The purpose of this research is to synthesize the fragmented extant knowledge on flexible and green supply chain management (FGSCM) in the context of emerging economies and to unearth research gaps to motivate future research. We adopted a novel structured systematic literature review by triangulating a systematic literature review, text mining, and network analysis. Institutional theory and contingency theory were employed to analyze the results of the review. The results show that, firstly, research on FGSCM in emerging economies, despite its importance, is immature compared to general FGSCM literature. Second, the specificities of strategies and practices that distinguish this topic in emerging economies are discussed and the drivers and barriers are identified with respect to sources of institutional pressure. Third, a research framework for FGSCM in emerging economies is developed and 12 gaps for future research are identified. This study has exclusively developed a research framework for FGSCM in an emerging economy which has received the least consideration in the literature and practice. The framework was developed to synthesize the existing literature and to identify the research gaps to inspire future research.
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Introduction
Economic growth and consumerism have placed greater demands for energy and material consumption, resulting in increased concerns for environmental and natural resource preservation (Jia et al., 2018). Environmental issues are prime concerns for global economies due to global warming, increased pollution and depleting non-renewable resources (Malviya & Kant, 2015). Supply chain advancements since the 1990s introduced a new perspective that integrates environmental management within business operations to achieve a competitive advantage (Srivastava, 2007). Moreover, dissemination of flexibility from the manufacturing sector to the interorganizational and supply chain level created exciting, yet under-researched, opportunities for supply chain flexibility (Singh et al., 2020a, 2020b; Stevenson & Spring, 2007; Wadhwa & Rao, 2004).
Globalization resulted in increased demand for various products in the mid-twentieth century forcing global organizations to enter into new contexts of production where they had never operated before (Rajeev et al., 2017). The geographic extension of the supply chain resulted in more than 20% of the greenhouse gas to be emitted by organizations venturing on global platforms, due to the increased complexity of the sourcing and distribution channels as well as the socio-economic conditions of different countries (Dubey et al., 2017). Globalization not only created concerns vis-à-vis the ecological impact of supply chains, but also affected recent supply chain disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From this, it was established that the supply chain must be built flexibly to survive in volatile environments (Butt, 2021; Stevenson & Spring, 2007).
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Growing environmental concerns and stringent environmental laws in developed countries have driven global companies to outsource the most polluting segments of their businesses to developing nations (Dwivedi et al., 2021; Garcia-Saravia Ortiz-de-Montellano & van der Meer, 2022; Geng et al., 2017a, 2017b). Among developing countries, emerging economies (e.g., Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, known as BRICS) are prime targets of multinational corporations due to a large consumer base, relatively disposable income, rapid industrialization, diversity of supply base, availability of skilled workforce, and lower operating costs (Tumpa et al., 2019). Emerging economies welcome foreign direct investment and benefit directly from globalization. This shift of location, however, has increased environmental concerns in emerging nations as well as the need for stricter environmental and social standards (Geng et al., 2017a, 2017b). On the other side, focal supply chain firms understood that the shift to emerging economies, despite the lower operating costs and new markets, involves unforeseen risks, which are specific to these countries. These risks can be mitigated only if the supply chain is proactive and if flexibility is built in supply chains in advance (Settembre-Blundo et al., 2021; Tukamuhabwa et al., 2017).
Recently, supply chain flexibility is becoming an attractive area of research for researchers and academicians (Singh et al., 2020a, 2020b). There is some research in this area, such as by Singh et al., (2020a, 2020b), who focus on measuring the performance of supply chain flexibility of an Indian soap manufacturing firm. Another research by Singh et al., (2020a, 2020b) focuses on mapping the causal relations among various supply chain flexibility dimensions and their impact on the Indian hygiene industry. However, there is limited research in the context of flexible green supply chain management (FGSCM). Research on FGSCM in emerging economies has been limited due to the contextual specificities of these countries such as the uncertainty inherent in their business environment and poor infrastructure to deal with sustainability issues (Silvestre, 2015; Singh et al., 2020a, 2020b). For example, 90% waste in India is dumped in the environment due to the lack of waste treatment and disposal facilities (Soda et al., 2015). Western corporates widely source from these manufacturers and service providers due to the availability of cheap labor and material. However, they have limited understanding of the context and poor visibility over the operational practices of their supply chains in such emerging economies (Rosin et al., 2020; Singh et al., 2019, 2020a, 2020b). Consequently, they are subject to scandals such as the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh and enduring criticisms of overlooking environmental issues in their supply chain operations carried out in emerging economies (Bin Makhashen et al., 2020). Moreover, supply chain environmental issues exacerbated by disruptions in the recent pandemic have shown that sustainability and flexibility should be considered jointly in supply chain management, a need that has not been addressed in the literature hitherto (Paul & Chowdhury, 2020; Sassanelli & Terzi, 2022; Shibin et al., 2016).
