Sustainable supply chain challenges in cottage industries: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Sustainable supply chains (SSCs) have become central to global sustainability discourse, emphasizing the integration of environmental, social, and economic objectives across production networks. However, existing SSC frameworks have largely been developed within large-scale and multinational enterprise contexts, priori-tizing efficiency, compliance, and global value chain coordination. In contrast, cottage industries, which are small-scale, household or community-based production systems, operate within localized, labour-intensive, and resource-dependent structures that are often inherently aligned with sustainability principles. Despite their so-cioeconomic importance in rural development, the challenges they face in implementing structured, sustainable supply chain practices remain fragmented across the literature. This study conducts a systematic literature review following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, examining Scopus-indexed publications from 2020 to 2025. Twenty-one peer-reviewed articles met the inclusion criteria and were thematically synthesized. The findings reveal multidimensional and interrelated barriers spanning financial constraints, operational fragility, technological lim-itations, supply chain risk and resilience gaps, weak collaboration mechanisms, knowledge gaps, environmental compliance challenges, social sustainability tensions, and limited participation in global value chains. These constraints collectively restrict the systematic integration of sustainability practices and reduce resilience within small-scale production networks. By consolidating dispersed evidence into a structured thematic synthesis, this review extends sustainable supply chain discourse beyond large enterprise models and highlights the need for context-sensitive sustainability strategies tailored to cottage industry supply chains.