Implementation of sustainable supply chain management in UK SMEs in construction industry

This research explores how UK construction companies in the SME sector implement sustainability practices into their supply chain management. The objectives of the research are to conduct comprehensive literature review on supply chain management, sustainability, sustainable supply chain management, implementation processes, theories and concept of SMEs; to investigate the key drivers to implement sustainable supply chain management successfully in UK SMEs in the construction industry; to examine the implementation process of sustainable supply chain management in UK SMEs in the construction industry; to understand the barriers that UK SMEs in the construction industry face during the implementation of sustainable supply chain management and to make recommendations that can be utilised by UK SMEs in the construction industry to implement sustainable supply chain management successfully. A literature review was conducted from a broader topic as supply chain and narrowed it down for sustainable supply chain management implementation with the aim of providing an understanding for the readers about the importance of interlinked fields. The literature review of existing literature addressing sustainable supply chain management implementation was carried out in order to identify the gaps in the literature such as drivers to implement sustainable supply chain management, implementation process of sustainable supply chain management and barriers to implement sustainable supply chain management. In order to fill these identified research gaps, a qualitative research methodology was adopted. The data was collect through semi-structured, multi-respondent and in-depth interviews in five case studies of SMEs in the construction industry. The data was analysed thematically by using the NVIVO qualitative data analysis software. The findings indicate that SMEs develop the motivation to implement sustainable supply chain management mainly as a result of top management commitment. The identified implementation process has seven steps and demonstrates the resources that can be used in each step in order to achieve success in the implementation. Furthermore, the research identified the barriers to implement sustainable supply chain management in SMEs that lead the companies to find solution and succeed in the implementation. The thesis provides literature to fill in the identified gaps and a conceptual model that can be used by the academics as its theoretical contribution. The practical contribution of the thesis is a SSCM implementation process and practical guidance to overcome from the potential barriers to implement SSCM successfully by using identified resources.