Our initial review of the literature on FGSCM identifies the following gaps:
(a)
Limited research has been conducted on FGSCM in the context of emerging economies, despite the increasing trend of operations and procurement from these countries (Singh et al., 2019, 2020a, 2020b)
(b)
Despite the interconnectedness of flexibility and environmental sustainability in the supply chain management context, the literature has investigated these topics separately.
(c)
Existing frameworks for flexible or green supply chain management fall short of utility for emerging economies due to inherently different characteristics of the business environment in these countries.
(d)
While some systematic literature reviews in emerging economies have been conducted on flexible or green supply chain management barriers (Rahman et al., 2019; Shibin et al., 2016; Tumpa et al., 2019) and organizational performance (Geng et al., 2017a, 2017b), the literature scants systematic reviews that unearth the specificities and the sources of institutional pressures in emerging economies.
This review seeks to bridge these gaps by conducting a systematic literature review on FGSCM in emerging economies and addressing the following interrelated research questions -
i.
What is the status quo of FGSCM research in emerging economies?
ii.
What are the specificities of FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies?
iii.
What are the sources of institutional pressure, i.e., drivers and barriers, to adopt FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies?
iv.
How can the extant body of knowledge inform future research on FGSCM in emerging economies?
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This article responds to the calls for further work on the FGSCM in emerging economies by proposing an innovative methodology that triangulates data from eclectic methods through a systematic literature review, text mining, and network analysis supported by two organizational theories for the cross-validation of findings and to eliminate subjectivity from the selection and review process. Three contributions to the literature of supply chain management are made. First, this article brings together the interrelated, yet separate, research developments in flexibility and environmental sustainability in supply chain management in emerging economies within the past 20 years. Second, it juxtaposes the FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies with the ones from the general literature, and thus unearths the contextual specificities of emerging economies using a contingency theory lens. Third, it identifies the sources of pressures that motivate or hinder FGSCM in emerging economies using institution theory to help policy makers advocate for FGSCM drivers and tackle the barriers.
The rest of this article is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the research design, theoretical perspectives, and the methodology used for the systematic literature review. Section 3 presents the results of a systematic literature review and provides infographics of the important trends found in the literature. Section 4 provides a thematic analysis of the results by identifying the strategies, practices, barriers, and enablers of FGSCM in emerging economies and comparing them against general FGSCM literature using the theoretical perspectives. Section 5 unearths the research gaps for future research and develops a research framework for FGSCM in emerging economies. Finally, Sect. 6 concludes the paper and provides the limitations.
Research Design and Methodology
This section describes the research design, including the methodology, theoretical underpinning, and analysis approaches. The research gap, as discussed in Sect. 1, is where flexible SCM, green SCM, and SCM in emerging economies overlap. Motivated by this research gap, our proposed methodology triangulates different approaches to extract, analyze, and synthesize extant literature on FGSCM in emerging economies. It combines a systematic literature review, text mining, and network analysis to identify, evaluate, and synthesize the existing research (Denyer & Tranfield, 2009). An eclectic theoretical underpinning of contingency theory and institutional theory is adopted throughout the review. The methodology integrates the findings to build a theoretical framework for FGSCM in emerging economies. Figure 1 shows the research gap, theoretical lens, and the steps of the proposed methodology.
Fig. 1
The research design and methodology for the systematic literature review
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Theoretical Perspective
A combined contingency theory and institutional theory lens was used to interpret the selected articles and develop a research framework. Contingency theory (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967) is a major theoretical lens that expresses different organizational systems are the results of differences in their operating context. Since one of the objectives of this research is to understand the specificities of FGSCM in emerging economies, it can serve as an appropriate theoretical lens to scrutinize the differences between FGSCM strategies and practices in developed and emerging economies. Furthermore, we considered drivers and barriers as sources of positive and negative pressures, respectively, on the firms to adopt FGSCM strategies and practices. We take an institutional theory perspective (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) to identify the source of drivers and barriers in emerging economies and discern whether they emerged to comply with regulations (coercive), to copy competitors or cope with cultural cognitive pressures (mimetic), or if they are in response to customer pressure (normative).
