SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

(SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND

LARGE-SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS
ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY.

CONCEPT PAPER
SUBMITTED TO
GELILA INTERNATIONAL SEMINARY COLLAGE
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

By

Mathias Mengiste

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

January, 2024
SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………...………………………………………………………………………….2

2. Need of the study........................................................................................................................................ 2

2. Background of the Study ............................................................................................................................ 3

3. Research objectives .................................................................................................................................... 4

4. Research Questions .................................................................................................................................... 4

5. Hypotheses ................................................................................................................................................. 5

6. Research Design and Methodology............................................................................................................ 6

7.Time schedule ............................................................................................................................................. 7

8. References .................................................................................................................................................. 8

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY

Introduction

As a flourishing subfield of SCM, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has been an emerging topic
that has received increasing attention from both academics and practitioners over the past two decades (Amann
M et al., 2014; Zhu et al., 2012). During this time, SSCM has emerged as a popular approach by which
manufacturing firms can gain economic benefits by reducing environmental risks and impacts while mitigating
environmental damage (Zhu et al., 2012; Amann M et al., 2014; Pagell and WU, 2009). However, significant
complexities in the management and implementation of this approach have been observed during this period
(Esfahbodi, A. et al., 2016; Green, K. et al., 2012; Nimsai et al., 2020), and recently, a number of new debates
have opened up, raising doubts about whether the adoption of the SSCM agenda will improve environmental
protection and ultimately translate into higher profitability (Gimenez et al., 2012; Tseng, M. et al., 2015).
Attempting to understand these complexities and uncertainties is essential and has both academic and practical
significance. In light of this and to further improve understanding of the topic in general, this research project
will theorize and empirically assess a comprehensive model regarding the theoretical linkages between core
research groups of SSCM drivers, implementation of SSCM practices, and corresponding performance
outcomes.

This research will be focused on Ethiopia, especially the Addis Ababa manufacturing industries, as one of the
main polluting and resource-consuming sectors, accounting for a major share of Ethiopia's total manufacturing
output. Manufacturing firms based in Addis Ababa and its peripheries seem to have a relatively long tenure,
many years of experience in production and marketing, as well as access to a qualified workforce, managerial
knowledge, and improved production technologies and procedures. It is expected that firms based in this city
achieve better results compared to firms operating in the regions and/or rural areas, as Rijkers et al. (2010)
recently obtained important differences in the performance of rural firms and urban firms in the country.
Relevant data vis-à-vis manufacturing strategy, leadership, performance, etc. are assumed to be easier to
acquire from manufacturing firms operating in that city than in regions or rural areas for a reason of
geographical spread (or the remoteness of some areas). For its meaning, then, this study is focused only on
firms selected from Addis Ababa and its peripheries.

2. Need of the study

This study aims to address the lack of clarity in existing knowledge about the impact of sustainability supply
chain management (SSCM) practices on organizational performance. It argues that there is a significant gap
in understanding the relationship between SSCM adoption procedures and performance outcomes (Lee et al.,
2012; Govindan, K. et al., 2014; Vachon and Klassen, 2008; Rao and Holt, 2005), which includes the influence
of prior management forces. This research will make a significant contribution to ongoing research related to

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
sustainability supply chain practices and performance outcomes by including management forces associated
with SSCM adoption.
The comprehensive and integrated perspective of this study will allow for a thorough and rigorous empirical
investigation of the impacts of SSCM adoption on performance results. It will contribute to the SSCM
literature by integrating recently developed constructs into a framework using previous fragmented studies.
This investigation will bring new insights into the field of SSCM. And can shed light on existing knowledge
about whether the adoption of SSCM can bring environmental and financial benefits.
This study will offer new insights for practitioners on the SSCM agenda, providing managerial insights on
how to successfully implement green initiatives throughout the supply chain. Policymakers and legislators
will gain useful insights on how to motivate manufacturers to adopt SSCM. The validated SSCM initiatives
will help manufacturing firms in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, create a wider perspective within Ethiopia and Africa
at large, identify areas of supply chains that require improvement, and prioritize their green efforts.
This research result will help other researchers and policymakers in Ethiopia, Africa, and developing
economies in general. It will reveal what is happening inside local manufacturing firms and help them find
ways to learn, improve, and compete. This study can also serve as a basis for further research, consulting, and
training in this area.

