3. Integrated Supply Network and Business Sustainability

Most global organizations have discovered that the way to compete has moved from a ‘company vs. company’ basis to a ‘supply network vs. supply network’ basis (Christopher 2011; Beske and Seuring 2014). Because supply networks have contributed to accelerate globalization by directly connecting actors or business partners in emergent and developed economies, supply network management in a global context has altered the basis of competition—from company competition to supply chain competition. As such, this new competitive landscape suggests more challenges. As explained by von Geibler (2013), ‘Within complex global production systems, single value chain actors alone cannot manage key sustainability challenges effectively.’ (p. 39) When we ask whether there is a ‘business case for sustainability’, we see that numerous successful sustainability models have been adopted, and development by leading global organizations has become highly focused internally at the firm level. By focusing internally, organizations can only capture a limited scope of sustainability leaving aside opportunities for learning and benchmarking. What if the value chain or supply network based business cases for sustainability could be developed for the purposes of learning and knowledge sharing? From a business sustainability perspective, we argue that when a firm designs a sustainability management strategy and programme, it should not only consider the short-term outcomes of its activities (firm-centric) but also the longer-term outcomes that would lead to a wider impact beyond business boundaries (supply network-centric).