Stages of the Methodology
The methodology started with a search in electronic databases to locate, select, and evaluate extant studies. First, relevant keywords were identified based on the internal discussion of authors, all of whom are academics with a background in supply chain and operations management. A corporate practitioner from India, experienced in FGSCM, was involved in the discussions at a later stage to ensure the viability of the keywords. The initial keywords were refined into series of search strings using Boolean logic, for example, "Green AND/OR Supply Chain," and "Emerging AND/OR Economy AND/OR Flexible AND/OR Supply Chain." Nearly synonymous keywords such as "Developing Country" or "Sustainable/Ethical Supply Chain" were also used. The search strings were continuously refined, resulting in 26 of the most relevant strings that were used to search data on Web of Science, Science Direct, ABI/INFORM and Emerald Insight. The following exclusion criteria, as proposed by Newbert (2007), were used to narrow the results down to those which were more relevant.
Articles should be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals in English.
Only journals in the area of logistics, operations management, and supply chain management are included.
Articles should be published in the last 20 years.
Articles must contain at least one of the keywords in their title or abstract.
After reviewing the title, keywords, and abstract of the returned results, irrelevant articles were excluded and the rest of the articles were reviewed in their entirety, resulting in 108 articles shortlisted for the review. Table 1 shows the process of applying inclusion and exclusion criteria in detail and Fig. 2 summarizes Table 1. Figure 2 summarizes the total exclusion and remaining articles in each stage.
Table 1
Application of inclusion and exclusion criteria
Stages
Exclusion criteria
Number of articles excluded
Total exclusion
Remaining articles
Initial screening
Exclusion of duplicates
253
253
644
Title review stage
Non peer-reviewed articles
92
142
502
Conference proceedings
37
Non-English
13
Keywords and abstract screening
Articles focusing on technical engineering issues
43
265
237
Articles on sustainable consumption and consumer behavior
64
Articles on sustainability in education and teaching and pure social sustainability
17
Articles on developed countries and economies
31
Articles focused on modular design and production
59
Articles on supply chain partners and alliances
31
Articles on flexible manufacturing optimization
20
Full text review stage
Technical articles on life cycle assessment
28
122
115
Articles on technology development for remanufacturing and recycling
43
Articles on city and urban transport
21
Articles on clean and renewable energies in supply chains
19
Articles on the development analytical tools for flexible supply chains
11
Crosschecks
Articles lacking any implications for FGSCM strategies, practices, drivers, and barriers in emerging economy
07
07
108
Fig. 2
Summary of inclusion and exclusion at each stage
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Next, to extract the key themes covered in the shortlisted articles, the text-mining technique was employed. The finalized articles from the previous stage were imported into NVivo12 for cross-validation. The articles were coded and categorized in terms of FGSCM conceptualization, operational impacts, strategies and practices, and drivers and barriers. All the authors were involved in coding and compiling the articles, which was later validated by an external researcher to ensure reproducibility of results and eliminating subjectivity. Text mining strengthened the validity and reliability of the selection process, including the finalized articles and the main themes. It also highlighted low values of relative frequencies as potential themes for future research.
Finally, to unearth the interconnection among the identified results, a network analysis was used. All major and minor categories and frequencies resulting from the previous stage were coded in a separate dataset and stored in NVivo12 for network analysis. Conducting a network analysis on this dataset identified the knowledge gaps of FGSCM in emerging economies and revealed the studies with higher interconnection. A combined contingency and institutional theory lens were used to synthesize the findings and develop a research framework.
Results of Systematic Literature Review
This section explains the stages of implementing the proposed research methodology and addressing the first research question on the status quo of FGSCM literature in emerging economies.
Phase I: Initial Search in Academic Databases
The concept of FGSCM gained its academic coverage in the 1990s (Fahimnia et al., 2015). However, most of the articles on FGSCM-related wider issues emerged after 2000 (Quarshie et al., 2016) followed by a sharp growth in academic publications afterward (Rafi-ul-Shan et al., 2018). Thus, the period used to conduct this review was determined to be from January 2000 to December 2021. Figures 3 compares the annual frequency of publications on general FGSCM and FGSCM in emerging economies indicating that, firstly, noticeably less research has been conducted on FGSCM in emerging economies and, secondly, the slope of increase is significantly lower for the latter.
