Evaluation of external forces affecting supply chain sustainability in oil and gas industry using Best Worst Method

The negative impacts of the oil and gas (O&G) industry on the environment and society well-being necessitate research on the integration of sustainability in its supply chain management practices. However, the research on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the O&G industry context are still lacking in terms of understanding the factors that facilitates or hinders its implementation. Therefore, this paper aims at addressing the gap by assessing the importance of the external forces within the O&G operating environment that could affect its SSCM strategy. A literature review was conducted where we identified six external forces namely economic stability, political stability, stakeholder pressure, competition, energy transition and regulations. A multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) method called Best Worst Method (BWM) was used to assess the importance of the forces based on data collected using a questionnaire sent to academic experts in the fields of SSCM and O&G. It is found that economic stability followed by competition and political stability are the most important external forces and regulations and energy transition are the least important forces influencing the SSCM of the O&G companies. The outcome of this study could help O&G companies to identify external forces that can drive (hinder) their SSCM implementation. Consequently, it enable them to develop a strategy that take into account their resources and capabilities to address the external forces as they strive to make their supply chains more sustainable.