An ISM approach for the barrier analysis in implementing sustainable supply chain management

Purpose Sustainability has been on the executive agenda for years and it is now one of the fastest growing supply chain management trends. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the barriers for the adoption and implementation of the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) concept. Design/methodology/approach This study has been divided into two phases such as identification of barriers and qualitative analysis. First, to identify the most influential barriers, the authors offer a systematic literature review, taking 188 papers published from 2010 to November 2016 into account. The investigation phase led to the selection of 15 barriers based on the literature in consultation with industrial experts and academicians. Second, the interpretive structural modeling qualitative analysis was used to find out the mutual influences between the 15 barriers by a survey. Findings Further, the authors propose and illustrate the cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification analysis to test a framework that extrapolates SSCM barriers and their relationships. “Inadequate information technology implementation” has been identified as the most important barrier that may force organizations to implement SSCM practices to ensure their business sustainability. Research limitations/implications The authors presented some limitations in their research in some fields which could allow new researchers and practitioners to conduct the future research to grow in different dimensions. Practical implications Practitioners or policymakers usually are not familiar with these types of research works; that is why most of these surveys remain theoretical and conceptual. Future investigation needs to be done in practical application domain instead of merely giving opinions. Originality/value Based on the authors’ research, the researchers have more attention to work in conceptual analysis due to other fields, but the authors believe that even with the implementation of SSCM, many remarkable areas still exist for future research which could help in development. The authors also provide more details in this paper.