Fig. 3
Comparative annual frequency of publications on general FGSCM and FGSCM in emerging economies
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Phase II: Text Mining
Conducting text mining using NVivo12 on the articles resulting from phase 1 facilitated visualization of the focus using word clouds as well as further analysis based on the industry sector, research methodology, and data analytics tools of the reviewed articles (Bin Makhashen et al., 2020). Figure 4 depicts the word cloud, highlighting the most frequently used words in the selected articles in bigger fonts, while other less frequent words appear in smaller fonts. A word cloud is a powerful visualization tool to identify common words in complex environments and facilitates unearthing dominant themes and keywords in a given context (Birko et al., 2015). The most frequently used words were “green” (word count: 5652), “supply chain” (4361), “sustainable” (4002), “environmental” (3794), “flexible” (3220), “management” (2431), and “emerging” (2187), followed by other keywords.
Fig. 4
Word cloud of most frequently used words in the reviewed articles
×
The analysis of articles by industry sector suggests that the extant empirical research on FGSCM used various industrial sectors, as shown in Fig. 5. The top three industries were the manufacturing industry 11.2% (29 articles), electronics and electrical industries 10.42% (27 articles), and textile and apparel industry 8.88% (23 articles). A figure of 12% of reviewed articles (31 articles) did not disclose the industry. The reviewed articles were sorted based on the country on which the study focused. The results, shown in Table 2, reveal that India (43 articles) and China (38 articles) were by far the two highest-researched emerging economies.
Fig. 5
Analysis of articles by industrial sectors
Table 2
The frequency of emerging economies in the reviewed articles
No
Countries
Total number of publications
Percentage
1
India
43
18.00
2
China
38
15.90
3
Taiwan
27
11.30
4
Brazil
18
7.53
5
Bangladesh
17
7.11
6
Malaysia
15
6.27
7
South Africa
13
5.44
8
Mexico
09
3.76
9
Indonesia
07
2.93
10
Pakistan
05
2.10
11
Other countries
47
19.66
×
The articles were also analyzed based on research methodologies. As shown in Fig. 6, quantitative and mathematical modeling prevailed, which is at odds with the general trend of FGSCM literature. Our findings are at odds with Ansari and Kant (2017) who found more case studies and empirical qualitative studies, but are supported by Rajeev et al. (2017) who found that GSCM lacks qualitative research in the context of emerging economies when compared to the developed economies. It implies the maturity of literature on FGSCM as compared to FGSCM in emerging economies. Since quantitative methods were prevailing, the articles were further analyzed based on the applied data analytical tools, as shown in Fig. 7. Among various analytical tools applied, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) with 13 articles was the most popular data analysis technique, followed by Fuzzy TOPSIS (12 articles) and sensitivity analysis with 11 articles.
Fig. 6
Analysis of articles based on research methodologies
Fig. 7
Analysis of articles based on application of analytics tools. AHP: Analytic Hierarchy Process, ANOVA: Analysis of Variance, DEMATEL: Decision making trial and evaluation laboratory, FA: Frequency Analysis, MRA: Multiple Regression Analysis, RA: Regression Analysis, SEM: Structural Equation Modeling
×
×
Phase III: Network Analysis
The articles with at least one citation were selected from the final list of articles, and their objectives and key findings were scrutinized to conduct network analysis. A network analysis was conducted on these articles. The results are depicted in Fig. 8.
Fig. 8
Network analysis of key articles
×
It was found that FGSCM-related research is on the rise when compared to the FGSCM-related research in the context of emerging economies. Our network analysis demonstrated undirected empirical research on FGSCM in emerging economies, on the far edges of the network and distanced from the most cited FGSCM-related articles, enabling us to identify the most important contributions in the research domain. Based on the network analysis, key articles on FGSCM in emerging economies are highlighted. A summary of key contributions in the research domain is provided in the appendix.
Thematic Analysis of the Literature
This section provides an in-depth analysis of the selected articles from the systematic literature review. Firstly, FGSCM strategies and practices were extracted. Building upon the contingency theory, they were juxtaposed with the general literature of FGSCM to identify the contextual specificities of emerging economies (second research question). Secondly, the drivers and barriers of FGSCM in emerging economies were identified and categorized based on the source of institutional pressure using the institutional theory (third research question).
