| Learning tensions emerge when “dynamic systems change, renew, and innovate” (Smith and Lewis, 2011, p. 383). For ensuring their long-term sustainability, most systems need to be built upon (and destroy) the old system for creating opportunities and/or adopt to the future. Learning tensions and paradoxes usually surface during the times of transition and change. The tensions can be simply described as “old vs. new,” “stability vs. change,” and “present vs. future” (Schad et al., 2016). As sustainable development requires shifts to (more) sustainable business practices, learning tensions are omnipresent in sustainable SC contexts. Learning tensions and paradoxes usually emerge “between the need to radically depart from currently unsustainable [or insufficiently sustainable] business practices and products and the need to build upon existing routines and systems” (Hahn et al., 2018, p. 237) |
| Belonging tensions are driven by the different and often divergent identities, values, and views of actors in specific contexts (Smith and Lewis, 2011). These tensions typically arise between the individual and the collective, as well as within and across organizations in SCs (Schad et al., 2016). As sustainable development is an inherently normative concept (Gold and Schleper, 2017; Hahn et al., 2018), belonging tensions and related paradoxes commonly surface between individuals and/or organizations holding different values and views about social and environmental sustainability (Hahn et al., 2018). Often, belonging tensions and paradoxes become even more salient in global sourcing contexts due to cultural differences and divergent perspectives (Sandberg, 2017). As individuals and organizations define goals based on their identity and believes, belonging tensions can be viewed as underpinnings of performing tensions (Mason and Doherty, 2016) |
| Organizing tensions surface when organizations and SCs create competing structures and processes to achieve desired outcomes (Smith and Lewis, 2011). These tensions emerge from difficulties in determining and establishing appropriate methods for particular purposes. Organizing tensions and paradoxes often manifest themselves as conflicts between “empowerment vs. control” (Mason and Doherty, 2016), “cooperation vs. competition” (i.e. coopetition) (Manzhynski and Figge, 2020; Wilhelm and Sydow, 2018), and “integrate vs. separate” (Smith and Lewis, 2011; Sandberg, 2017). The integration of social–ecological sustainability into the core business structures and processes often leads to the emergence of organizing tensions. Organizing paradoxes typically arise from the need to fully integrate sustainability activities into the core business operations, while having to follow and maintain a commercial business logic (Hahn et al., 2018) |
| Performing tensions stem from the plurality and variety of goals, which are typically imposed by the demands and expectations of internal and external stakeholders. Performing tensions usually emerge within and between organizations in SC contexts when the simultaneously pursued goals and strategies conflict with each other (Smith and Lewis, 2011). With regards to sustainable development and corporate sustainability, performing tensions are often portrayed and operationalized through the three dimensions of the triple bottom line: social, environmental, and economic sustainability. The related tensions and paradoxes usually emerge from the need to simultaneously address social, environmental, and economic goals that often reside in the present and future (Hahn et al., 2015; Slawinski and Bansal, 2015). Performing tension and the related paradoxes “touch the very heart of corporate sustainability and its ambition to contribute to a diverse set of potentially competing sustainability issues” (Hahn et al., 2018, p. 238) |