Unraveling sustainability paradoxes in supply chains: a configurational analysis
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2026-02-26
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Pereira, Susana Carla Farias
Schleper, Martin C
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This study challenges the traditional instrumental approach to Supply Chain Sustainability (SCS), which views sustainability initiatives solely as a means to profit and marginalises those that contradict economic goals. Accordingly, we adopted Paradox Theory as a lens to drive supply chain scholarship and practice to recognise and manage paradoxical tensions that emerge in the pursuit of sustainability in supply chains. Considering this, the main objective of this thesis is twofold: to identify the contextual conditions that foster the emergence of sustainability paradoxes in supply chains and to explain how these conditions combine to render such tensions salient. To do so, we employed a sequential multi-method design consisting of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) followed by a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). This research design revealed meaningful findings that advance both Paradox Theory and SCS literature. First, the findings revealed that the four original types of paradoxes, i.e. performing, organising, learning, and belonging, emerge, cascade, and transform across levels, from systemic to individual, in supply chain contexts. Second, we found evidence to add a new type of paradox to the Paradox Theory framework, which is named structuring paradox, stemming from conflicting institutional, cultural and social norms. Third, scarcity, plurality, and complexity were found to be the contextual conditions that foster the emergence of paradoxes in supply chains. Fourth, by adopting a configurational approach to theorizing, we developed a configurational model with performing SCS paradoxes as its outcome and empirically tested how these contextual conditions combine to foster the emergence of paradoxes using S&P 500 data. This configurational model showed insightful results. The first confirms partially our theoretical proposition, indicating that stakeholder plurality and supply complexity, independent of scarcity, combine to generate performing paradoxes in supply chains. The second configuration was counterintuitive, revealing that companies in non-plural and noncomplex supply chains that possess financial slack also face paradoxical tensions. In light of this, this study advances the SCS field by revealing the dynamics of paradox emergence, a new type of paradox, contextual conditions that foster SCS paradoxes, and how these conditions combine to foster paradoxes.