Prioritising risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chains: Insights from selected organisational theories

Recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has provided strong impetus to supply chain resilience research. In a volatile and uncertain business environment, resilience can be incorporated by developing and implementing effective risk mitigation strategies. In this research, risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chain have been prioritised by considering their efficacy to mitigate various risks. Twelve risks and thirteen mitigation strategies, identified through literature review and experts' opinion, are considered as decision criteria and alternatives respectively. Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (fuzzy TOPSIS) is implemented under a group decision making scenario for prioritising the strategies. Developing supply chain agility; multiple green sourcing and flexible capacities; adoption of green practices; building trust, coordination and collaboration; and alignment of economic incentives and revenue sharing are found to be dominant risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chain. These strategies have been viewed through the lens of resource dependence, change management and transaction cost theories. Organisation desirous to build resilience in their supply chain can prioritise the risk mitigation strategies and adopt a portfolio of strategies based on the outcome of this research.