Introduction

Introduction

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 14, Issue 2

Adam LindgreenProfessor of Strategic Marketing at Hull University Business School. He has published in several journals, including British Food Journal, Business Horizons, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Product and Innovation Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Psychology & Marketing, among others. His research interests include business and industrial marketing, consumer behaviour, experiential marketing, relationship and value management, and corporate social responsibility. He most recently was a Visiting Professor at Georgia State University. He serves on the board of many journals.

François Maon Université catholique de Louvain, currently undertaking a PhD by examining strategies for corporate social responsibility implementation and stakeholder dialogue development. He has conducted research in Belgium, France, and The Netherlands. He has published papers for international marketing and business in society conferences in Europe and in the USA and has articles forthcoming in Academy of Management: Best Papers Proceedings and Journal of Business Ethics.

Valérie Swaen Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Université catholique de Louvain and was previously with the IESEG School of Management. She has published in Corporate Reputation Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Recherche et Applications en Marketing, and Revue Française du Marketing. Her research interests include corporate social responsibility, relationship marketing, brand management and consumer behaviour.

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is currently in vogue (Greenfield, 2004; Kotler and Lee, 2005; Maignan and Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006). For various reasons, organisations voluntarily choose to behave in a more responsible manner, beyond what the law stipulates. Some of these reasons appear defensive, whereas others are strategic or even altruistic (Baron, 2001; Vogel, 2005). From a defensive perspective, organisations deliver profits to shareholders but also frequently respond to broader stakeholder interests and the need to demonstrate a balanced business perspective. As a result, they increasingly define their roles in society and apply social, ethical, and responsible standards to their businesses (Carroll, 1979; Lichtenstein et al., 2004). A prominent driver of organisations’ increasing focus on CSR, however, is the conviction that strategic CSR is as good for business as it is for society. According to this perspective, CSR represents a source of increased corporate goodwill (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001) and a potential basis for developing positive consumer and employee attitudes and behaviours (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Greening and Turban, 2000; Maignan et al., 1999). Engaging in CSR thus offers a way to take care of an organisation’s interests by building a better reputation, managing risks, and gaining a competitive edge (The Economist, 2008). Finally, the altruistic perspective suggests that the reason for CSR entails intrinsic caring for the organisation’s ecological and social environment, irrespective of whether the organisation derives financial gains from its CSR commitments (Baron, 2001).

Although CSR has moved from ideology to reality, its study remains embryonic (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Maignan and Ferrell, 2001; Matten et al., 2003; Snider et al., 2003). Indeed, CSR “is one of the fastest growing – and least understood – areas of reputation management” (Bertels and Peloza, 2008, p. 57). Three research lacunae can be identified. First, CSR has developed under the influence of various theories, impeding a full understanding of what CSR should comprise and hindering its further theoretical development (McWilliams et al., 2002; Snider et al., 2003). Second, no studies address how organisations might emphasise different aspects of CSR; consequently, theorists are confused about the actual use of CSR, and practitioners lack guidance about how to formulate and deploy CSR (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Maon et al., 2008; Smith, 2003). Third, current research lacks measures of the returns to CSR (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2004; Lindgreen et al., 2008).

Although the term CSR gets employed frequently in both theory and practice, and though CSR is recognised by organisations as central to their core business activities, extant research on CSR formulation and deployment thus remains scarce (Lindgreen et al., 2008). As indicated by Bird and Smucker (2006, p. 1), “if we assume that business firms should be socially responsible, in what ways should this be exercised?”. Yet CSR literature leaves this question unanswered, partly because CSR formulation and deployment appear to reflect a process of change that emerges through a process of sense-making within each particular organisation (Cramer et al., 2006).

In this context, supply chain management (SCM) increasingly is being deployed by multinational organisations to undertake environmental CSR initiatives (Andersen and Skjøtt-Larsen, 2008; Defee et al., 2008). For example, by reusing materials and decreasing energy consumption, organisations minimise their carbon footprint (Guide et al., 2000; Handfield et al., 2005). In this age of globalisation, organisations face increasing pressures to function as good corporate citizens and respect human and workers’ rights on a worldwide scale (Holzer, 2007; Logsdon and Wood, 2005; Welford, 2002; Wettstein and Waddock, 2005). As a result, organisations develop ethical charters and codes of conduct to ensure acceptable working conditions within their supply chains (Mamic, 2004; Pedersen and Andersen, 2006). Especially in developing countries, monitoring compliance with codes of conduct is currently “the principal way that both global corporations and labour rights nongovernmental organisations address poor working conditions in global supply chain factories” (Locke and Romis, 2007, p. 54).

