Social and Environmental Dimensions of Organizations and Supply Chains ― Tradeoffs and Synergies

This book focuses on environmental and social factors in international supply chains and industry networks. It explores whether socially-responsible and environmentally-conscious operations are complementary or conflictive to economic targets. The book elaborates on innovative approaches to manage the economic, ecological and social performance in supply networks from different perspectives. In addition, it links sustainability to operational processes and illustrates specific application contexts. Moreover, it covers the social dimension of sustainability.

The rise of sustainability in management forces enterprises to revisit the concept of profitability that drives their operations. Social standards and ecological targets represent critical factors that challenge industry networks. The interplay of these goals requires new insights from scientific research and managerial practice. New approaches and systems are needed to minimize environmental and social harms and to promote sustainability.

Marcus Brandenburg, Prof. Dr. habil., is Professor for Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He has obtained a doctoral and a higher doctoral degree at the University of Kassel, Germany. His expertise includes model-based research on Sustainable Supply Chain Management. Marcus Brandenburg has authored numerous scientific journal papers and has also given various talks on that topic at scientific conferences. Moreover, he is co-editor of the book "Eco-Innovation and the Development of Business Models" published in the Springer book series “Greening of Industry Networks Studies”.

Tobias Rebs, M.A. in Sustainable Management and Economics, is a research and teaching assistant at the Chair of Supply Chain Management of the University of Kassel, Germany. His research concentrates on stakeholder and risk management for sustainable supply chains. Methodologically, his expertise covers empirical research and content analysis as well as system dynamics modeling.