Analysis of risk factors in sustainable supply chain management in an emerging economy of leather industry

Abstract In the present competitive business environment and era of globalized marketing, supply chain (SC) of the leather industry is facing a variety of risks. Hence, one of the fundamental concerns in the leather industry supply chain (LISC) is recognizing and prioritizing the various risk factors for attaining sustainability. The present study is an attempt to determine a comprehensive evaluation of SC risk factors considering the case of the leather industry. Based on the literature search and interviews with the domain experts’, forty-four risk factors in the context of LISC are identified. The identified risk factors are further segregated into five-dimensions to sustainability (social, environmental, economic, technical, and institutional). A Pareto analysis is performed to discover the most pertinent risk factors. Further, the best-worst method (BWM) is embraced for evaluating the importance of each pertinent risk factor for the decision-making purpose. The findings from the study reflect that ‘inefficient effluent treatment’, ‘change in consumer preference’, ‘improper dumping of solid waste’, ‘volatility of price and cost’ and ‘fiscal changes’ are the crucial risk factors that are required to be addressed for the successful execution of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices in an emerging economy context. It is expected that the results and findings will assist the leather industry managers in decision-making for better administration and alleviation of supply chain risks to achieve sustainability.