Soybean supply chain management and sustainability: A systematic literature review

As a globally consumed agricultural product, soybeans have long been one of the most important commodities in the current international market. In this regard, the governance of the global soybean supply chain has become one of the central themes in both industry and academia. However, existing scholarly works focusing on sustainability issues and mechanisms for better governance in the soybean chain are rare. Moreover, the relationship among soybean supply chain governance mechanisms remains unclear.

For this study, a systematic review of the existing literature to identify key themes or topics was conducted and a conceptual framework to guide future research was developed. Based on a set of inclusion criteria and by considering the Scopus database, 55 articles published between 2000 and 2019 were identified and reviewed.

From their analysis, the authors identified four themes in soybean supply chain management:

• drivers (e.g., land-use conflict)
• global value chain governance (e.g., REDD+)
• consequences (e.g., reduced CO2 emissions) and
• potential barriers (e.g., low market demand).

Finally, a conceptual model is proposed that elaborates the linkage of the themes, and a research agenda was proposed to direct studies in the future.