Towards environmental and economic sustainability through interorganisational postponement: a relational perspective

Abstract

Firms face increasing pressure to reduce environmental impacts while maintaining cost-effective supply chains (SCs). Postponement has emerged as a promising strategy, yet existing research offers inconsistent evidence on its environmental and economic implications. In addition, the implementation of postponement relies on interorganisational collaboration, yet the relational processes underlying this implementation remain underexplored. This study aims to examine how interorganisational postponement is implemented and how it supports the joint pursuit of environmental and economic sustainability. Drawing on the relational view (RV), the study analyses an in-depth single case of a UK-based multinational manufacturer implementing interorganisational postponement with three suppliers. Using a process-based approach, we examine interviews, internal documents and operational data to trace how the four sources of relational rents enable the implementation of postponement and how underlying relational mechanisms connect these sources to sustainability outcomes over time. Interorganisational postponement implementation is enabled by complementary resources and capabilities, relation-specific assets, knowledge-sharing routines and effective governance, which operate through underlying relational mechanisms including resource convergence and divergence, asymmetric investment adaptation, information-processing capabilities and formalised governance. These mechanisms explain how partner fit changes, investment commitments adapt, knowledge is processed across firms and governance becomes more formalised as operational complexity increases. Through these mechanisms, interorganisational postponement contributes to sustainability rents, reflected in joint environmental and economic gains such as lower emissions, reduced waste, tariff savings and improved transport efficiency. The study offers a relational and processual understanding of postponement’s role in sustainable SC management by moving beyond a firm-centred, static view to explain how it unfolds across the SC. It illustrates how interfirm resources and relational mechanisms shape whether environmental and economic outcomes are jointly created and preserved. Accordingly, it extends the RV by providing a more nuanced understanding of the established sources of relational rents and the underlying relational mechanisms through which these sources evolve and contribute to sustainability rents, highlighting how interorganisational collaboration can co-create environmental and economic value through the implementation of postponement.