The impact of supply chain structure on the use of supplier socially responsible practices

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the integration of social issues in the management of supply chains from an operations management perspective. Further, this research aims to develop a set of scales to measure multiple dimensions of supplier socially responsible practices. Finally, the paper examines the importance of three dimensions of supply chain structure, namely transparency, dependency and distance, for the adoption of these socially responsible practices. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on literature from several theoretical streams, current best‐practice in leading firms and emerging international standards, four dimensions of supplier socially responsible practices were identified. Also, a multi‐dimensional conceptualization of supply chain structure, including transparency, dependency and distance, was synthesized from earlier research. Using this conceptual development, a large‐scale survey of plant managers in three industries in Canada provided an empirical basis for validating these constructs, and then assessing the relationships between structure and practices. Findings – Multi‐item scales for each of the four dimensions of supplier socially responsible practices were validated empirically: supplier human rights; supplier labour practices; supplier codes of conduct; and supplier social audits. Increased transparency, as reflected in greater product visibility by the end‐consumer was related to increased use of supplier human rights, which in turn can help to protect a firm's brands. Organizational distance, as measured by the total length of the supply chain (number of tiers in the supply chain), was related to increased use of multiple supplier socially responsible practices. Finally, as the plant was positioned further upstream in the supply chain, managers reported increased use of supplier codes of conduct. Practical implications – As senior managers extend, redesign or restructure their supply chains, the extent to which social issues must be monitored and managed changes. The four categories of supplier socially responsible practices identified help managers characterize their firm's approach to managing social issues. Furthermore, managers must more actively manage the development of supplier socially responsible practices in their firms when the supply chain has more firms; and when brands have stronger recognition in the marketplace. Originality/value – The paper makes three contributions to the extant literature. First, the construct of social issues is defined and framed within the broader debate on sustainable development and stakeholder management. Second, social practices are delineated for supply chain management, and a set of scales is empirically validated for assessing the degree of development of supplier socially responsible practices. Finally, the link between supply chain structure and the adoption of supplier socially responsible practices is examined. This last contribution provides a basis for understanding, so that managers can extend and reshape current views about how social issues must be managed

Leveraging experiential learning to incorporate social entrepreneurship in MBA programs: A case study

Social entrepreneurship in business education is growing in importance as a way to teach ethics and instill high ethical standards in individuals. One effective way to integrate social entrepreneurship is through experiential learning; where the participant is actively involved in processing the knowledge and developing skills, while being involved in the learning situation. MBA programs are currently beginning to incorporate social entrepreneurship into their curricula to teach their students, as well as developing students’ intercultural skills. An examination of the current trends will be followed by an analysis of how business schools can effectively incorporate social entrepreneurship into the MBA curriculum. To tie these concepts together, the paper provides a case study of a program run by Emzingo, a leadership development company, and IE Business School. The reasons for the in-depth case study are three-fold. First, it provides an example of how business schools can use experiential learning to incorporate social entrepreneurship in an international context. Second, it highlights the benefits of incorporating social entrepreneurship in MBA programs. Finally, it provides a general framework for business programs that are looking to integrate various social entrepreneurship elements in their MBA programs

Emerging economy sourcing: Implications of supplier social practices for firm performance

As firms search the world for suppliers that provide the best combination of cost, quality and latest technology, they have been confronted with the challenges of managing the sustainability performance of their global supply chains. Specifically, companies have come under increased scrutiny from various stakeholder groups for the labour and human rights practices of suppliers located in emerging economies. Drawing on the sustainability, supplier relationship management, and stakeholder literature, this research examines the relationship between emerging economy sourcing, the use of purchasing teams, and the impact on enforcement of supplier social practices, and firm financial performance. Using data from a survey and archival sources from a sample of large U.S. firms, findings confirm the mediated role of the use of purchasing teams resulting in better enforcement of supplier social practices and improved firm performance. Findings also provide important implications for supply chain and purchasing executives. While the results of this research demonstrate the performance benefits of sourcing from emerging economies, findings also suggest that organizations should make investments to support capabilities related to enforcement of supplier social practices. Opportunities for future research are also identified

