Sustainable cost management in the supply chain: A case analysis

Abstract

In today’s constantly developing and changing world, businesses strive for superiority in various areas to survive and create competitive advantage. Businesses that can integrate sustainability into their activities can be more successful in this sense and take a step ahead of their competitors. The supply chain, which covers all the activities carried out in the process starting with the supply of materials until they are delivered to the end consumer, is another area where competition has been intense recently. To adapt to the order in the global environment, businesses need to adopt a different cost management approach while building their supply chains. While the cost management approach in earlier times only dealt with the management of costs arising within the enterprise, cost reduction processes in the modern age not only include the internal costs but also all the costs incurred throughout the supply chain outside the enterprise. Therefore, to achieve success and create a competitive advantage, the need to manage costs in an integrated manner arises. In this context, this study tackles the issue of sustainable cost in the retailing sector, which is an important element of the supply chain and has special importance in economic crises, with particular focus on Migros Trading Joint Stock Company (Migros Co.), one of the forty largest retail companies in the World. By analyzing the sustainability reports published by the company between 2016-2020, the factors affecting sustainability in retailing, sustainable value networks, and their sub-titles are examined in detail. According to the results obtained, in the specific case of Migros T.A.Ş., continuously developing the awareness of sustainability in the retail sector and particularly adopting sustainable cost management are very important factors for business success.