Exploring Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Ethiopian coffee industry: an analysis of the critical factors, practices, and outcomes

Habib, AM (2025) Exploring Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Ethiopian coffee industry: an analysis of the critical factors, practices, and outcomes. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

Global agrifood supply chains are under increasing pressure from consumer organizations, environmental advocacy groups, and policymakers to address sustainability concerns. Similarly, the supply chains in developing countries, such as the Ethiopian coffee industry, are compelled to ensure the production of their agricultural products is environmentally and socially substantiable. Thus, there is a growing interest in adopting sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), however, the implementation of sustainability initiatives is challenging. As a result, many organizations are facing difficulty integrating sustainability initiatives into agrifood supply chains. Moreover, most of the empirical studies on SSCM are carried out in developed countries from the perspective of buyers. Hence, the perspectives of producers and suppliers in developing countries in literature are found to be limited. Due to the slow adoption pace of SSCM in emerging economies and developing countries, the field of study is still in its infancy stage. Even though there are some studies conducted in developing and emerging countries, more SSCM studies are needed in similar countries to identify trends and pathways and implement sustainable initiatives.
As a result, a plethora of researchers are calling for more research concerning SSCM in developing countries to increase generalizability and inclusivity on a global scale. Consequently, to understand the changing aspects of SSCM more empirical research is required to be undertaken in developing countries such as Ethiopia. Therefore, this study intends to fill this gap, questioning how critical factors such as drivers, enablers, and barriers affect the adoption of SSCM practices. Moreover, the outcomes of environmental and social sustainability adoption have not been explored with respect to their associated drivers, enablers, and barriers constituting an additional knowledge gap. Consequently, this study was intended to accomplish two main objectives of determining the impact of critical factors in the adoption of SSCM practices and examining whether the adoption of SSCM practices can affect the performance of implementing firms.
In light of the aim of research, this study intends to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework with a focus on the determinants, SSCM practices, and outcomes, relating theoretical linkages between critical factors to adopt SSCM initiatives, the implementation of SSCM practices, and corresponding performance outcomes. The determinant critical factors include drivers, enablers, and barriers to adopting SSCM initiatives; the SSCM practices encompass environmental and social sustainability practices, and the performance outcomes are measured using environmental, social, and economic indicators. To accomplish the main objective of the study and address the research questions, primary data was collected through delivery and collection questionnaires from 202 firms in the Ethiopian coffee industry. The reliability and validity of the proposed conceptual model were thoroughly assessed using relevant analytical statistical tools. In addition, to test the postulated hypotheses involving the theoretical relationship between critical factors, SSCM practices, and performance outcomes, Patial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used.
The set of critical factors, which includes drivers, enablers, and barriers, was found to have a significant impact on the adoption of SSCM practices. Furthermore, the empirical findings show that the implementation of SSCM practices has a significant effect on the environmental, social, and economic performance of firms implementing SSCM. This study is expected to contribute to the existing knowledge of SSCM by advocating that the driving forces can only take SSCM adoption to a limited extent; in addition, enablers are also vital to the successful implementation of SSCM practices. Moreover, it is crucial to understand that barriers pose challenges by obstructing the integration of SSCM practices. The study confirmed that the implementation of SSCM practices resulted in improved environmental, social, and economic performance. The study has developed and validated a comprehensive conceptual framework which is instrumental to integrate SSCM into the Ethiopian coffee industry and similar agrifood supply chains. This study offers helpful insights to regulators and policymakers who are interested in advancing the SSCM initiatives, as well as managers who want to implement SSCM practices. Business managers are offered a validated conceptual framework, which is very useful for assessing how the adoption of SSCM practices affects organizational performance in terms of environmental, social, and economic indicators.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Drivers, Barriers, Enablers, Sustainable practices, Performance outcomes, Ethiopian coffee.
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Divisions:	Engineering
Date of acceptance:	9 May 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	24 June 2025
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2025 11:21
Last Modified:	24 Jun 2025 11:22
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00026480
Supervisors:	Ren, J, Matellini, B, Jenkinson, I and Paraskevadakis, D
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26480

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