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

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

Interacting Bose and Fermi gases in low dimensions and the Riemann hypothesis

We apply the S-matrix based finite temperature formalism to non-relativistic Bose and Fermi gases in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions. In the 2+1 dimensional case, the free energy is given in terms of Roger's dilogarithm in a way analagous to the relativistic 1+1 dimensional case. The 1d fermionic case with a quasi-periodic 2-body potential provides a physical framework for understanding the Riemann hypothesis.Comment: version 3: additional appendix explains how the $\nu$ to $1-\nu$ duality of Riemann's $\zeta (\nu)$ follows from a special modular transformation in a massless relativistic theor

A Contribution of the Trivial Connection to Jones Polynomial and Witten's Invariant of 3d Manifolds I

We use the Chern-Simons quantum field theory in order to prove a recently conjectured limitation on the 1/K expansion of the Jones polynomial of a knot and its relation to the Alexander polynomial. This limitation allows us to derive a surgery formula for the loop corrections to the contribution of the trivial connection to Witten's invariant. The 2-loop part of this formula coincides with Walker's surgery formula for Casson-Walker invariant. This proves a conjecture that Casson-Walker invariant is a 2-loop correction to the trivial connection contribution to Witten's invariant of a rational homology sphere. A contribution of the trivial connection to Witten's invariant of a manifold with nontrivial rational homology is calculated for the case of Seifert manifolds.Comment: 28 page

Quantum integrability in two-dimensional systems with boundary

In this paper we consider affine Toda systems defined on the half-plane and study the issue of integrability, i.e. the construction of higher-spin conserved currents in the presence of a boundary perturbation. First at the classical level we formulate the problem within a Lax pair approach which allows to determine the general structure of the boundary perturbation compatible with integrability. Then we analyze the situation at the quantum level and compute corrections to the classical conservation laws in specific examples. We find that, except for the sinh-Gordon model, the existence of quantum conserved currents requires a finite renormalization of the boundary potential.Comment: latex file, 18 pages, 1 figur

Excited State Destri - De Vega Equation for Sine-Gordon and Restricted Sine-Gordon Models

We derive a generalization of the Destri - De Vega equation governing the scaling functions of some excited states in the Sine-Gordon theory. In particular configurations with an even number of holes and no strings are analyzed and their UV limits found to match some of the conformal dimensions of the corresponding compactified massless free boson. Quantum group reduction allows to interpret some of our results as scaling functions of excited states of Restricted Sine-Gordon theory, i.e. minimal models perturbed by phi_13 in their massive regime. In particular we are able to reconstruct the scaling functions of the off-critical deformations of all the scalar primary states on the diagonal of the Kac-table.Comment: Latex, 12 page

Exact s-Matrices for the Nonsimply-Laced Affine Toda Theories a2n−1(2)a_{2n-1}^{(2)}

We derive the exact, factorized, purely elastic scattering matrices for the $a_{2n-1}^{(2)}$ family of nonsimply-laced affine Toda theories. The derivation takes into account the distortion of the classical mass spectrum by radiative correction, as well as modifications of the usual bootstrap assumptions since for these theories anomalous threshold singularities lead to a displacement of some single particle poles.Comment: 11 page

Exact conserved quantities on the cylinder II: off-critical case

With the aim of exploring a massive model corresponding to the perturbation of the conformal model [hep-th/0211094] the nonlinear integral equation for a quantum system consisting of left and right KdV equations coupled on the cylinder is derived from an integrable lattice field theory. The eigenvalues of the energy and of the transfer matrix (and of all the other local integrals of motion) are expressed in terms of the corresponding solutions of the nonlinear integral equation. The analytic and asymptotic behaviours of the transfer matrix are studied and given.Comment: enlarged version before sending to jurnal, second part of hep-th/021109