Responsible supply chain management in the Asian context: the effects on relationship commitment and supplier performance

Responsible supply chain management (SCM) in the era of expanding global sourcing can play a critical role in diffusing corporate responsible practices throughout the emerging Asian economies. Thus, this paper aims to examine how responsible SCM can contribute to supplier performance, including environmental, social and operational performances through the improvement of relationship commitment in the Asian context. The hypotheses of this study were tested with the data from 187 South Korean suppliers and 193 Vietnamese suppliers. The paper finds that responsible SCM enhances relationship commitment as well as improves the sustainability performance of suppliers in Asian countries. Relationship commitment plays a critical and mediating role in the relationships between responsible SCM and environmental, social and operational performances. This study also finds that there is a contextual difference between South Korea and Vietnam. The findings of this paper provide implications for supply chain members to integrate environmental and social issues into their SCM practices so as to foster stronger sustainability performance in the global supply chain.