A hard nut to crack! Implementing supply chain sustainability in an emerging economy

In the last decade, sustainable supply chain management has become a key topic in the sustainability literature as well as a buzzword in industry and policy circles. Although research has made substantial contributions, there is a lack of understanding on how focal companies operating in emerging economies can lead the implementation of sustainability into their supply chains. This research connects and advances the constructs of cleaner production, sustainability and supply chains by exploring a classic case of a focal company operating in an emerging economy that, even facing considerable challenges, has been able to succeed in transforming its entire supply chain. Drawing from stakeholder theory and contingency theory, this research offers four key contributions to the sustainability and supply chain discourses as follows: 1) it proposes an innovation-centered approach to sustainable supply chain management, by adapting and extending the TCOS uncertainty framework; 2) it suggests that the way a focal company manages and is influenced by its established network of relationships shape the evolution of the supply chain sustainability trajectories; 3) it argues that supply chains are dynamic entities and should then be considered and understood through the lenses of evolutionary approaches; and 4) it suggests that the implementation and management of sustainable supply chains are context-specific challenges and therefore theoretical, managerial and policy generalizations are difficult to be achieved.