Supply Chain Management Journal 2023 Volume 14 Number 2

Reverse logistics has gained increasing importance as a profitable and sustainable business strategy. It is important for manufacturing firms to adopt reverse logistics practices to enhance their competitive advantage and supply chain management processes. Although reverse logistics is a well-studied notion, it appears that there is a limitation of investigations that focused on the adoption of reverse logistics practices and their role in environmental sustainability and business performance in South African manufacturing firms. The study, therefore, intends to occupy this gap of knowledge by addressing the importance of logistics practices and their strategic influence on both environmental sustainability and business performance. The study employed a quantitative approach on a sample consisting of 386 supply chain professionals drawn from the manufacturing firms in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. The results show that the two reserve logistics practices (repairs and reconditioning) were significantly correlated to environmental sustainability. Remanufacturing, recycling and disposal were insignificantly related to environmental sustainability. However, environmental sustainability was significantly correlated to the two sub-dimensions of business performance, namely, sales growth and profitability. The implementation of reverse logistics practices is vital in achieving an agile supply chain and improving some aspects of its performance. This study contributes to the logistics literature within South African manufacturing sector by providing insights into the influence of reverse logistics practices on environmental sustainability and performance. The study’s findings are important to academics, who may replicate this study in other sectors to confirm the validity of the findings. Regarding practical implications, these findings are significant in assisting supply chain practitioners to improve their understanding of the logistics practices and the benefits that comes with it. The study is one of the few to investigate the impact of reverse logistics on environmental sustainability, which in turn influences the performance of manufacturing firms in South Africa.

Logistics, reverse logistics, environmental sustainability, business performance, manufacturing firms.

December 2023, pp

Building on scholarly articles on the supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategies , this study provides a novel approach by understanding how Namibia and South Africa have restructured their supply chain networks given the resurgence of geopolitics, pandemics, and technological progress. Unlike other scholarly papers on the supply chain risk management strategies within the African context, this study analyzes macroeconomic data for two neighboring countries (Namibia and South Africa) under three concepts: geopolitics, pandemics, and technological progress. This study employed a comparative case study design methodological approach. The period under review includes 2008 which corresponds with economic recession, 2018 with war trade between China and the USA, 2019 with Covid-19 and 2022 with Sudan, Ukraine – Russia war. The study unearthed how geopolitics disintegrate supply chain networks resulting in countries seeking new market and off-shoring. This study provides theoretical and methodological contribution.

Geopolitics, comparative design, technological advancement, pandemic, South Africa and Namibia

Decenber, 2023, pp

Resilience, agility, and sustainability are today recognized as the new priorities of the supply chain executives. Within this context there is a real challenge of building a sustainable and more profitable consumer goods supply chain. Partner collaboration, by sharing information, trust, and key performance metrics, across all tiers of the supply chain can ensure an optimized flow through it, and enable customers by efficiently meeting their demands and delivering shipments on time at the full amount ordered by customers and when they need it, improving their experience and maximizing the value obtained. Another true challenge within the current VUCA context is to build companies’geopolitical resilience and to do the transformative action to upgrade operating models, continually innovating.

Supply Chain Visibility; Supply Chain Sustainability; Supply Chain Executives’ Priorities; Customers enablement; Companies’ Geopolitical Resilience

December, 2023, pp

In reviewing the traditional green supply chain focus and the published literatures, in both developed mechanisms on environment protection and greening of processes in production emerged as the major issues for most of manufacturers, suppliers and customers, sustainability issues in supply chain is not captured in a bigger picture and it is a prevail problem since most of the focal companies concentrate on their immediate suppliers to gasp the issues of sustainability. There is a shift that need to considered when dealing with
sustainability and greening of supply chain, were the focus should be on multitier perspective versus the traditional single tier perspective in supply chain management, as it stand green multitier supplier management (GMSM) is gaining popularity. This study was created with the support of a literature review, which helped to consolidate the specifics and provide useful information. Published works included in this study are those which provide illustrations on the concept of multi-tier green supply chain as an extended and best approach compared to dyadic green supply chain. This paper is guided by complexity theory; Through heterogeneity or diversity in external aspects like
consumers, suppliers, laws, and technology improvements, one can establish complexity within an organizational framework.The findings demonstrate that focal companies needs to capture a bigger picture of the green supply chain and consider the status of the whole supplier chain to ensure sustainability, and the drivers to make this a reality includes: Trust between a focus company and direct suppliers, Willingness to assist suppliers with human resources, willingness of a first-tier supplier in sharing information with the focus company on second-tier suppliers, just hinting on the few. Considering the forces in globalization and the call to greening supply chain, companies are
recommended to practice in a form that consider all the tiers in supply chain far as green supply chain is concerned and that greening supply chain is a continuous process in supply chain and need reasonable improvements on the way. Governments in developing countries need to initiate process that captures continuous process improvement in public procurement to ensure the deliverables observe greening of supply chain.

Supply chain management, Multi-Tier Green Supply Chain, Dyadic green supply chain, Sustainability, and Focal organizations.

December 2023, pp

There is an obvious need today of a special focus on the present time characterized by supply chains’ complexity requiring to leverage disruptive technologies. Another significant requirement is to have a long-term Academic and Business Partnership to build truly resilient supply chains, better understanding disruptive technologies’ impact on an improved sustainable supply chain management. Supply chain
resilience is strongly impacted by the digital transformation, and while advancing on the path to digital transformation it is important to not lose sight of both sustainability and adaptability. One of the current challenges is also to adequately measuring disruptive technologies’ utilization levels. It is also important to pay attention to detail regarding the major and moderate impact of the disruptive technologies on supply chains.

Supply Chain Resiliency; Disruptive Technologies; Supply Chains’ Complexity; Academic and Business Partnership; Digital Transformation; Sustainability; Adaptability

December 2023, pp