FGSCM Strategies and Practices
Many researchers attempted to identify and categorize FGSCM strategies and practices (e.g., Fang & Zhang, 2018; Nema et al., 2013; Srivastava, 2007; Zhu et al., 2007), but little research has been done on FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies and their specificities. Most of the terminologies, classifications, and categories of FGSCM strategies and practices were developed from the developed economies or network perspective. There are few studies that have researched the emerging economic context, such as those by Singh et al., (2020a, 2020b), Singh et al. (2019), and Singh and Acharya (2013) that extensively focused on developing a framework for supply chain flexibility. However, it was noticed that FGSCM strategies and practices received the least consideration in literature and practice. Thus, we identified FGSCM strategies and practices from the selected articles and juxtaposed them with the ones from the general FGSCM literature using the contingency theory lens. The results, summarized in Table 3, reveal that there are significant disparities between FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies and developed countries. These specificities should be considered when devising a FGSCM strategy or implementing practice in an emerging economy.
Table 3
FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies
FGSCM strategies
Related practices
Selected sources from emerging economies literature
Selected sources from general FGSCM literature
Specificities of emerging economies based on the contrasting selected sources
Green purchasing and supply management
Environmental audit for the internal management of suppliers
Asking suppliers to acquire ISO 14001 certification
Corruption and distrust increase procurement costs and hinder green procurement in emerging economies
Supplier–buyer relation is unregulated and involves higher informality in emerging economies
Buying organizations from developed countries have higher bargaining power over the suppliers in emerging economies. Accordingly, they share less revenue with suppliers leading to lower greening quality
Green/flexible manufacturing and operations
Reusing, recycling and remanufacturing
Environmental compliances, auditing programs, and total quality environmental management programs
Flexible manufacturing and process development with environmental considerations
In light of weaker regulations, internal stakeholders in emerging economies such as firm owners play a greater role in green / flexible manufacturing and operations than external stakeholders such as governments
In emerging economies, the production is more labor-oriented rather than technology-oriented which leads to higher sustainability risks
In emerging economies, green/flexible production is determined mostly when the cost–benefit analysis indicates profitability
Green logistic
Corporate environmental strategies toward logistics, reduction of carbon emissions and the use of a greener fleet
In emerging economies, sustainability terms are barely included in the contracts of third-party logistics providers
Due to unaligned objectives of different organizational functions, green logistics would not necessarily lead to improved cost performance in emerging economies
SMEs in emerging economies have just recently started considering green logistics initiatives such as minimizing empty miles and better space utilizations
Flexible reverse logistic and material recovery
Recovery of excess inventories and materials
Sale of scrap, used materials and excess capital equipment
Concurrent design of forward and reverse logistics
Using the empty capacity of backhaul trucks for reverse logistics
In emerging economies, organizations adopt reactive strategies in acquiring green design standards such as ISO/TR 14,062 (e.g., when obliged by government or buyer), whereas in developed countries proactive strategies are prevalent
In emerging economies, eco-design is justified mostly when it leads to profitability
In emerging economies, governments’ investment is lower in waste management infrastructure and open-air landfilling is by far the most widespread method
Green marketing and customer relationship management
Use of environmentally friendly labeling of the products
Encouraging customers to buy greener products
Cooperation with customers for eco-design and greener packaging
Due to lower awareness of customers in emerging economies about environmental issues, more information should be provided in product marketing as well as through product labels and leaflets
In emerging economies, customer collaboration has a stronger impact on environmental performance, as compared to supplier collaboration
In emerging economies, firms compete based on minimum environmental quality standards and low prices, rather than focusing on high environmental performance
Internal environmental management
Commitment of senior manager to FGSCM strategies
Inter-departmental cooperation for environmental improvements
The firms in emerging economies poorly promote and implement employees’ environmental training and incentives. Environmental certifications such as ISO 14000 series are inadequate
Green/flexible innovation
Technologies for energy savings (Saunila et al., 2018)
Using non-toxic raw materials
Research and development orientation to green products
Focal firms in emerging economies are the main determinants of green/flexible innovation. It is less likely that other supply chain members take initiatives
Governments of emerging economies offer less sustainability incentives to motivate firms for innovation
In emerging economies, green / flexible innovations are mostly concentrated at the end of product life, e.g., to repurpose the used product or its components, while in developed countries green/flexible innovation is placed throughout the supply chain including at the product design level
Inadequate infrastructures in emerging economies such as internet access, fiber optic, and information technology knowledge limit the implementation and efficiency of green information systems and negatively impact supply chain flexibility
FGSCM Drivers and Barriers
Organizations in emerging economies face various drivers and barriers to adopt FGSCM strategies and practices. These pressures originate from different internal (from within the organization) and external (from outside the organization) stakeholders. This review unearthed major drivers and barriers and analyzed the sources from which they originated. Drivers related to government and regulations were categorized as coercive pressure. Drivers motivated by competitors or the cultural environment were considered as mimetic pressures. When a driver pertained to customer or market, it was perceived as normative pressure. Similarly, where a barrier was related to lack of government regulations or support, it was categorized as coercive pressure, indicating that governments should increase their support or exert further pressure to address the barrier. The same holds for barriers assigned to mimetic and normative pressures. When a driver or barrier originated from the internal environment of a firm, e.g., management commitment to environmental training, it is considered as an internal driver or barrier. For the sake of simplicity, when the analysis found management support as a driver and lack of management support as a barrier, for instance, it was only mentioned once in the list of drivers. Tables 4 and 5 provide a summary of identified drivers and barriers, respectively. These tables spotlight the two major key drivers/barriers (internal and external) of FGSCM in emerging economies.
