Customer Involvement in Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Through a review of sustainability research, this paper offers a framework for studying the customer’s role in managing sustainability throughout a hospitality or tourism firm’s supply chain. With advances in social media that have empowered customers and their social communities to actively participate in sustainable practices, the role of the customers in achieving sustainability in all supply chain operations within the tourism industry has grown. Social media also constitute a force that encourages customers to support sustainability practices. This paper proposes an overall framework that identifies and synthesizes the various roles and impact of the customers’ involvement in implementing sustainable supply chain management in tourism. This involves the following four dimensions: factors motivating customer involvement in sustainability, the degree of customer involvement, management strategies for customer involvement, and outcomes of customer involvement. The paper offers examples in support of the framework that demonstrate various ways in which customers are contributing to sustainability at various points in the supply chain.