Sustainable Supply Chain Management as a competitive advantage in the food distribution industry. What are the drivers, the benefits and the barriers?

The last 20 years have seen growing pressure on businesses to pay attention to the environmental and resource consequences of their products and processes (Kleindorfer, Singhal and Van Wassenhove 2009). Indeed, increasing numbers of firm are implementing Sustainability in their vision and their development as a result of increasing pressure and drivers. While changing their way of working and adapting their objectives, they are trying to take advantages of those changes. The Food Industry is often criticized for its unsustainable practices but on the other hand, distributors have been working on this topic for years. As proof, the market of organic and biologic products is growing at fast speed. However, the Supply Chain environment has still place for improvement in term of sustainability. In this study, we will discuss the existing theory and the managerial implications of the Sustainable Supply Chain Management. A classification of the main drivers, benefits and barriers will be detailed. Three semi-directed interviews were conducted with experts in SC or sustainability in the food industry to gather more information’s on this. The analysis of the SSCM impacts on the brand equity of a firm are discussed and turn into hypothesis. A survey evaluates the level of influence that those Sustainable business practices have as effect on the Walloon customers and if those effect can be turned into a competitive advantage. The conclusions are that SSCM can influence customers in their willingness to pay for sustainable products and it can be turn into a competitive advantage if associated with other success factors and that SSCM can enhance the talent acquisition and management and to this extent, improve innovation which can lead to a competitive advantage.