A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Global Change Studies. Johannesburg, 2016 / This study examined the retail clothing industry of South Africa and the
associated sustainability practices, with particular focus on supply chain
management. This study was conducted in order to test the relationship
between sustainable supply chains and profitability in the hope that it might
provide incentives for managers to adopt sustainability into their supply chain
operations. The study made use of a case study analysis through a collection
of quantitative and qualitative data of the sample organisations’ integrated
reports and financial results to determine if there was a correlation between
sustainable business practices and long-term economic profitability.
Interviews were also conducted with industry participants in order to gain
further insight. The study found that organisations that showed the highest
investment along all three pillars of sustainability also experienced the largest
and most stable economic growth within the sample. Although this could not
be validated due to the limited sample size, the results did infer a positive
association between sustainable supply chain management and economic
success. It was also found that investing into the social capital of an
organisation did have the potential to improve the economic success of an
organisation within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. This study
identified sustainable supply chain management frameworks that could
benefit organisations within this industry financially. Further research is
required into this field but it can be inferred that the incorporation of
sustainable supply chain management can lend itself towards economic
success within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. / LG2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/21709 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Whyte, Garrett Bromley |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (vii, 142 pages), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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