Ensuring supplier participation toward addressing sustainability-oriented objectives of the mid-day meal supply chain. Insights from The Akshaya Patra Foundation

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-12-2016-0297
• Published date: 12 February 2018
• Pages: 456-475
• Date: 12 February 2018
• Author: Vivek Roy,Parikshit Charan,Tobias Schoenherr,B.S. Sahay
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Ensuring supplier participation

toward addressing

sustainability-oriented objectives

of the mid-day meal supply chain

Insights from The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Vivek Roy and Parikshit Charan

Operations and Systems Area,

Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Raipur, India

Tobias Schoenherr

Department of Supply Chain Management,

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA, and

B.S. Sahay

Operations and Systems Area,

Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Raipur, India

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore and furtherexpla inthe phenomena of supplier participation in

addressing the sustainability-oriented objectives of a supply chain. Specifically, the paper explains how a buyer

can integrate sustainability concerns among its suppliers. The study is based in the context of the Indian school

feeding (mid-day meal) program and approaches the issue from the perspective of a mid-day meal provider.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper first explains how the mid-day meal providers in India

explicitly address the social and economic dimensions of sustainability. Thereby, it conducts an exploratory

case study on a renowned meal provider with the objective to understand the nature of its efforts toward

supplier participation through in-depth interviews.

Findings –As evident in the case, from the buyer’s perspective, the key to success in winning supplier

participation in addressing the sustainability-oriented supply chain objectives largely revolves around efforts

along the critical aspects of policy development, policy implementation, and intent building with suppliers.

Originality/value –This paper propagates a threefold value by outlining the central importance of the

focus on efforts and challenges for understanding supplier participation in sustainable supply chain

management(SSCM). First, the paperis among the initial studiesto focus on ground-levelefforts and challenges

for a mid-day mealprovider, and outlines best practices.Second, the case presents revelatoryinsights on SSCM

from the perspectiveof supplier participation.For example, it demonstratesthe relevance of supply-chain-based

social identification in governingsupplier willingness to participatein a buyer’s SSCM. Third, the findings also

extend critical implications toward SSCM theoryand practice.

Keywords India, Case study, Small- to medium-sized enterprises, Sustainable supply chain management,

Buyer-supplier relationships, Food logistics, Sourcing and supply, Supplier participation,

School feeding programme, Socio-economic sustainability, Supply-chain-based identification

Paper type Case study

1. Introduction

School feeding programs represent a popular social safety net and are prevalent in almost

every country in the world today. Usually, being government sponsored, the programs

intend to feed at least part of a country’s school population –for improving the outcomes

associated with education and nutrition (Alderman and Bundy, 2012). Extant research on

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 29 No. 1, 2018

pp. 456-475

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-12-2016-0297

Received 16 December 2016

Revised 23 May 2017

8 September 2017

Accepted 18 October 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

The authors are indebtedto Editor Professor Dr Britta Gammelgaardand two anonymous reviewers for

the developmental andconstructive guidance. This study benefited significantly from their feedback.

456

IJLM

29,1

school feeding programs has usually focused on broader aspects, such as enrollment and

retention outcomes (Taylor and Ogbogu, 2016), health and education outcomes ( Jomaa

et al., 2011), diet preferences, and satisfaction of the beneficiaries (Ali and Akbar, 2015a, b).

In contrast, the World Food Programme (2013) has recently presented an evaluation of

various school feeding programs operating worldwide. Thereby, they call for further

attention toward improving the effectiveness and efficiency of school feeding programs.

However, such attention essentially requires focusing on the ground-level efforts and

challenges in facilitating a school feeding program.

Therefore, this paper intends to accentuate the above concern by seeking novel and

noteworthy insights from the Indian version of a school feeding program: the mid-day meal

scheme (MDMS). The MDMS facilitates free mid-day meals to children studying in primary

and upper primary classes in government schools (Ali and Akbar, 2015a). Further, it is

administered throughout the nation with the help of mid-day meal providers. A meal

provider orchestrates an important value chain by preparing and delivering meals from its

dedicated kitchen facility to a finite number of schools. The providers receive limited

financial support from the government (Ali and Akbar, 2015b; Mahadevan et al., 2013).

It is important to note that the meal providers need to address certain key issues in

creating this value chain. As such, given the concurrent need to address both economic and

social aspects, the supply chain inherent is unusual as compared to industrial for-profit

supply chains. The social aspect is linked with the innate social orientation of the program,

and is associated with the satisfaction of beneficiaries (Ali and Akbar, 2015b). Further, given

the limited financial support being received by a meal provider, the economic aspect is

associated with its financial survival.

These issues draw attention toward the theory of sustainable supply chain management

(SSCM). SSCM is concerned with the management of sustainability issues in the supply

chain by simultaneously addressing its economic, social, and environmental dimensions

(Carter and Rogers, 2008; Hazen et al., 2011; Rego et al., 2017). Therefore, SSCM can be

considered as the integration of economic and non-economic concerns in the management of

supply chains. This integration can occur in the upstream supply chain when a focal firm

extends such a non-economic supply chain concern to its suppliers through its purchasing

function (Maignan et al., 2002). As such, the purchasing function plays a central role in

creating an inter-organizational response toward SSCM (Leire and Mont, 2010). Huq

et al. (2016) outline how this function contributes in the development of sustainability

management capabilities, such as monitoring, collaboration, and innovation at the

buyer-supplier interface. The authors also suggest these capabilities to be essential in

addressing the social concerns of the supply chain. However, the success of deploying

inter-organizational SSCM through purchasing largely depends on the needed participation

of suppliers in addressing the sustainability concerns of the supply chain (Leppelt et al.,

2013). In this regard, much less is known in terms of why and how suppliers participate in

responding to the buyer’s SSCM demands (Foerstl et al., 2015).

This issue is also evident in the management of the supply chain inherent in the Indian

MDMS, which involves the simultaneous addressing of social and economic concerns.

As such, a meal provider typically needs to cost-effectively procure the best quality raw

materials for meeting its social obligations (Glock et al., 2012). Therefore, it is vital for meal

providers to have their suppliers respond to the sustainability-oriented objectives of the

mid-day meal supply chain (Dabhilkar et al., 2016). This offers further motivation to seek

practical insights on the issue by asking “how a meal provider, in practice, works toward

ensuring supplier participation for addressing the sustainability-oriented objectives of a

mid-day meal supply chain.”The current research investigates this by study of

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF), a meal provider renowned for its exemplary

contribution to the Indian MDMS (Mahadevan et al., 2013; Prahalad, 2013). Therefore, with

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Ensuring

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