The Relationship Between Sustainable Supply Chain Management, Stakeholder Pressure and Corporate Sustainability Performance

In 2009, Greenpeace launched an aggressive campaign against Nestlé, accusing the organization of driving rainforest deforestation through its palm oil suppliers. The objective was to damage the brand image of Nestlé and, thereby, force the organization to make its supply chain more sustainable. Prominent cases such as these have led to the prevailing view that sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is primarily reactive and propelled by external pressures. This research, in contrast, assumes that SSCM can contribute positively to the reputation of an organization as a “good citizen” and, thereby, counter the impression that external stakeholder pressure is the only driver of SSCM. The study draws on Resource Dependence Theory in analyzing the three competing models of the potential stakeholder, SSCM and the corporate sustainability performance relationship. A dataset of 1,621 organizations allows the statistical comparison of these three models. Findings suggest that stakeholder pressure and SSCM both contribute to an organization’s sustainability performance. Thus, supply chain managers will perceive benefits from SSCM other than merely the reduction of risk from reputational damage through stakeholder activism.     

Corporate Social Responsibility in Purchasing and Supply Chain

The purpose of this study is to understand the drivers of social responsibility in purchasing (PSR). This study replicated and extended the range of empirical application of the model developed by Carter and Jennings (Journal of Business Logistics 25(1), 145–186, 2004). Consequently, the present study contributes to the nomological validity of concept of PSR or Purchasing Social Responsibility. The method used is derived from the previous study by Carter and Jennings (Journal of Business Logistics 25(1), 145–186, 2004), and the present study extends the application of that method to an Asian environment. The data were obtained from 197 respondents in Thailand. This sample was largely composed of purchasing and supply chain managers. Respondents were asked to indicate how different dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect PSR. The findings of the present study suggest that all the six hypothesized paths have been substantiated. Individual values and people-oriented organizational culture are the most powerful predictors of PSR. This article contributes towards filling the gap in understanding the determinants of PSR in managing supply chains, particularly in an Asian context.     

协作创新与责任传递 打造可持续的供应链——“发挥传粉效应建设可持续供应链的有效途径”分论坛

加强供应链的管理已经变成了企业提升核心竞争力的重要趋势,但供应链管理当中涉及的环境、安全、劳工以及其他社会问题也成为了举世关注的焦点,影响着全球整体的和各地区的商业生态环境以及整个社会的可持续发展。随着经济全球化与国际分工的进一步发展,加强供应链的管理已经变成了企业提升核心竞争力的重要趋势,     

Toward Dynamic Corporate Stakeholder Responsibility

Today, sustainable relations with a broad range of key stakeholders are not only important from a normative business ethics perspective, but also from an entrepreneurial viewpoint to allow and support the long-term survival of a firm. We will argue that the traditional conception of a firm’s corporate social responsibility does not reflect this view and that a comprehensive and dynamic conception of a firm’s responsibilities is necessary to map the reality of business practice and to manage the challenges implied by sustainability. We think that distributive justice, that is the way in which firms involve their stakeholders in their wealth creation and dissemination processes, provides a comprehensive understanding of corporate responsibilities. Concerning procedural justice, we will discuss how firms involve stakeholders in their strategic processes according to their contribution to wealth creation. In the course of the article, we will propose a framework along with three design principles that can be used for shaping dynamic and comprehensive corporate responsibilities, and which thereby allow a sustainable procedure for changing business and non-business environments.     

Corporate Versus Individual Moral Responsibility

There is a clear tendency in contemporary political/legal thought to limit agency to individual agents, thereby denying the existence and relevance of collective moral agency in general, and corporate agency in particular. This tendency is ultimately rooted in two particular forms of individualism – methodological and fictive (abstract) – which have their source in the Enlightenment. Furthermore, the dominant notion of moral agency owes a lot to Kant whose moral/legal philosophy is grounded exclusively on abstract reason and personal autonomy, to the detriment of a due recognition of the socio-historical grounds of moral social conduct.I shall argue that an adequate theory of responsibility is needed, which does not only take into account individual responsibility, but also collective and corporate responsibility, capable of taking into consideration society and its problems. Furthermore, corporations are consciously and carefully structured organisations with different levels of management and have clearly defined aims and objectives, a central feature upon which I shall be focussing in this paper.     

