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1. Introduction
In recent years, the debate on sustainability in the supply chain (SC) domain is in the spotlight and it has recalled the interest of an increasing number of researchers and practitioners. This is the result of a series of massive changes that began in the seventies and have become increasingly rapid and disruptive from the past decade (Kinder, 2003; Womack et al., 1990; Zhang, 2006). In the 1970s, the literature was influenced by the growth poles theory (Perroux, 1961). The SC was analysed as a star-shaped system crossed by dyadic customer-supplier relationships (Berthomieu, 1983). In the 1980s, according to the theory of the firm as a set of contracts (Klein et al., 1978), the co-operative game theory of the firm (Aoki, 1984) and the transaction costs theory (Williamson, 1985), the SC became a pyramidal-shaped system. The latter was characterised by information and knowledge sharing processes between customers and first-tier suppliers (Lamming, 1993). In the 1990s, the literature was influenced by the theories of strategic alliances (Contractor and Lorange, 2002) and the SC became a pyramidal-shaped system coordinated by the customer (Colombo and Mariotti, 1998). In the early 2000s, the literature was also affected by the extended enterprise and virtual enterprise theories (Kinder, 2003; Kornelius and Wamelink, 1998) and the SC became a globalised system (Gelderman and Semeijn, 2006; Levy and Grewal, 2000). In the 2010s, the literature was affected by sustainability and circular economy (CE) theories (Seuring and Müller, 2008; Vachon and Klassen, 2006). The SC became a complex circular system where a relevant role is played by both efficiency and sustainability issues (Schrettle et al., 2014). Many authors also stressed that a sustainable supply chain (SSC) offered new opportunities and represented a new view for sustainable manufacturing (Yu and Ramanathan, 2015; Rathore et al., 2020; Gouda and Saranga, 2020). After an initial period when the environmental outlook dominated the sustainability literature, the triple bottom line (TBL) is becoming the prevailing perspective. Policymakers at a special United Nation summit on 25 September 2015 defined the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and sustainable development goals (SDGs) and declared that “for sustainable development to be achieved, it is crucial to harmonise the following three core elements: economic growth, social inclusion...