Title: Sustainable supply chain innovation: a state-of-the-art literature review and future research avenues

Authors: Pankaj C. Shete; Zulfiquar N. Ansari; Ravi Kant

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat – 395007, India ' Institute of Business Management, GLA University, Mathura – 281406, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat – 395007, India

Abstract: In recent years, the role of innovation from a sustainability perspective has emerged as a key contributor to improving sustainability performance. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the sustainable innovation (SI) research based on content analysis methodology. A total of 191 relevant research articles from SCOPUS database were selected from 2004 to 2020. These articles are categorised into 16 categories: time span, journal, publisher, university, country, research design, research method, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods, data analysis techniques, theory, dimensions, industries, enablers, issues, and barriers. The significant finding indicates that survey is the most prominent research method in SI literature. Analytical hierarchy process is the most commonly used MCDM. The researcher used structural equation modelling to analyse the collected data. SI research is predominantly performed in the countries like China and India. A significant analysis is carried out in the manufacturing industry.

Keywords: sustainable supply chain innovation; literature review; content analysis; research methodology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2025.148404

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2025 Vol.38 No.1, pp.1 - 32

Received: 12 Jan 2022
Accepted: 23 Jul 2022
Published online: 04 Sep 2025 *

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