Bringing Sustainability to the Core of Supply Chain Finance: Harnessing Big Data Analytics

This chapter explores the evolution of Supply Chain Finance (SCF) into Sustainable Supply Chain Finance (SSCF), emphasizing the integration of sustainability principles and the transformative role of Big Data Analytics (BDA). SSCF aligns financial practices with the triple bottom line (TBL) framework, addressing economic, environmental, and social dimensions to create resilient and sustainable supply chains. Unlike traditional SCF, SSCF incorporates internal and external financing mechanisms, such as peer-to-peer lending, equity financing, and trade credit, to foster collaboration, enhance liquidity, and promote sustainable practices across supply chains. The chapter highlights how BDA serves as a critical enabler of SSCF, offering advanced tools such as predictive analytics, machine learning, and blockchain to optimize financial flows, enhance transparency, and support sustainability goals. BDA enables supply chains to analyze real-time data, predict risks, and optimize decision-making processes, ensuring financial efficiency while reducing environmental impacts. By integrating financial and operational flows with sustainability objectives, BDA strengthens SSCF’s global relevance and scalability, enabling its adoption across diverse supply chains, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The chapter underscores the strategic importance of SSCF in addressing global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and social inequality.