Achieving Sustainability in Telecom Supply Chains

Abstract

This paper investigates issues that telecom companies' face when developing sustainability within their supply chain. It also develops a comprehensive framework for a telecom company to attain sustainability in their supply chain, focusing particularly on the upstream supply chain. Qualitative research method case study was selected to study upstream supply chain challenges a telecom supply chain faces, and then a framework for achieving supply chain sustainability is proposed. Data was collected from Telecom Company's documentation, on-site observation, and semi-structured interviews with ten supply chain personnel at the company. The originality of this paper is established by the fact that this paper proposes a strategic framework for developing sustainability in the supply chains of telecom companies. The framework provides step by step implementation of all dimensions of sustainability into an upstream supply chain. Also it is to be noted that this is one of the few studies that explores Sustainable SC in the telecom sector. The developed framework can be used by telecom supply chain personnel to assess and develop sustainable supply chains. The stance of the focal firm in the case study is defensive towards developing sustainable links, processes, and relations with its suppliers. The developed framework can be used as a roadmap by the focal firm to make its supply chain more sustainable along all dimensions of sustainability. The research focuses on upstream supply chains and the findings argue that the proposed framework can be used only by telecom upstream supply chains to achieve sustainability.