This section presents the frequencies of sustainability considerations in different research areas and industries based on the JEL and NAICS classification scheme.
Several of these categories are related to supply chains in which retailers operate.
4.4.1 Structuring sustainability research according to economic research areas
The analysis of sustainability according to economic research areas is based on the official JEL keywords and the search term “sustainab*”. In total, 2,602 hits were counted, starting from the year 1981 (see Figure 6). Since then, a steady increase can be observed. After negligible numbers of hits until 1988, the number of sustainability-related articles rises constantly until 2002 with small interruptions in 1995 and 2000. In the 1990s, a rise from 6 (1990) to 123 hits (2000) can be observed.
In particular, there was a strong increase from the mid-1990s onwards. In the 2000s, the number of hits then doubles until 2006 with 265 hits. The highest number of hits (330) is reached in 2009. Overall, an increase in sustainability considerations in academic journals lasting recent years is evident.
Figure 6: Development of JEL-based sustainability hits over time
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48 11 JEL categories received more than 50 hits between 1981 and 2009 (see Figure 7).
The classification O (Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth) received the highest number of sustainability-related articles. Furthermore, the classifications R (Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics), Q (Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics), and M (Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting) each yielded more than 200 hits. They were followed by the classifications E (Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics), H (Public Economics) and A (General Economics and Teaching) with more than 100 hits each and can therefore be highlighted as the important research fields in terms of sustainability considerations.
Finally, with more than 50 hits each, the JEL categories I (Health, Education, and Welfare), F (International Economics), D (Microeconomics) and L (Industrial Organisation) can also be considered as relevant economic research areas with respect to sustainability considerations.
Figure 7: JEL-based sustainability hit distribution
These results clarify that the research mainly considered sustainability aspects in the areas of economic development, technological change and growth. However, the research areas of business administration, agricultural and natural resource economics and urban, rural and regional economics also yielded a high number of hits. All these categories are relevant for retailers and their role in supply chains. The agricultural industry has an influence in agricultural supply chains affecting retailers’
businesses. The area of business administration is needed to implement sustainability
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49 in the companies which should be based in the management area. Besides, single departments, e.g. the marketing or controlling department, focus on sustainability issues. This reasoning is supported by the endeavours of many businesses to publish sustainability reports (e.g. Intel Corporation, Ford Motor Company, METRO GROUP or Unilever [United Nations Global Compact, 2011]) and increasing attention towards such reporting practices on the part of international initiatives such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (Global Reporting Initiative, 2007).
Furthermore, urban planning is an area that is quite relevant for the location planning of retail stores. Here, sustainability issues should be incorporated to keep passenger traffic and goods transports low, for instance.
4.4.2 Structuring sustainability research according to industrial sectors In the second literature search, we used keywords derived from the 20 main industry sectors defined by NAICS to structure our findings. For this search, the first hits occurred in 1988. From then, the development is quite similar to the results for JEL.
Until 1999, no more than 20 hits per year occur. There is then an increase of up to 82 hits in 2006. Although the increase in sustainability considerations is obvious, the number of hits indicates that sectorial or industry-specific sustainability research has not yet become a centrally prominent stream of research. Therefore, taking into account the spike in sustainability mentions in the recent past, it might well be one of the more promising research themes currently pursued. This result supports Carter and Easton (2011), who suggest focusing on individual industries in future research.
Six NAICS categories received more than 50 hits each between 1988 and 2009 (see Figure 8). With 200 hits, the most important category is Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting. The other categories yield a fairly similar number of hits with scores between 50 (Educational Services) and 69 (Management of Companies and Enterprises).
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50 Figure 8: NAICS-based sustainability hit distribution
Relevant NAICS categories in the retail context are Retail Trade and Wholesale Trade. The category Wholesale Trade did not reveal any hits and the search for Retail Trade only yielded seven hits. A category directly related to SCM does not exist as NAICS only covers industry sectors. However, the Transport and Warehousing category is important in the SCM context. Searching for Transport and Warehousing produced 56 hits, peaking between 2003 (9) and 2005 (13).
Sustainability seems to be more important in other sectors than in retail as Retail Trade is the sector with the fewest sustainability considerations. This result conflicts in some way with Brammer et al. (2011b), who named retail as the third most analysed sector in SSCM. The reason for this difference might be that we focused on scientific literature whilst their review also included non-academic research and focused on international supply chains.
Analysing the results again reveals certain connections with retail. Similar to the results of the analysis using JEL codes, the agricultural industry forms the most important sector affecting retailers in food supply chains. Besides, sustainability issues are also important for the management of companies. Hence, retail managers should incorporate sustainability. As already mentioned, the Transport and Warehousing category received a high number of hits. These areas are important for implementing sustainability along supply chains. For instance, it might be interesting to analyse how different SCM strategies, such as Cross Docking, Backhauling,
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51 Ready-Packaging and Vendor-Managed-Inventory, influence certain sustainability criteria.