Sustainable Supply Chain Management in LED Manufacturing: A Qualitative Case Study of Orenda Energies Private Limited, Pakistan.
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This thesis explores sustainable supply chain management practices of Orenda Energies Private
Limited, a manufacturer of LED and SMD lighting that operates within the Allah Hoo Industrial
Estate in Lahore, Pakistan. The research is inspired by three overlapping gaps in the current body
of SSCM research: that the electrical manufacturing industry in Pakistan has not been
dedicatedly studied, that systematic underrepresentation of domestically-oriented SME
manufacturers in developing country SSCM research, and the methodological hegemony of
survey-based quantitative designs that cannot generate the operational specificity that firm
level SSCM analysis demands.
The research will follow a qualitative single case study research design based on an interpretivist
philosophical stance and an inductive research methodology. It was collected as primary data
using the reflexive thematic analysis process of Braun and Clarke (2019) with five semi
structured interviews with respondents representing the executive, technical, operational, and
client-side functions of the firm. The theoretical framework is a combination of three
complementary lenses: the Natural Resource Based View of Hart (1995), which explains the
motivational logic behind the sustainability practice in a resource-constrained environment; the
Nine R Hierarchy of Potting et al. (2017), which evaluates how deep the practices surrounding
the circular economy are placed in a spectrum of resource value retention; and the Institutional
Voids framework of Khanna and Palepu (2010), which explains the conditions in which structures
are placed to shape SSCM decision-making in the Pakistani manufacturing environment.
The thematic analysis resulted in four themes. The first established: Orenda has a hybrid energy
infrastructure consisting of a 100KW grid supply, a 50KW solar generation, a 100KW diesel
backup, and that recycles polymer at a blended rate of 30 percent across their product range,
and engages in an informal inter-firm steel-for-cardboard exchange of materials placed across
R2, R3, and R8 of the Nine R Hierarchy. The second determined that the stakeholders view these
practices as creating the value of continuation in operations, cost competitiveness, and creation
of ESG value to the B2B clients. The third found that barriers limiting the effectiveness of SSCM
are structural and institutional, based on the financial, regulatory, information, and
infrastructure gaps in Pakistan. The fourth one determined that the most consequential strategic
pathway that could be adopted by the firm is that of formalisation of the existing informal
practices.
This discussion synthesises these findings into the Emergent Sustainability Formalisation Model,
a three-stage theoretical framework that proposes that the development of SSCM in
manufacturing SMEs in institutional void conditions follows a trajectory of cost-driven
emergence through formalisation to strategic deepening. The seven strategic recommendations
are made within the immediate, medium-term and long-term periods all based on the empirical
evidence and the theoretical framework.