Moral Discourse and Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

This paper examines voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting as a form of moral discourse. It explores how alternative stakeholder perspectives lead to differing perceptions of the process and content of responsible reporting. We contrast traditional stakeholder theory, which views stakeholders as external parties having a social contract with corporations, with an emerging perspective, which views interaction among corporations and constituents as relational in nature. This moves the stakeholder from an external entity to one that is integral to corporate activity. We explore how these alternative stakeholder perspectives give rise to different normative demands for stakeholder engagement, managerial processes, and communication. We discuss models of CSR reporting and accountability: EMAS, the ISO 14000 series, SA8000, AA1000, the Global Reporting Initiative, and the Copenhagen Charter. We explore how these models relate to the stakeholder philosophies and find that they are largely consistent with the traditional atomistic view but fall far short of the demands for moral engagement prescribed by a relational stakeholder perspective. Adopting a relational view requires stakeholder engagement not only in prescribing reporting requirements, but also in discourse relating to core aspects of the corporation such as mission, values, and management systems. Habermas’ theory of communicative action provides guidelines for engaging stakeholders in this moral discourse. MaryAnn Reynolds is an Associate Professor of Accounting in the College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University. Dr. Reynolds teaches intermediate financial accounting and is published in the areas of corporate social, environmental and ethical reporting. Kristi Yuthas is the Swigert Endowed Information Systems Professor in the School of Business Administration at Portland State University. Dr. Yuthas teaches accounting and information systems and is published in the areas of social and ethical impacts of management information systems.     

Defining a Post-Conventional Corporate Moral Responsibility

The stakeholder approach offers the opportunity to consider corporate responsibility in a wider sense than that afforded by the stockholder or shareholder approaches. Having said that, this article aims to show that this theory does not offer a normative corporate responsibility concept that can be our response to two basic questions. On the one hand, for what is the company morally responsible and, on the other hand, why is the corporation morally responsible in terms of conventional and post-conventional perspectives? The reason why the stakeholder approach does not offer such a definition, as we shall see, is because the normative stakeholder approaches tend to confuse the social validity with the moral validity or legitimacy. It leads us to a conventional definition of corporate moral responsibility (CMR) that is not relevant to the pluralistic and global framework of our societies and economies. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate this intuition.     

Friedman's Stockholder Theory of Corporate Moral Responsibility

In this paper I critically discuss MiltonFriedman's classic article, ``The SocialResponsibility of Business is to Increase itsProfits.' Friedman offers several argumentsfor his stockholder theory of corporate moralresponsibility, according to which acorporation's only moral responsibility is topromote the financial well-being of itsstockholders. I first consider aninconsistency in his statement of his position– namely, the distinct and non-equivalentconstraints he places on profit-maximization(``the rules of the game' and ``the rules ofsociety'). I then turn to a consideration ofsix arguments Friedman gives to support histheory, spelling them out in detail and showingthat none of them is sound. I conclude with abrief intuitive argument against his theory.     

Corporate Responsibility in Scandinavian Supply Chains

This article examines corporate responsibility in the supply chains of four of the largest Scandinavian multinational corporations – IKEA, Nokia, Novo Nordisk, and StatoilHydro – and offers two key findings. First, these Scandinavian companies have all implemented responsible supply chain practices where suppliers in developing nations, and the communities of these suppliers, are engaged as key stakeholders and treated as partners. Second, these supply chain practices all share the common bond of having honesty and the establishment of trust-based relationships at their foundation. As a result, these Scandinavian companies have developed a “cooperative advantage” in their ability to form successful, long-term partnerships in their respective supply chains.     

Corporate Responsibility in Scandinavian Supply Chains

This article examines corporate responsibility in the supply chains of four of the largest Scandinavian multinational corporations – IKEA, Nokia, Novo Nordisk, and StatoilHydro – and offers two key findings. First, these Scandinavian companies have all implemented responsible supply chain practices where suppliers in developing nations, and the communities of these suppliers, are engaged as key stakeholders and treated as partners. Second, these supply chain practices all share the common bond of having honesty and the establishment of trust-based relationships at their foundation. As a result, these Scandinavian companies have developed a “cooperative advantage” in their ability to form successful, long-term partnerships in their respective supply chains.     

供应链的责任标尺

企业社会责任已成为供应链竞争力中一个新的目标参数，而且将企业社会责任延伸至整个供应链，为企业带来的是更稳定、持久、高效的竞争优势，也是“中国制造”实现转型升级，在更深程度参与国际竞争的新方向。     

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Supply Chain: An Application in the Food Industry

The food industry faces many significant risks from public criticism of corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues in the supply chain. This paper draws upon previous research and emerging industry trends to develop a comprehensive framework of supply chain CSR in the industry. The framework details unique CSR applications in the food supply chain including animal welfare, biotechnology, environment, fair trade, health and safety, and labor and human rights. General supply chain CSR issues such as community and procurement are also considered. Ultimately, the framework serves as a comprehensive tool to support food industry practitioners and researchers in the assessment of strategic and operational supply chain CSR practices.     

Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) field presents not only a landscape of theories but also a proliferation of approaches, which are controversial, complex and unclear. This article tries to clarify the situation, “mapping the territory” by classifying the main CSR theories and related approaches in four groups: (1) instrumental theories, in which the corporation is seen as only an instrument for wealth creation, and its social activities are only a means to achieve economic results; (2) political theories, which concern themselves with the power of corporations in society and a responsible use of this power in the political arena; (3) integrative theories, in which the corporation is focused on the satisfaction of social demands; and (4) ethical theories, based on ethical responsibilities of corporations to society. In practice, each CSR theory presents four dimensions related to profits, political performance, social demands and ethical values. The findings suggest the necessity to develop a new theory on the business and society relationship, which should integrate these four dimensions.     

Using Country Sustainability Risk to Inform Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Design Science Study

The sustainability of our global supply chains is an essential concern in strategic supply chain management research. Modern information and communication technologies enable stakeholders to punish buying firms for any sustainability‐related grievances at their suppliers, even in remote locations. This study investigates how the notion of country sustainability risk can inform sustainable supply chain management, in particular with respect to sustainability risk assessment at the individual supplier level. Drawing on institutional theory, we provide insights surrounding the emergence of environmental, social, and governance‐related country‐level sustainability risks and show their implications for and application in sustainable supply chain management. The study employs a design science methodology, based on cooperation with a multidivisional German technology firm, to develop a supply chain sustainability risk (SCSR) map as technological solution design. This article contributes to the study of SCSR by reconciling the scholarly SCSR discourse with the buying firms’ pursuit of efficiency. Moreover, it elucidates the augmentation of a research agenda through a design science approach. In practical terms, the technological solution design can directly inform managers about SCSR at the country level and serves as a decision basis for the management of individual suppliers.     

供应链及供应链管理理论的演变

供应链管理是当前国内外关注的热点问题之一。本文在分析了现有文献的基础上,论述了供应健及供应链管理思想来源、发展背景和发展过程,提出了供应链管理理论及发展过程的“三阶段”论。     

Corporate Portals for Supply Chain Collaboration

ABSTRACT

This article reviews the technological capabilities offered by the portal industry's key software vendors to support inter-firm design collaboration and supply chain integration. An analysis of the technology coverage and gaps is presented, with a focus on the opportunities available for portal software improvement. Challenges for collaboration and supply chain software, including security, external access and capabilities, bandwidth and communication standards are discussed, particularly in context with the demands of portal software users. As well, a picture of the current and future state of the marketplace is developed from an analysis of the market position and product direction of a selection of eight enterprise portal vendors.     

Supply Chain Integrity: A Key to Sustainable Supply Chain Management

As stakeholders continue to increasingly hold firms accountable for environmental and social performance in their supply chains, the importance of understanding how firms can be more sustainable becomes more prescient. Based on the underlying premise of stakeholder theory that business and ethics decisions are intertwined, the current research introduces the concept of supply chain integrity (SCI) to explore how the interdependence of business and ethics decisions can lead to improvements in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices. Exploratory analysis employing secondary data sources in an elastic net (EN) logistic regression provides support for the proposed construct, by providing preliminary empirical evidence that SCI, measured through two subdimensions of structural and moral SCI, can be linked to firm sustainability. The research contributes to the supply chain management literature by: (1) introducing the concept of SCI; (2) performing an exploratory econometric analysis to provide initial validity of the SCI construct; and (3) providing a research agenda to guide further research on the concept of SCI and its role in SSCM.     

Toward an Intermediate Position on Corporate Moral Personhood

Models of moral responsibility rely on foundational views about moral agency. Many scholars believe that only humans can be moral agents, and therefore business needs to create models that foster greater receptivity to others through ethical dialog. This view leads to a difficulty if no specific person is the sole causal agent for an act, or if something comes about through aggregated action in a corporate setting. An alternate approach suggests that corporations are moral agents sufficiently like humans to be treated as persons, which leads to questions of intentionality and the organizational structure required to support the claim. In this article, I make an intermediate claim combining Goodpaster and Matthews' (60:132–141, 1982) view that a corporation may have a moral culture which affects subjective choices, with those of Painter-Morland (17(3):515–534, 2007) who points out that we should move from a model that posits discrete persons acting on each other to one where morality comes about through shared experience between agents who participate in each other’s lives. I argue that the discussion has been trapped in traditional dichotomies, and is better served by language that more accurately represents the dynamic interplay between organization and individual. I underwrite this claim by looking at recent changes in British and American legal approaches to corporate responsibility. These provide greater incentives for owners and business leaders to encourage employees to discuss the reflexive nature of legal and moral responsibility in business, facilitate workers to voice their moral concerns, and create structures and processes that allow those concerns to be heard.