain management literature points to a positive relationship between sustainability practices and firm performance. However, firms have limited resources to apply toward competing strategies and initiatives and managers are therefore challenged with making decisions about which sustainability initiatives to pursue. Two potential solutions to this challenge include combining supply chain agility with sustainability practices and utilising the resource orchestration theory framework (ROT) to help supply chain managers make more informed sustainability-related decisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the different potential combinations of firm and supply chain sustainability practices and supply chain agility which result in high firm performance. This study uses ROT and applies a configurational approach and qualitative comparative analysis methodology. The findings indicate that high sustainability performance can be reached through different paths (equifinality) entailing both high and low values of each proposed sustainability initiative and supply chain agility (asymmetry). The findings also reveal that results are dependent on how practices are combined, rather than on their single effects.