Background: Procurement plays a significant role in the improvement of overall economic efficiency of Chinese enterprises. However, due to the resources waste and lack of professional knowledge of procurement, increasing procurement cost has become a serious problem for small and medium-sized enterprises (hereafter SMEs) especially in manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, with growing environmental awareness of public and sustainable development strategies by the Chinese government, Chinese enterprises have started to implement sustainable supply chain management, where sustainable procurement is a key step in pushing forward this objective.

Purpose: The purpose is to investigate the current situation of sustainable procurement in Chinese family manufacturing business.

Method:  The thesis is a descriptive-exploratory study with a qualitative method. The theoretical framework is based on the relevant previous researches. The empirical data was collected via twelve semi-structured interviews. The multiple case study strategy was applied in this thesis and twelve family businesses were involved. Both the theoretical framework and empirical data are strongly relevant to the research purpose and the research questions.

Conclusion: By analyzing empirical findings, two summary tables were developed in regard to the two research questions respectively, where some aspects are in accordance with the theoretical framework, while some others were only identified from empirical findings. To sum up, there are six types of current practices to answer the first research questions, while ten types of drives to the second research question, which are all identified from the companies’ perspective.

Further study: Further studies are recommended on the economic dimension or economic outcomes of sustainable procurement in Chinese family manufacturing business.