Performance feedback and productivity: Evidence from a field experiment

We theorize that employees use the performance feedback they receive to reassess their beliefs about the marginal benefit of their effort, which may lead them to increase or reduce their effort. To test our model, we conduct a field experiment at the distribution center of a Fortune 500 firm where employees receive individual performance pay, and we study two types of feedback, individual and relative. The results show that employees react to feedback content in a way that is consistent with the model: They increase their effort if the information provided implies that the marginal benefit of increasing effort is high and decrease it if they learn that it is low. Moreover, performance feedback has a greater impact on the lower quantiles of the distribution of productivity.We thank Anil Arya, the senior editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Strategic Management Society annual meeting (Berlin, September 2016), Madrid Work and Organizations Workshop (May 2017), and Wharton People and Organizations conference (Philadelphia, PA, October 2017), and at seminars at CUNEF and Indiana University. We are grateful to participants at these conferences and to Benjamin Barber for their comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are our own. Jaime Ortega acknowledges partial financial support from grant PGC2018-098767-B-C21 (MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE) and from the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M in the line of Excellence of University Professors (EPUC3M12), and in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation). Rocio Bonet acknowledges partial financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MCIU), State Research Agency (AEI), and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Grant No. PGC2018-098767-B-C22

Socially Responsible Practices: An Exploratory Study on Scale Development using Stakeholder Theory

Socially responsible practices of firms have evolved into an important area of research in operations management; however, it remains challenging to identify specific scales that capture multiple dimensions of such social practices. In this exploratory study, we use stakeholder theory to develop new multi‐item measurement scales linked to multiple groups (i.e., internal, supplier, customer, and community stakeholders). Furthermore, we empirically test a higher order multidimensional construct that collectively assesses the socially responsible practices of a firm. Using these stakeholder‐derived constructs as taxons in a cluster analysis, we identify important patterns in the way that multiple groups of stakeholders are engaged. Finally, we demonstrate that the set of social practices are complementary and concentrating on one group can yield spillover effects to other specific stakeholder groups.Canadian Purchasing Research Foundation (CPRF) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC

Does Renewable Energy Renew the Endeavor in Energy Efficiency?

Improvement in energy efficiency (EE) has slowed globally since 2015 and is now falling short of the 2.6% per year target recommended by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, despite an abundance of EE opportunities. Barriers to EE have existed long before the rise in renewable energy (RE) investment. However, increased RE adoption may have unintended consequences for improving EE as adoption may raise or lower the barriers to EE. In this paper, we examine whether and how RE adoption can increase or decrease EE improvement. On the one hand, RE represent a competitor to EE for managerial attention and budget. On the other, the adoption of RE may increase the overall awareness of energy usage and drive EE improvement. Using site-level data from an industrial conglomerate, we estimate the impact of changes in RE usage and in the acquisition approach on the EE of 183 manufacturing sites across the globe from 2015 to 2020. On average, we find that using RE to meet 10% more of a site’s energy demand led to an additional 2.0% improvement in EE. However, there is significant heterogeneity in the effects depending on the acquisition approach. We find that while purchasing RE credits or entering into power purchase agreements led to gains in EE, installing on-site RE generators had no effect. To understand these gains, we surveyed site managers regarding their attitudes and intentions. The results suggest that there was a greater focus on EE by both managers and workers after increasing their RE usage. We also find quantitative evidence of managers submitting more budget requests for EE improvements in the twelve months following increases in RE. For corporations looking to use more RE, we offer evidence of additional returns in the form of energy savings, but realizing them requires careful consideration of the acquisition approach of RE

The best of times and the worst of times: empirical operations and supply chain management research