Table 4
Key drivers of FGSCM in emerging economies
Key drivers
Source of institutional pressure
Description
Selected sources
External
Coercive
Government rules and regulations obliging firms to adopt FGSCM practices
Toward a Research Framework for FGSCM in Emerging Economies
This section addresses the fourth research question about synthesizing the extant body of knowledge to inform future research on FGSCM in emerging economies. Firstly, it puts forward research gaps based on the findings of the systematic literature review. Next, it integrates the findings of the study and the research gaps to develop a research framework for FGSCM in emerging economies.
Research Gaps to Inspire Future Research
Overall, the results confirm the findings of previous research (Geng et al., 2017a, 2017b; Silvestre, 2015) about the dearth of research on FGSCM in emerging economies. Despite the calls and dire need from a practice perspective, the research shows only a modest increase in this area. This section identifies the research gaps to develop a research framework and motivate future research.
Purchasing and Supply Management
The analysis of the word cloud reveals that some important themes in FGSCM such as purchasing and supply management are overlooked in emerging economies. Further analysis of institutional pressures shows that these areas are particularly important because larger multinational organizations often exert their purchasing power to increase their profit share, rather than to drive suppliers in emerging economies toward sustainability and flexibility. Moreover, no studies, apart from Adhikari and Bisi (2020), were found to investigate the effect of different types of contracts on sustainability.
Gap 1: To further investigate green/flexible purchasing and supply management in emerging economies and particularly how supplier–buyer power imbalance influences mainstreaming sustainability and flexibility in supply chains.
Gap 2: To study the impact of contract terms and contract types, e.g., profit-sharing contracts or performance-based contracts on the sustainability and flexibility of firms in emerging economies.
Industry and Country Analysis
The analysis of industries and countries show while some industries such as manufacturing, electronics, and the apparel industry received the most attention, other industries such as the service sector, SMEs, nonprofits, and development organizations are overlooked. This is an important observation as smaller firms in emerging economies are less equipped to develop FGSCM capabilities. Moreover, nonprofit and development organizations do not often account for sustainability in their strategy and operations (Zarei et al., 2019).
In terms of flexibility, our analysis of the literature shows that while the research has transcended beyond manufacturing flexibility in developed economies, as highlighted by Stevenson and Spring, (2007) and Yu et al. (2015), the interorganizational components of supply chain flexibility are still absent in emerging economies. In terms of countries, China and India received the greatest research attention while other emerging economies have been investigated less.
Gap 3: To investigate FGSCM in the service sector, SMEs, nonprofit and development supply chains in emerging economies
Gap 4: To transcend research beyond firm level flexibility and account for interorganizational and supply chain flexibility in emerging economies
Gap 5: To study FGSCM in less explored emerging economies such as Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey and to conduct comparative cross-country analysis with the extant studies in China and India.
Methodology and Theory
In terms of methodology, unlike the trend in general FGSCM literature where qualitative studies prevail (Ansari & Kant, 2017), the reviewed articles heavily used quantitative methods such as mathematical modeling (31%) and surveys (20%). Moreover, collaboration and action research aims at generating contextual knowledge (Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002), making it a perfect methodology to elaborate on the context of emerging economies. However, no participatory or action research methodologies were found during the review. In turn, the dearth of qualitative methods led to poor theory application and development. The review of Geng et al., (2017a, 2017b) identified that the majority of articles in emerging economies had not specified any theory in the period 1996–2015. Our review supports their findings and postulates that in the period 2000–2020, insufficient theory development, testing, and elaboration still prevails.
