ABSTRACT

This subject is part of a broad research field that addresses the area of supply chain management for sustainable and global business, meaning the development of competitive and sustainable supply chains for a better society. Lately, researchers and practitioners have been paying growing attention to the domain of supply chain management; a great boost is due to the increasing relevance of issues such as sustainability and, more in general, competitiveness, not to mention ethical principles. Indeed, from a managerial perspective, sustainability can hardly be confined within single firms, as it is remarkably dependent on the ways each company manages the relationships with customers, suppliers and other actors. Sustainability is therefore better addressed through a supply chain perspective. On the other hand, the supply chains of many companies (even SMEs) tend to be global, in terms of sourcing, manufacturing and distribution, and the design and management of global supply chains is a complex, multidisciplinary issue which requires knowledge ranging from supply chain network principles to geopolitics to international economics and to risk management.

BIO

Roberto Cigolini is professor of Supply Chain Management and of Production Management at the Department of Management Economics and Industrial Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. His main interests are primarily related to business planning and control, indirect procurement, contracts negotiation, real estate management. He graduated cum laude in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He is director of the Global Executive Master's in Operations and Supply chain management (GEMOS) at MIP – Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business where he was co-Director of the MBA program. He is also co-director of the executive course in Real Estate Management, a member of the teaching body of the PhD in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, and a founding member of the Technical Committee on Semiconductor Factory Automation (IEEE Robotics and Automation Society).