Despite the emergence of concepts such as green supply chains (e.g. van Hoek, 1999; Walton et al., 1998), sustainable SCM (e.g. Carter et al., 2008; Svensson, 2007), supply management ethics (e.g. Handfield and Baumer, 2006), or corporate global citizenship (Tichy et al., 1997; Waddock and Smith, 2000), the need for systematic reviews of existing literature that advance theory and practice in these areas remains apparent. Several critical skill gaps and organisational hurdles still must be overcome to develop sustainable supply chains and take advantage of potential CSR supply chains opportunities (Jaber et al., 2006). For example, little is known about small and medium-sized enterprises and their involvement in CSR supply chains (Pedersen, 2008). Also, if an organisation practices supply management ethical responsibility, how does this action affect the organisation’s reputation and performance outcomes (Eltantawy et al., 2008)? What current CSR supply chain practices exist in particular industries and public sectors (Lee and Kim, 2008; Walker and Brammer, 2008)? Finally, is it possible to govern CSR supply chains efficiently using social contract instruments such as SA8000 (Ciliberti et al., 2008)? This Special Issue of Supply Chain Management addresses CSR implementation in supply chains and how organisations might improve their societal impact through SCM expertise and development.

Structure and context of the special issue

The eight articles selected for this special issue illustrate various ways in which organisations have sought to implement CSR in supply chains. The first, “Corporate social responsibility in global supply chains” by Mette Andersen and Tage Skjøtt-Larsen, introduces a conceptual framework for analysing CSR practices in global supply chains. Using IKEA as a case study, the authors highlight the organisation’s leadership in implementing and managing CSR practices among its suppliers by focusing on the internal and external integration of CSR practices throughout its supply chain. According to this case study, practising CSR in supply chains requires that the idea of CSR first be embedded across the entire organisation, including its subsidiaries abroad and offshore suppliers. Other requirements include employee training and shared experiences, positive incentives for suppliers (e.g. larger purchasing orders), and long-term contracts and training of key personnel at the supplier level.

Both the second and third articles deal with strategy developments, performance improvements, and returns on implementing CSR practices within supply chains. On the basis of supply chain orientation and supply chain leadership literature, C. Clifford Defee, Terry Esper, and Diane Mollenkopf, in “Leveraging closed-loop orientation and leadership for environmental sustainability”, suggest a closed-loop orientation as a strategic alternative supply chain organisations might use to obtain competitive advantages in settings that prioritise socially responsible decisions. Thus, they extend the strategic concept of supply chain orientation to include forward and reverse flows in a holistic, closed-loop view. To create such an orientation, the supply chain leader should demonstrate transformational leadership, and firms should acknowledge socially important environmental issues. In turn, in the presence of specific environmental factors, developing a closed-loop supply chain orientation takes on strategic importance, and supply chain leadership can enhance the transformation toward such an orientation.

Furthermore, Reham A. Eltantawy, Gavin L. Fox, and Larry Giunipero help fill the knowledge gap pertaining to the immediate consequences of supply management ethical responsibility (SMER) and the moderating and mediating factors that strengthen or weaken its consequences in “Supply management ethical responsibility: reputation and performance impacts”. With structural equation modelling and a sample of 162 purchasing managers, they determine that both strategic supply management skills and perceived reputation have positive, direct impacts on performance, whereas SMER has an indirect impact through its positive relationship with perceived reputation. Although SMER thus appears limited in its ability to predict performance, it remains an influential method for building perceived reputation, and organisations should not overlook it as a potential source of strategic marketing advantage in the form of an order qualifier or limiting criterion.

Current CSR challenges in the supply chains of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent the focus of the next two articles in this special issue. Previous research generally considers CSR in the context of the concerns of larger and more visible organisations that want to prevent harm to their image or brands; few studies consider how SMEs might improve social and environmental conditions in cooperation with suppliers. In his article, “The many and the few: rounding up the smes that manage csr in the supply chain”, Esben Rahbek Pedersen deploys a large-scale survey of 1,071 Danish SMEs and finds that CSR activities directed toward supply chains remain the privilege of a limited cluster of SMEs characterised by fairly sophisticated CSR systems. Thus, more differentiated initiatives are required to promote CSR and enable SMEs to address CSR issues in their supply chain.