Gap 6: To conduct case studies and participatory/action research and further theory application and development on FGSCM in emerging economies
Context Specificity
Using the contingency theory lens helped to juxtapose the studies in general FGSCM with the ones in emerging economies (Table 3) and revealed that the contextual specificities in emerging economies reduce the slope of FGSCM evolution trajectory (supported by Silvestre, 2015). From the theoretical perspective, such specificities are the contingency factors in the context of an emerging economy that drive organizations to adopt different decisions vis-a-vis their operating context. Therefore, an interesting avenue for future research is studying how organizations, especially focal business firms, operating in emerging economies align their strategies and practices (response variables) to achieve a fit with these contingency factors (as context variables) to achieve more sustainable and flexible supply chains (as performance) (see: Sousa & Voss, 2008).
Gap 7: To identify the specificities of emerging economies context, to explore how firms adjust their strategies and practices to cope with such specificities, and to assess the resulting flexibility and sustainability performance.
Further comparison of the two contexts shows that in emerging economies, FGSCM strategies are often adopted only when they promise financial returns and are more likely to be abandoned if they fail in doing so (Esfahbodi et al., 2016), making proactive green strategy adoption less prevalent in emerging economies. Moreover, flexible reverse logistics, waste management, and green/flexible design were found to be the least developed strategies in emerging economies. The literature of FGSCM in developed countries can provide valuable insights for these areas.
As for other strategies, while present in both contexts, the implementation shows disparities. Customer collaboration in emerging economies leads to a stronger impact on environmental performance, as compared to supplier collaboration. Yet, studies on customer sustainability awareness in emerging economies are scarce. This motivates future research to explore strategies that improve customer collaboration and awareness in emerging economies. Furthermore, while research in developed countries indicates the positive impact of emerging technologies such as blockchain or industry 4.0 on FGSCM (Saberi et al., 2019), our review found no studies on the adoption of these technologies in emerging economies.
Gap 8: To study how to customize or transfer benchmark strategies and practices of flexible reverse logistics, waste management, and green/flexible design from developed countries to emerging economies.
Gap 9: To identify the strategies that improve customer collaboration and awareness in emerging economies and evaluate their impact on the flexibility and sustainability performance of firms.
Gap 10: To investigate the impact of emerging technologies and concepts such as blockchain, industry 4.0, 3D printing, and big data on FGSCM in emerging economies
Institutional Pressures
Identifying the sources of pressures on organizations that cause drivers or barriers on the path of FGSCM help managers to harness these pressures for mainstreaming FGSCM in emerging economies. The analysis presented in Tables 4 and 5 reveals more drivers and barriers related to the internal environment of firms, indicating that the (lack of) internal organizational support is an overriding (barrier) driver. This is in accordance with the findings of Jabbour et al. (2020) who expressed that company owners and shareholders are the most salient stakeholders to drive FGSCM in emerging economies. Little research, however, exists on the organizational functions and their impact on FGSCM in emerging economies.
Gap 11: To investigate the internal organizational factors, from a functional perspective, that impact the adoption of FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies
By taking an institutional theory lens, this review identified coercive pressures from government and regulations as powerful sources of compliance. However, fewer drivers and barriers related to coercive pressures were found, compared to the ones related to mimetic and normative pressures. This is notwithstanding the findings of Jayaram and Avittathur (2015) but is in line with Jabbour et al. (2020) about FGSCM-related coercive pressures in emerging economies.
Our findings suggests that business firms in emerging economies increasingly earn legitimacy by copying successful FGSCM strategies and practices of other firms (mimetic isomorphism) or due to customer and market pressures (normative isomorphism). It can imply that FGSCM in emerging economies is moving from mere compliance with regulations (coercive isomorphism) as firms are under increasing pressures by competitors and customers to gain legitimacy and market sustainability through FGSCM strategies and practices.
