The Supply Chain Sustainability and Circularity Odyssey: Strategy, Operations, and a Tentative TheoryAbstract: Companies face complex challenges in their sustainability journeys, requiring clarity for managers to develop proactive strategies for collective responsibility and harm reduction. Extensive empirical research in sustainable supply chain management and circular economy (SSCM-CE) has laid the groundwork for theoretical advancements. However, the SSCM-CE literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of interrelated issues and reveals uncertainties regarding stakeholder pressure, supply chain collaboration, and the mitigation of economic, social, and environmental harms. This dissertation contributes to improved understanding of SSCM-CE using system dynamics simulation methods to develop a process-oriented theory. It is grounded in a food waste reduction case study and provides a perspective at multiple temporal scales. This dissertation introduces Odyssey Theory, using models named for the characters Philoetius and Odysseus to present a multi-scale perspective of SSCM-CE. ODYSSEUS focuses on long-term development, highlighting the adaptive dynamics of stakeholder pressure, collaboration, and harm reduction, while PHILOETIUS emphasizes short-term development, addressing holistic waste reduction, the bullwhip effect, and perishable inventory management. By integrating short-term and long-term thinking, Odyssey Theory facilitates policy design and supply chain transformation by advancing understanding of complex problems in SSCM-CE journeys. Dissertation Committee: Prof. Joseph Sarkis (Chair), WPI
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July 14, 2023 Zoom link 
Samuel Allen Samuel Allen is a PhD Candidate in Operations Management at the WPI School of Business. His dissertation focuses on sustainable supply chain and circularity management journeys, using simulation to develop a theory of the long-term and short-term dynamics of these journeys. During his PhD, Sam was a National Science Foundation Research Trainee inWPI's Circular Economy Data Analytics Engineering Research for Sustainability (CEDAR) project. He also served as a Visiting PhD Student at Cardiff University's Logistics Systems Dynamics Group and completed a Summer Internship at Toyota's US Energy & Environment Research Group. Prior to WPI, Sam worked in academic and policy research and practice in social and environmental issues. Sam earned a PMST in Environmental Science from the University of Utah, a PGDip in Social Policy of Poverty and Development from Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Chile) and BS degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Utah. Contact: sallen2@wpi.edu |