3. Background of the Study

Supply chains and their management are crucial for competitiveness in today's business environment. With
the rapid development of supply chain management (SCM) in recent decades, there has been an increase in
environmental concerns related to waste, emissions, and resource depletion. SCM is most related to
environmental outcomes as it includes various business processes and operations that directly impact the
environment (Ganeshan and Harrison, 1995). Today, most companies are involved in at least one supply chain,
and the way these firms manage their supply chains can minimize negative impacts on the environment and
strengthen environmental protection (Abbasi and Nilsson, 2012).The agenda of environmental sustainability
calls for manufacturing firms to take environmental concerns into account and adopt the necessity of
environmental management. Many manufacturing firms have begun implementing proactive SSCM practices,
providing environmentally friendly products and services with minimal negative impact on the environment
are being implemented by manufacturers today, such as sustainable supply (Tapaninaho, R., & Heikkinen,
2022), sustainable production (Azevedo et al, 2016), eco-design (Seuring and Muller, 2008b), sustainable
distribution (Lakshmimeera and Palanisamy, 2013), and investment recovery (Zhu et al., 2008a).

Previous research has confirmed that SSCM implementation leads to higher levels of environmental
performance, such as reduced waste, emissions, and consumption of toxic materials (Seuring and Muller,
2008a). In terms of economics, SSCM implementation can improve a company's financial results through cost
savings, a stronger brand image, and improved market share (Chien & Shih, 2007; Yu et al., 2014). However,
new research has challenged this consensus, leading to a lack of clarity in understanding the relationships

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
between SSCM practices and performance results (Zhu et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2012),particularly in developing
countries like Ethiopia.

This study argues that while the body of literature on SSCM is sophisticated, there is a lack of clarity in
understanding the relationships between the implementation of SSCM practices and corresponding
performance results especially in developing country in Africa more specifically in Ethiopia. This work tries
to bridge the internal ambiguity existing knowledge through rigorous investigation of the newly opened debate
on whether both environmental improvement and economic benefit can be achieved through entrepreneurial
SSCM practices (Chan et al., 2012a; Chan et al., 2012b; Chien & Shih, 2007).

Overall, I argue that despite recent developments in the SSCM literature, empirical research is needed to
determine the impact of SSCM practices on performance outcomes, especially from a holistic and integrated
perspective that takes into account the influential effects of SSCM precursors. Probably, such a comprehensive
and integrated view enables this research investigation to obtain more credible results, report conclusive
findings, and bridge mixed views within existing knowledge in Ethiopia context and Africa at large.

4. Research objectives

The overall objective of this study is to develop a driver-practice-performance SSCM conceptual framework
with a focus on relationships between drivers' forces, SSCM practices, and performance outcomes. In light of
the overall aim and research questions of the study, the main ones are the following:
1. To identify core SSCM practices along with their associated drivers.
2. To explore the relationships between drivers of SSCM, SSCM practices, and environmental,
economic, and operational performance.
3. To develop validated and reflective scales for measuring the main research clusters, SSCM drivers,
SSCM implementation, and performance outcomes.
4. To conceptualize and empirically evaluate a comprehensive model of driver performance and SCM
practices.

5. Research Questions
Despite recent developments in the SSCM literature, it is argued that there are considerable research gaps in
existing knowledge regarding the drivers of SSCM implementation and also the related consequences for the
impacts on the performance of companies. The main research questions of this research project are formulated
as follows:
RQ1: Which factors, both endogenous and exogenous to the firm, must be in place earlier before SSCM
practices are adopted?
RQ2: What is the environmental impact of implementing SSCM practices on company performance?

