The combination of internal and external sustainability practices to achieve high sustainability performance: a configurational approach

Various combinations of internal and external sustainability practices, along with the role played by supply chain agility, represent a strategy that firms can implement to realize strong sustainability performance results and remain competitive in the global marketplace. However, due to the scarcity and limited resources available, firms need to understand how to use the resources available efficiently and effectively to them and what sustainability practices are most appropriate to implement to ensure high performance. Based on the resource orchestration theory and applying a configurational approach and qualitative comparative analysis methodology, this research analyzes different combinations of firm and supply chain sustainability practices, combining them with each other and with supply chain agility, that help lead to higher sustainability performance. The results show six relevant different combinations. Each combination has high and low values of each of the individual sustainability practices proposed, and the results also depend on how the practices and resources are combined, rather than their individual effects.