Supply Chain Complexity and Regeneration: Perspectives From the Forest Sector

The research on regenerative supply chains is still in its infancy and provides little understanding of how supply chain structure and regeneration are related. In order to investigate possible modifications in supply chain structure for businesses using regenerative practices at the raw material sourcing stage, this study uses a question‐driven exploratory methodology. This study evaluates supplier and customer base network structures using a dataset of 838 firm‐year observations in regulated marketplaces. It does this by utilising Forest Stewardship Council certification data in addition to secondary data from other sources. The results show clear trends: origin suppliers that directly participate in regenerative practices build larger customer networks spanning multiple industries, while manufacturers in regenerative supply chains maintain larger, more geographically dispersed, and less interconnected supplier bases than their counterparts in non‐regenerative sup‐ ply chains. This study offers descriptive evidence that regenerative practices would need the retrofitting of current supply chains, which could lead to network‐wide structural changes, based on the systems approach. These results show how supply chain design could change over time to balance with local ecosystems.