We assess the current state of empirical research in operations and supply chain management (OSM), using Dickens’ contrast between the best of times and the worst of times as a frame. The best of times refers to the future that empirical OSM research is now entering, with exciting opportunities available using big data and other new data sources, new empirical approaches and analytical techniques and innovative tools for developing theory. These are well aligned with new research questions related to the digital economy, Industry 4.0, the impact of the millennial generation as consumers, social media, 3D printing, etc. However, we also explore how it is the worst of times, focusing on the challenges and problems that plague empirical OSM research. Our goal is to show how OSM researchers can learn from the worst of times, in order to be poised to take advantage of the best of times. We introduce the research diamond as a vehicle for emphasising the importance of a balanced research perspective that treats the research problem, theory, data collection and data analysis as equally important, requiring alignment between them. By learning and addressing the issues in this period of the best of times and the worst of times, we can take advantage of the opportunities facing our field to generate research that is balanced, insightful, rigorous, relevant, impactful and interesting

Performance Feedback and Productivity: Evidence from a Field Experiment

We theorize that employees use the performance feedback they receive to reassess their beliefs about the marginal benefit of their effort, which may lead them to increase or reduce their effort. To test our model, we conduct a field experiment at the distribution center of a Fortune 500 firm where employees receive individual performance pay, and we study two types of feedback, individual and relative. The results show that employees react to feedback content in a way that is consistent with the model: they increase their effort if the information provided implies that the marginal benefit of increasing effort is high and decrease it if they learn that it is low. Moreover, performance feedback has a greater impact on the lower quantiles of the distribution of productivity

Exploring the implications of supply risk on sustainability performance

Purpose Firms are increasingly being pressured by the public, regulators and customers to ensure that their suppliers behave in a socially and ecologically sound manner. Yet, the complexity and risks embedded in many supply chains makes this challenging, with monitoring practices offering one means to attenuate supply sustainability risk. Drawing on agency theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between sustainability and operations risk, supplier sustainability monitoring practices, supply improvement initiatives and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach This research uses data from a survey and archival sources from a sample of large US firms to empirically examine the relationship between sustainability and operations risk, supplier sustainability monitoring practices, supply improvement initiatives and firm performance. Findings Findings indicate that higher levels of perceived sustainability risk is related to greater monitoring of supplier sustainability practices by focal firms. Perceptions of higher operations risk are indirectly related to greater social monitoring through investment in supply improvement initiatives. Monitoring of supplier sustainability practices is also found to have a positive effect on focal firm performance. Practical implications Findings suggest that managers process operations risks and sustainability risks independently. Greater sustainability risk leads to increased sustainability monitoring, while greater operations risk leads to increased investment in supply improvement initiatives, which in turn leads to increased social monitoring. The research also indicates that behavior-oriented approaches, such as monitoring of supplier environmental and social practices, are an effective approach to improving firm sustainability performance. However, due to resource constraints, a challenge for supply chain managers is where and when to invest in behavior-oriented approaches for suppliers. Originality/value This research advances supply risk literature by exploring the effects of supply sustainability risk on the use of monitoring practices to manage supplier environmental and social behavior. Using a combination of survey and archival data to independently assess the implications of sustainability monitoring practices on firm sustainability performance, this study provides a methodology for evaluating the impact of sustainability monitoring practices on the triple bottom line in supply chain management

Utilizing e-business technologies in supply chains: The impact of firm characteristics and teams

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study that analyzes the drivers and outcomes of e-business technology use in the supply chain. Using a combination of case studies and survey data from a diverse sample of industries, the research examines how industry context, firm characteristics and firm-level strategic resources, such as purchasing teams, influence the exploitation of e-business technologies and the relationship between e-business technology use and firm performance. Based on a synthesis of related literatures from transaction cost economics and the relational view of the supply chain, a two-dimensional framework for e-business technology is proposed with transactional and relational dimensions. However, empirical analysis indicated that transactional technologies can be further subdivided into two factors: dyadic cooperation and price determination. Significant differences were found between the two dimensions in terms of their overall levels of adoption, with dyadic coordination being the most widely adopted. In addition, the development of strategic resources expanded, in particular internal and customer teams, the use of e-business technologies expanded. Purchasing organizational structure and firm size also were positively related to the adoption of transactional e-business technologies. Finally, of particular importance to practitioners, e-business technologies targeted at reducing dyadic coordination costs lead to improved financial performance