A configuration of sustainable sourcing and supply management strategies Roya Manuela Akhavan n , Markus Beckmann Chair for Corporate Sustainability Management, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Findelgasse 7, 90402 Nürnberg, Germany article info Article history: Received 9 January 2016 Received in revised form 20 July 2016 Accepted 29 July 2016 Keywords: Supplier management Cluster analysis Sustainable sourcing Taxonomy Configuration approach Sustainable supply management abstract This paper seeks to analyze empirical differences and patterns in applied sustainable sourcing and supply management (SustSSM) strategies. The question is whether companies employ individual SustSSM practices in reoccurring configurations. The study aims to identify such typical corporate SustSSM ap- proaches and how they vary across contingency factors such as industry or region. We employed a two- step methodology. First, a literature review derives scoring scales for six categories of how companies can integrate sustainability into sourcing. Second, using these scales for a content analysis of sustainability reports from 99 corporations spread across different regions, a taxonomy is derived by means of a cluster analysis. Identifying five corporate types of how firms configure their SustSSM strategy, the analysis suggests that companies do not combine SustSSM practices randomly. Rather, individual SustSSM practices are combined to alternative configurations that follow different logics to form sustainable sourcing strate- gies. Addressing a cross-regional and cross-industry sample, the results encourage further investigating the interplay of different SustSSM practices. In doing so, we show the need to align SustSSM config- urations with a firm's specific operative supply chain structures and strategic goals. & 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Buying firms are increasingly made responsible for social or ecological externalities resulting from the behavior of their sup- pliers (Hartmann and Moeller, 2014; Koplin et al., 2007; Parmi- giani et al., 2011). Thus, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and sustainable sourcing and supply management (SustSSM) have become an important phenomenon in research and management practice (Beske and Seuring, 2014; Quarshie et al., 2015; Walker et al., 2012; Zimmer et al., 2015). So far, scholars have analyzed different strategies and practices companies can use to integrate sustainability into their SSCM functions (Beske and Seuring, 2014; Grimm et al., 2014; Mamic, 2005; Pagell and Wu, 2009; Reuter et al., 2010; Seuring and Müller, 2008a). Taking a triple bottom line perspective (Elkington, 1998), such SSCM and SustSSM practices typically define sustain- ability in terms of social, environmental, and economic goals (Krause et al., 2009; Linton et al., 2007; Miemczyk et al., 2012; Seuring and Müller, 2008b). Thus, this new focus requires the buyer firm to develop more comprehensive sourcing strategies going further than common goals such as ‘lowest material costs’ (Handfield et al., 2005). From this perspective, the SustSSM func- tion includes procurement and supplier management activities such as sustainability-oriented supplier selection and auditing, as well as supplier collaboration and development (Bowen et al., 2001; Hollos et al., 2012; Leire and Mont, 2010; Sarkis, 2012). As a proactive SustSSM/SSCM strategy can contribute to improving sustainability performance (Gimenez and Sierra, 2012; Zimmer- mann and Foerstl, 2014), it is particularly relevant to identify which practices get firms there. However, little is known as to how companies combine these individual practices and activities to prosecute an overall SustSSM strategy in alignment with firm-specific sustainability challenges and context settings. As the choices of a firm's sourcing strategy reflect different buying settings (Svahn and Westerlund, 2009), companies facing diverse sustainability challenges, context factors, and supply chains (Lu et al., 2012; Paulraj et al., 2012) can focus on diverse aspects and pick different sourcing strategies to address sustainability considerations. As a configuration perspective (Miller, 1986) highlights, however, companies do not combine in- dividual practices randomly. More specifically, the configuration approach rejects both the notion that there is the “one best way” of how companies can use certain practices as well as the “it all de- pends” idea that each corporate response is idiosyncratic and un- ique (Mintzberg et al., 2003). The configuration approach rather Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pursup Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2016.07.006 1478-4092/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: roya.akhavan@fau.de (R.M. Akhavan), markus.beckmann@fau.de (M. Beckmann). Please cite this article as: Akhavan, R.M., Beckmann, M., A configuration of sustainable sourcing and supply management strategies. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2016.07.006i Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