With increasing stakeholder pressure to improve sustainability performance, firms focus
on understanding how buyer-supplier relationship characteristics play a role in encouraging or
jeopardizing supplier sustainability efforts. In this study, we examine how buyer-supplier
dependence and relational capital affect the environmental and social performance of suppliers.
We adopt an embedded, multiple-case study design, and examine five large buying firms in
Turkey and their multiple suppliers at the dyadic level. Our findings suggest that there is a
complex interplay between dependence and relational capital, illustrating both complementary
and conflicting roles on supplier sustainability performance. We develop propositions to be
tested in future studies.Publisher's Versio
