Sustainable procurement practices in the supplier selection process: an exploratory study in the context of Brazilian manufacturing companies

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-10-2020-0481
• Published date: 16 August 2021
• Date: 16 August 2021
• Pages: 114-127
• Subject Matter: Strategy,Corporate governance
• Author: Alex Moysés Barbanti,Rosley Anholon,Izabela Simon Rampasso,Vitor William Batista Martins,Osvaldo Luiz Gonçalves Quelhas,Walter Leal Filho

Sustainable procurement practices in the

supplier selection process: an exploratory

study in the context of Brazilian

manufacturing companies

Alex Moysés Barbanti, Rosley Anholon, Izabela Simon Rampasso,

Vitor William Batista Martins, Osvaldo Luiz Gonçalves Quelhas and Walter Leal Filho

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to evaluate the adoptionof sustainable procurement practices adopted by

Brazilian manufacturingcompanies in supplier selection; additionally, it is aimed to understandwhich of

these practicesenable a better differentiationof the analysed companies.

Design/methodology/approach –A systematic literature review was performed to compose the

theoreticalbase of this research. In addition, a detailedstudy of ISO 20400 standard was conducted. The

guidelines of ISO 20400 were used as a base to structure a questionnaire used in a survey with

professionals working in procurement sphere of manufacturing companies in Brazil. The data were

analysedvia frequency and CRITIC (CriteriaImportance Through IntercriteriaCorrelation) method.

Findings –A moderate dispersionin the adoption level of sustainable procurement practicesin supplier

selection process of the manufacturing companies was observed; in practices associated with social

aspects, the dispersion is greater. A negative issue to be highlighted is that almost 20% of analysed

companies did not even considered in their supplier selection process if their candidates accomplish

philanthropic activities,generate jobs in local community and fulfill the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights of United Nations (UN).Those two last practices are the ones with the best capacity to differ the

companiesin the sample.

Originality/value –There are few studies that focuses on understanding the adoption of sustainable

procurementpractices in manufacturing companies’supplierselection process. Themain contribution of

this study to the literature is to evidence that social requirements in supplier selection process are

considered in a clear andwell-structured form only by few Brazilian manufacturing companies. Despite

the sample size, companies analysed in this research are prominent organisations in manufacturing

sector. Thus, if this situation occurs in these companies, a more critical scenario will be evidenced in

other organisations. This study has implication for practice and academy. For companies’managers,

information present here can be used to debate the theme in the organisational context and the nine

practices and scale can be usedto perform a critical analysis of company’s practices. For researchers,

the informationpresent here can be used as startingpoint for futures studies.

Keywords Brazil, Sustainable procurement, Manufacturing companies, ISO 20400

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The need for maintenance and regeneration of the global ecosystem hasbeen increasingly

evident due to the impacts caused by industrial activity(Fernando, 2012;McPhail, 2008). In

this sense, sustainability is more andmore present in new management models (Aray et al.,

2021;Blagov and Petrova-Savchenko, 2021;Cazeri et al., 2017;Garetti and Taisch, 2012;

Høgevold et al.,2015;Lenssen et al., 2014;Martins et al.,2019). The pressure provided by

Alex Moyse

´s Barbanti and

Rosley Anholon are both

based at the State

University of Campinas,

Campinas, Brazil.

Izabela Simon Rampasso is

based at Federal

Fluminense University,

Niter

oi, Brazil.

Vitor William Batista Martins

is based at State University

of Par

a, Bele

´m, Brazil and

State University of

Campinas, Campinas,

Brazil.

Osvaldo Luiz Gonc¸alves

Quelhas is based at Master

Program in Management

Systems and Doctoral

Program in Sustainable

Management Systems,

Federal Fluminense

University, Niter

oi, Brazil.

Walter Leal Filho is based at

the Hamburg University of

Applied Sciences,

Hamburg, Germany.

Received 30 October 2020

Revised 23 February 2021

3 July 2021

Accepted 26 July 2021

PAGE 114 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jVOL. 22 NO. 1 2022, pp. 114-127, ©EmeraldPublishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 DOI 10.1108/CG-10-2020-0481