Sustainable Supplier Selection- Selection and evaluation of logistics service providers based on sustainability in the Swedish market - a qualitative approach

Abstract

Integrating social and environmental aspects in supply chain management has received much consideration and attention from both companies and the society over the past decade. Organizations have recognized the high significance of sustainability which now has become an integral part of their business strategy. Companies have realized that they must integrate sustainability into supply chain through supplier selection. Consequently, suppliers play an important role in sustainable development through the entire supply chain. The sourcing department has the main responsibility to assure that sustainability is considered when selecting suppliers in order to have a supply chain that is truly sustainable. Therefore, purchasing managers need to include the three sustainability aspects in their supplier selection process. Despite their high significance, logistics service providers are usually not treated like the classic suppliers of goods and have not given the right attention from both academia and industry. With regard to the complexity of supplier selection process due to its wide variety of factors a systematic and sustainability-focused evaluation framework for supplier selection is needed from an organizational supply chain perspective. The usage of decision support tools/methods can help organizations and supply chain managers to make more effective decisions regarding sustainable supplier selection. By examining the four widely applied methods for sustainable supplier selection (i.e. DEA, ANP, AHP, TOPSIS), this paper aims to find out how companies in Sweden select and evaluate their logistics service providers. A case study with ten companies will be analyzed in order to fill the existing gaps and answer the research questions.