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
RQ3: What is the impact of implementing SSCM practices on company performance?
It is argued that there is a causal chain that brings two sides to the scope of research and the research questions
together and further justifies the choice of study. While the first party emphasizes the idea that firms adopt
SSCM practices for specific reasons, especially extrinsic pressures and internal drivers, the other side focuses
further on the consequences of implementing SSCM practices in terms of the environmental, cost, and
operational performance of firms. A holistic view of firms' decisions to pursue an SSCM approach can be
obtained by combining these two elements that define the future of the SSCM agenda.

6. Hypotheses
The aim of this section is to develop the theoretical relationships between the nested constructs so that we can
theorize the final model. This is one step closer to achieving the primary goal of the study. The goal is to
develop a comprehensive driver-exercise-performance (SSCM) model. In light of this, this section attempts
to formulate a number of hypotheses about the relationships between embedded constructs using the
theoretical foundation that will be presented for SSCM drivers, SSCM practices, and SSCM performance
clusters, as well as empirical evidence in the relevant literature.
A contingency perspective will be taken into account when developing the study's research hypotheses,
following a similar approach used by many scientists in proposing hypotheses or structuring causal
relationships (Bathiany et al., 2019; Glymour et al., 2019; Hollos et al., 2012). A contingency perspective
suggests that our proposed hypotheses could be neither true nor false on every possible valuation, allowing us
to either reject or affirm the research hypotheses of the study (Dayal S. Prasad et al., 2019; Krathwohl, 1988).
This section will end with a row of hypotheses for further empirical investigation. The construct is postulated
as an antecedent to the implementation of SSCM practices, influencing SSCM core practices including
sustainable procurement, sustainable manufacturing, sustainable development distribution, and reverse
logistics. With this set of arguments, I will propose the following hypotheses:
H1a. Organisation environmental management is directly and positively associated with sustainable
procurement.
H1b. Organisation environmental management is directly and positively associated with sustainable design.
H1c. Organisation environmental management is directly and positively associated with sustainable
distribution.
H1d. Organisation environmental management is directly and positively associated with reverse logistics.
H2a. Sustainable procurement is directly and positively associated with environmental performance.
H3a. Sustainable procurement is directly and positively associated with cost performance.
H2b. Sustainable design is directly and positively associated with environmental performance.
H3b. Sustainable design is directly and positively associated with cost performance.
H2d. Reverse logistics is directly and positively associated with environmental performance.
H3d. Reverse logistics is directly and positively associated with cost performance.

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
H4a. Environmental performance is directly and positively associated with cost performance.
H5a. Environmental performance is directly and positively associated with operational performance.
H5b. Cost performance is directly and positively associated with operational performance

7. Research Design and Methodology

This study will use an explanatory research that examines the causal relationships among three main research
clusters: driving forces associated with SSCM adoption, SSCM implementation, and commensurate
performance outcomes. It will also adopt a positivist approach based on deductive logic, which has become
popular in social science and operations and supply chain management studies (Saunders et al., 2019). The
research project will be conducted under the positivist paradigm with a mono-quantitative method.
A quantitative cross sectional survey method will be used to develop hypotheses and a research model, while
the qualitative method is excluded due to its focus on in-depth knowledge of individual phenomena
(Bryman and Bell, 2015). A deductive reasoning approach will be used to develop hypotheses from existing
knowledge and test them through empirical observations (Saunders et al., 2016).
An internet-mediated and postal survey of SSCM driver performance will be conducted to obtain the required
data and information to test the proposed research hypotheses. The research model will be empirically assessed
using structural equation modelling (SEM), a subset of multivariate methodology methodology (Rosseel Y.
et al 2012; Schumacker and Lomax, 2010; Kline, 2011). SEM analysis will be carried out to examine
individual hypotheses and relationships between research constructs using LISREL's latest version of
software.
The study will also discuss practical sub-attributes such as questionnaire development, data type, and ethical
considerations. The total number of firms falling in the industries categories in the country as a whole in the
year 2009/10 is 1,574 (Ethiopia CSA, 2011), of which 600 firms are found in Addis Ababa and its periphery.
This study is will be conducted for the population of 600 firms with a precision level (sampling error) of e =
0.05, a sample of 240 manufacturing firms (determined as per the optimal method) was selected for the study
from this particular area. Lastly, potential limitations of the risk of missing data and non-response bias will be
mitigated, and sample characteristics will be presented. The potential limitations of missing data and non-
response bias will be mitigated, and sample characteristics will be presented.

