A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management

and was a visiting professor at the Copenhagen Business School. He hold a PhD and habilitation from the Carl von Ossietzky-University of Oldenburg, Germany. He has published widely on sustainability and supply chain management. Abstract: More than 300 papers have been published in the last 15 years on the topic of green or sustainable (forward) supply chains. Looking at the research methodologies employed, only 36 papers apply quantitative models. This is in contrast to, for example, the neighboring field of reverse or closed-loop supply chains where several reviews on respective quantitative models have already been provided. The paper summarizes research on quantitative models for forward supply chains and thereby contributes to the further substantiation of the field. While different kinds of models are applied, it is evident that the social side of sustainability is not taken into account. On the environmental side, life-cycle assessment based approaches and impact criteria clearly dominate. On the modeling side there are three dominant approaches: equilibrium models, multi-criteria decision making and analytical hierarchy process. There has been only limited empirical research so far. The paper ends with suggestions for future research. 1 Introduction Globalization places demands on supply chain management to reach beyond pure economic issues and includes matters like e.g. fair labor conditions and environmentally friendly production. This raises interest in its intersection with sustainable development, which is usually comprehended in an economic, an 3 environmental and a social dimension (see e.g. [45]; for the link to supply chain management see [70]; [42]). Managing supply chains in a sustainable manner has become an increasing concern for companies of all sizes and across a wide range of industries. Meeting environmental and social standards along all stages of the supply chain ensures that (at least) minimum sustainability performance is reached. This more reactive approach of responding to external pressure from governments, consumers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) [71]) and media can be complemented by the development and introduction of sustainable products. published on green and sustainable supply chain management. Yet, sorting these papers according to the research methodology employed, only 36 remain which build or use quantitative models. Hence, this paper aims at taking a longer period into account than Seuring and Müller [70], but focuses on one kind of research method, i.e. quantitative models, only. This allows detailed insights into this stream of research and should reach conclusions on how to develop it further. This small …