The role of supply chain leadership in the learning of sustainable practice: toward an integrated framework Jonathan Gosling, Fu Jia * , Yu Gong, Steve Brown University of Exeter Business School, Exeter EX4 4PU, UK article info Article history: Received 30 April 2014 Received in revised form 9 October 2014 Accepted 12 October 2014 Available online 16 October 2014 Keywords: Sustainable supply chain management Supply chain learning Supply chain leadership Multinational corporations Content-based literature review abstract Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is a topic that has become increasingly important in recent years. However, very few papers focus on studying SSCM from both leadership and learning perspectives. In this research, we carry out a content-based literature review on the intersections of Supply Chain leadership, Supply Chain Learning and SSCM; we propose a conceptual framework on how focal companies assuming a leadership role initiate and disseminate sustainable practices in their supply chains. Three types of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) strategies (i.e., reactive, contributive and proactive) have been identified in this research based on four dimensions of SSCM governance, supply chain learning, supply chain leadership and SSCM performance. It is argued that two new con- structs of supply chain learning and supply chain leadership are an integral part of the SSCM conceptual framework developed from the literature and have significant implication to our understanding of SSCM. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has garnered much attention from academia and practitioners alike in the last ten years. The widely cited paper by Seuring and Muller (2008) is probably the first comprehensive review of this body of literature and identifies the triggers of SSCM to be reputational risk, which can be mitigated by applying strict supplier evaluation/assessment processes. A more recent review by Sarkis et al. (2011) categorizes and reviews green SCM literature under nine broad organizational theories, with special emphasis on investigating the adoption, diffusion and outcomes of green supply management practices. Winter and Knemeyer (2013) review the intersection of “sustain- ability” and “supply chain management (SCM)”, finding little inte- gration between the two literature and, consequently, they propose a more holistic and integrated approach. These reviews show that the existing SSCM literature is pri- marily focused on building the definitions of SSCM (Carter and Rogers, 2008; Seuring and Muller, 2008); implementation of SSCM practice (Lam, 2011; Walker and Jones, 2012); proposing strategic decisions incorporating SSCM (Harms et al., 2013; Wu and Pagell, 2011); SSCM governance mechanisms (Gimenez and Sierra, 2013; Gimenez and Tachizawa, 2012); and sustainable supply chain analysis framework (Ny et al., 2006, 2008). Based on these reviews, it is suspected that very few focus on studying SSCM from both leadership and learning perspectives (Vachon and Klassen, 2006; Van Hoof, 2014). Smith et al. (2008) provide a case for the PVC industry, which in the late 1990s faced various pressures from stakeholders such as customers, NGOs (e.g., Greenpeace) and legislators who challenged the unsustainable production of PVC. Major PVC producer Hydro Polymers positively responded to these pressures by adopting a systematic approach, The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD; for references, see, e.g., Rob ert et al., 2013), to identify five internal and external challenges for the industry and later developed this into a white paper for fully sustainable PVC design and production. Hydro Polymers disseminated this frame- work through a semi-distance course delivered by Blekinge Insti- tute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden. The key suppliers and customers were trained through this course in which attendees received 7.5 university credits. Based on the shared mental model for systematic planning that this training led to, a cascading effect of actions and business developments occurred across the supply chain, leading to a 10-year sector agreement: the companies have agreed to embark on a joint venture to eventually comply with the FSSD sustainability principles together. This case example demonstrates vividly how a company taking an initiative assumes a leadership role in the value chain, dissemi- nating sustainable PVC design and production best practice through the online training as well as other mechanisms e.g., supplier con- ferences, and eventually creates a new industry standard. * Corresponding author. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.10.029 0959-6526/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 137 (2016) 1458e1469