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
8. Time schedule
Student's Name: Mathias Mengiste Tsegaye

Dissertation Process Number of months Due Date

1.Choose Dissertation Advisor- developing concept and problem Dec.16/23-Jan.31/24 31 January 2024
identification
2.Writing chapter one as of proved proposal Feb.1/24 – Mar. 7/24 07 March 2024

3.Finalizing chapter one (continuation of and first draft of Mar.08 - April 30/24 08 April 2024
literature review)
4.Literature review and aligning writings, related issues and agree May01/24-Aug.31/2024 31 August 2024
with the objectives (commenting the progress)
5.Drafting and finalizing (research design and methodology (how Sept.01/24- Oct.31/24 31 October 2024
deal with data’s) and comments the progress including scientific
expiation and justifications
6.Data collection and recording data Non01/24 - Feb. 28/25 28 February 2025

7.Finding (result) and Data interpretation Mar.01/25- 31/2025 31 March 2025

8.Draft of finalize writing for submission Apr01/25- 08/2025 08 April 2025

9.Final submission weeks paper for external readers April. 11/25- 13/2025 13 April 2025

10.Defense and Graduation May 01/25- July 16/2025 16 July 2025

Total days: One & half years

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 SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SSCM): AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIUM AND LARGE-
SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
9. References
Abbasi, M.,Nilsson, F. (2012). ‘Themes and challenges in making supply chains environmentally sustainable.
Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 517-530.
Amann M., Roehrich, J. K., Essig, M. and Harland, C. 2014. Driving sustainable supply chain management
in the public sector. The importance of public procurement in the European Union. Supply Chain
Management-an International Journal 19 (3), 351-366.
Azevedo, S. G., Carvalho, H., & Cruz-Machado, V. (2016). LARG index: A benchmarking tool for improving
the leanness, agility, resilience and greenness of the automotive supply chain. Benchmarking, 23(6), 1472–
1499
Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2015), Business Research Methods, 4th edition, OUP Oxford.
Carter, C.R. and Easton, P.L. (2011), “Sustainable supply chain management: evolution and future
directions”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 46-
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Chien, M.K. and Shih, L.H. (2007), “An empirical study of the implementation of green supply chain
management practices in the electrical and electronic industry and their relation to organizational
performances”, International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 4(3), pp. 383-394
Ethiopia. Central Statistical Agency (CSA). 2011. Large and Medium Scale Manufacturing Industries Survey.
[Online]. Available from: [Accessed 25 August 2011]: Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia.
Esfahbodi, A., Zhang, Y., Watson, G. 2016. Sustainable supply chain management in emerging economies:
Trade-offs between environmental and cost performance. International Journal of Production Economics ‘In
Press’ Available on line.
Ganeshan, R., Harrison, T. P. (1995) An Introduction to Supply Chain Management, Department of
Management Sciences and Information Systems, 303 Beam Business Building, Penn State University,
University Park, PA
Gimenez, C. Sierra, V. and Rodon, J. (2012), "Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple bottom line”,
International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 140, Issue 1, pp. 149-159.
Govindan, K., Jafarian, A., Khodaverdi, R. and Devika, K. 2014. Two-echelon multiple-vehicle location–
routing problem with time windows for optimization of sustainable supply chain network of perishable food.
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Management Practices" Industrial Engineering Letters, Vol.3, No.10, pp. 42-52

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SCALE MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN ADDIS ABABA CITY & ITS PERIPHERY
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Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 112, Issue 8, pp.1148-1180.
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