Sustainable Business Practices and Supply Chain Negative Outcomes

Abstract

This paper aims to review the literature about negative outcomes associated with the implementation of sustainable business practices (SBP) embedded in supply chains (SC). We investigate and discuss this literature in order to understand how business relationships (BR) may be affected with the implementation of SBP. We developed a literature review that evaluated 134 articles indexed at the Web of Science (98) and SCOPUS (36) databases. After the abstracts’ reading and analyses, 36 papers were examined using the inclusion and exclusion criteria, which resulted on the additional exclusion of 25 papers. Then, we analyse and discuss in detail the remaining 11 selected articles. The analysis shows the negative consequences associated with the implementation of SBP in BR among SC partners, namely the emergence of an atmosphere of tension, disagreement or conflict and the business partners’ perception of frustration. The negative outcomes are emphasized by the costs of implementing SBP, by the misunderstanding SBP, and by the ineffective communication between partners. Furthermore, our analysis highlights that these negative outcomes can be reduced through the development of a climate of trust, honesty, transparency, effective communication, and fair division in value ownership for all SC partners.