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Topic · Strategy and Management

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Sustainable Supply Chain Management is a research topic within Strategy and Management. Science Explorer counts 49k research works in it since 1959. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the conceptualization and implementation of the circular economy, with a focus on sustainable supply chain management, green practices, supply chain network design, remanufacturing, and business model innovation. It emphasizes the integration of environmental management and resource efficiency into product design and supply chain operations to achieve triple bottom line sustainability.

  • Circular Economy
  • Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  • Green Practices
  • Supply Chain Network Design
  • Remanufacturing
  • Business Model Innovation
  • Environmental Management
  • Resource Efficiency
  • Product Design
  • Triple Bottom Line
Research works
49k
fractional, since 1959
In the world top 10%
4.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+49%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
32% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Which countries lead Sustainable Supply Chain Management research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (3.8k and 1.9k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.8k works
  2. 2 India 1.9k works
  3. 3 United States 1.1k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 841 works
  5. 5 Italy 804 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 767 works
  7. 7 Brazil 764 works
  8. 8 Germany 729 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 688 works
  10. 10 Spain 472 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 32.1%India: 15.8%United States: 9.1%United Kingdom: 7.1%6 others listed: 35.8%32%largest
China3,785 · 32.1%India1,868 · 15.8%United States1,069 · 9.1%United Kingdom841 · 7.1%6 others listed4,223 · 35.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sustainable Supply Chain Management research?

By volume in 2022-now, Islamic Azad University, Tehran publishes the most Sustainable Supply Chain Management research, followed by Politecnico di Milano and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 93 works
  2. 2 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 81 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 78 works
  4. 4 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 62 works
  5. 5 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 61 works
  6. 6 University of TehranIran 54 works
  7. 7 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 48 works
  8. 8 Jiangsu UniversityChina 48 works
  9. 9 Bucharest University of Economic StudiesRomania 46 works
  10. 10 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 45 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sustainable Supply Chain Management?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sustainable Supply Chain Management include Jasvinder A. Singh, Kai You Wang and Christian M. Ringle.

  1. 1 Jasvinder A. Singh United States 247k citations
  2. 2 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  3. 3 Christian M. Ringle Germany 215k citations
  4. 4 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  5. 5 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations
  6. 6 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations
  7. 7 Joseph F. Hair United States 163k citations
  8. 8 Seyedali Mirjalili Australia 154k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sustainable Supply Chain Management?

The most cited paper in Sustainable Supply Chain Management is "The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm?" (Martin Geissdoerfer, Paulo Savaget, Nancy Bocken et al., 2016), with 9,096 citations. Next come "Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions" (8,310) and "A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems" (6,451).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm? Martin Geissdoerfer, Paulo Savaget, Nancy Bocken et al. · Journal of Cleaner Production Open access 21 Dec 2016 9,096
2 Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions Julian Kirchherr, Denise Reike, Marko P. Hekkert · Resources Conservation and Recycling Open access 15 Sep 2017 8,310
3 A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems Patrizia Ghisellini, Catia Cialani, Sérgio Ulgiati · Journal of Cleaner Production 16 Sep 2015 6,451
4 From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management Stefan A. Seuring, Martin Müller · Journal of Cleaner Production 13 Jun 2008 6,334
5 DEFINING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT John T. Mentzer, William Dewitt, James S. Keebler et al. · Journal of Business Logistics Sep 2001 5,094
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sustainable Supply Chain Management research done?

The largest centres of Sustainable Supply Chain Management research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Tehran (Iran) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Mont-Saint-Aignan and Lappeenranta.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 461 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 305 works
  3. 3 TehranIran 242 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 225 works
  5. 5 IstanbulTürkiye 194 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 169 works
  7. 7 WuhanChina 162 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 155 works
  9. 9 JakartaIndonesia 152 works
  10. 10 New DelhiIndia 147 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Mont-Saint-AignanFR · 20.1 works19×
  2. LappeenrantaFI · 31.5 works14×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sustainable Supply Chain Management than the world average.

See Sustainable Supply Chain Management on the map

Where is the best place to study Sustainable Supply Chain Management?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Parthenope University of Naples and Politecnico di Milano score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.64%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Parthenope Universit…NEOMA Business SchoolHong Kong Polytechni…Politecnico di Milano
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 71.917.4%4.2×62 +14.8%
2Parthenope University of NaplesItaly 69.326.7%17.4×24 +60.5%
3Politecnico di MilanoItaly 68.013.0%6.5×81 +82.2%
4NEOMA Business SchoolFrance 67.825.6%40.0×20 +126.7%
5Abu Dhabi UniversityUnited Arab Emirates 67.829.5%10.0×13 +45.9%
6EM Normandie Business SchoolFrance 65.233.3%25.4×12 +168.5%
7University of Business and TechnologySaudi Arabia 64.522.6%11.5×19 +244.7%
8RMIT UniversityAustralia 64.214.4%6.6×44 +45.9%
9Berlin School of Economics and LawGermany 63.427.3%21.8×13 +13.7%
10Cranfield UniversityUnited Kingdom 61.616.6%13.2×30 +45.9%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sustainable Supply Chain Management, country by country

Is Sustainable Supply Chain Management research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 49% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Sustainable Supply Chain Management.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sustainable Supply Chain Management as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.079% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%Sustainable Supply Chain Management0.079% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sustainable Supply Chain Management over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sustainable Supply Chain Management10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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