Gap 12: To study the institutional pressures emanating from customers and competitors driving/impeding FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies
Developing a Research Framework of FGSCM in Emerging Economies
Developing research frameworks for flexible or sustainable SCM has been at the center of scholars’ attention as these frameworks synthesize and illustrate the status quo and future directions in a concise and visualized, yet inclusive, manner. Some examples of such research frameworks are, inter alia, Seuring and Müller (2008), Sarkis et al. (2011), Dubey et al. (2015), Rajeev et al. (2017), Liao (2020), and Carter et al. (2021). However, our survey of the literature shows the paucity of combined flexible and sustainable SCM frameworks in the context of emerging economies. Hitherto, extant research frameworks focused merely on one aspect of FGSCM in emerging economies such as barriers and enablers (see Delmonico et al., 2018; Rahman et al., 2019; Tumpa et al., 2019), or investigated the impact of FGSCM strategies and practices on environmental performance (e.g., Esfahbodi et al., 2016; Geng et al., 2017a, 2017b; Luthra & Mangla, 2018). The literature scants research frameworks that firstly delve into the specificities of emerging economies vis-à-vis combined flexible and sustainable SCM, and secondly inclusively synthesize strategies and practices, as well as drivers and barriers.
Our proposed research framework addresses these shortcomings. Firstly, it not only synthesizes FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies, but also it discerns the specificities of emerging economies using the contingency theory lens (Table 3). This helps managers and decision-makers to account for the contextual differences in emerging economies when devising their organizational strategies and practices. Secondly, the literature advocates that institutional pressures in emerging economies to adopt FGSCM strategies and practices are significantly different in emerging economies from developed countries (Raj et al., 2022). We have classified the identified drivers and barriers found from our systematic review, based on the source of pressure they originate using the institutional theory perspective (Tables 4 and 5). This classification deepens the understanding of policymakers about the institutional pressures in emerging economies and allows them to harness these pressures appropriately to promote FGSCM. Resulting from these observations, the research framework directs scholars to future research by identifying the main research gaps in the literature. The research framework is presented in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9
The proposed research framework for FGSCM in emerging economies
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Conclusion
Emerging economies are prime targets of global businesses and multinational corporations for the outsourcing of manufacturing while the in-house operations that satisfy domestic demand in these countries are also seeing sharp growth (Jayaram & Avittathur, 2015). This paper reviewed the literature within the past 20 years and proposed a strategic research framework of FGSCM in emerging economies to address the increasing pressures from different stakeholders and calls from scholars to study FGSCM in emerging economies.
The study set out a systematic literature review to identify the status quo of research on the topic. The methodology is novel in that it combines a systematic literature review, text mining, and network analysis to explore, analyze, and synthesize knowledge gaps in the research domain. The applied inclusion and exclusion criteria, brainstorming sessions and crosschecks applied in consecutive steps contributed toward the selection quality of shortlisted articles and their subsequent analysis by limiting subjective biasness (Denyer & Tranfield, 2009). Text mining and network analysis of selected articles facilitated identifying networks of research articles dealing with particular aspects of FGSCM strategies and practices and showed that the extant empirical research articles in the research domain are fragmented.
Two grand organizational theories were employed: contingency theory to distinguish the specificities of emerging economies context, and institutional theory to discern the sources of pressures on institutions that facilitate or hinder FGSCM in emerging economies. Using contingency theory revealed that contextual specificities reduce the slope of FGSCM in emerging economies and using institutional theory revealed that coercive pressures from governments and regulations are powerful sources of compliances.
Finally, a research framework was developed to synthesize the extant literature and to identify the research gaps to inspire future research. This framework will help managers and decision-makers to understand the contextual differences in emerging economies while planning their organizational strategies and practices. Furthermore, the classification of drivers and barriers deepens the understanding of policy makers about the institutional pressures in the emerging economies allowing them to promote FGSCM.
This study is not devoid of limitations; firstly, the systematic literature review did not include studies with a mere focus on social sustainability. Higher prevalence of issues such as worker exploitation, unfair wages, substandard working environment, gender discrimination, and child labor in emerging economies are imperative avenues for future research. Secondly, the systematic literature review was restricted to the period of 2000–2020, to four academic databases, and to the research published in English. Some more important articles might exist outside our search boundaries.
Key Questions
(1)
What is the status quo of FGSCM research in emerging economies?
(2)
What are the specificities of FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies?
(3)
What are the sources of institutional pressure, i.e., drivers and barriers, to adopt FGSCM strategies and practices in emerging economies?
(4)
How can the extant body of knowledge inform future research on FGSCM in emerging economies?
Acknowledgements
The authors are very thankful to all the associated personnel in any reference that contributed in/for the purpose of this research.
Declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interest.
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