The contribution of “Codes to coordinate supply chains: experiences with SA8000”, by Francesco Ciliberti, Gerard de Groot, Job de Haan, and Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo, centres on understanding the position of second- and third-tier participants in SMEs’ supply chains and questioning whether codes, such as SA8000, provide a satisfactory instrument to develop responsible supply chains. Contracts and trust help coordinate processes in supply chains, yet contracts are incomplete, and trust takes time to develop. Therefore, codes such as SA8000 might provide relevant tools for improving supply chain coordination, because they help solve the problem of incomplete contracts and can replace trust in new partnerships. By developing a conceptual framework and employing four SME case studies to describe the practice of SA8000, the authors reveal that codes facilitate coordination between immediate partners in CSR supply chains, especially when the most powerful partner stresses the code. However, indirect coordination with second- or third-tier partners is barely affected. Certification, in contrast, reduces information asymmetry and transaction costs between not only direct partners but also further up- and downstream in the CSR supply chain.

The next two articles of this special issue examine CSR and supply-chain related concerns in particular industry sectors and national contexts. Helen Walker and Stephen Brammer investigate “Sustainable procurement in the United Kingdom public sector” to develop a conceptual framework of influences on the inclination to develop sustainable procurement practices. The 106 responses to their questionnaire (scales from Carter and Jennings, 2004), administered to procurement officers in the UK public sector, demonstrate important variety in the types of sustainable procurement practices public sector agencies undertake. Local authorities tend to emphasise buying from small and local suppliers, whereas educational agencies focus on environmental aspects, and health generally appears lower in most categories. Cost represents the major barrier to sustainable procurement, whereas top management support offers the leading facilitator.

The next article, “Current status of CSR in the realm of supply management: the case of the Korean electronics industry”, attempts to review research on supply management and CSR and then provide an empirical study of their current status in the Korean electronics industry. Ki-Hoon Lee and Ji-Whan Kim employ both qualitative and quantitative methods and demonstrate that environmental pressures and standards commonly get integrated, yet social pressures and standards still are not widely accepted and implemented. Identifying risks and problems in the supply chain and reducing consequences for manufacturers remain the key drivers of CSR standard adoption by these Korean companies.

Finally, “Developing supply chains in disaster relief operations through cross-sector socially oriented collaborations: a theoretical model”, by François Maon, Adam Lindgreen, and Joëlle Vanhamme, examines how corporate resources and expertise in SCM can help develop more efficient practices in the disaster relief sector. Rather than considering how organisations implement CSR practices, this article focuses on how SCM corporate expertise and resources might constitute a basis for developing CSR commitments through collaborations and partnerships with disaster relief agencies. From this perspective, the authors identify current practices, particularities, and challenges in disaster relief supply chains, as well as emphasise cross-learning possibilities, and they provide a framework of potential strategic collaborations between organisations and disaster relief agencies. Organisations thus can demonstrate their commitment to CSR by sharing SCM know-how and expertise with relevant non-business actors.

Other fields of research

As these selected articles evince, issues surrounding the implementation of CSR in supply chains constitute a rich area of inquiry. This Special Issue offers some (preliminary) insights into the conditions for successful CSR implementation, which requires sensitivity to an organisation’s supply chain. In turn, these articles should help guide managers toward the appropriate types of CSR initiatives in which to engage, the resources they will need to draw on, the way to communicate their CSR involvement to various stakeholder groups, and the best methods for actively integrating their suppliers in the process.

Finally, this special issue should prompt additional research on CSR implementation in supply chains, specifically:

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  issues pertaining to the domain and conceptual foundations, evolution, and implementation of supply chain CSR;

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  supply chain CSR in various markets, including business-to-business and business-to-consumer;

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  the management of supply chain CSR relationships;

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  organisational requirements for securing successful supply chain CSR relationships;

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  the role of manufacturing and information technologies in building, maintaining, and enhancing supply chain CSR;

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  profitability and other advantages derived from realising a supply chain CSR perspective;

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  supply chain CSR in developed and developing countries;

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  effective assessment tools for questioning, identifying, and prioritising critical aspects of supply chain CSR relationships; and

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  best practices relating to these points.

Acknowledgements

The Guest Editors would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed toward this special issue of Supply Chain Management. The reviewing was a double-blind process, and we thank the reviewers who took the time to provide timely feedback to the authors, thereby helping the authors improve their manuscripts: A. Argandona, D. Basil, D. Bevan, D. Birch, T. Campbell, M. Clements, S. Dolnicar, T. Dunne, V. Gerde, M. Glynn, D. Hassay, A. Henriques, M. Hingley, S. Idowu, M. Kaptein, M.-R. Kottila, P. Leat, S. Martin, A. Millington, J. Moon, A. Muller, R. Palmer, J. Peloza, A. Pomering, S. Pondeville, D. Rama, J. Reast, C. Revoredo, A. Russo, A. Salam, M. Seitanidi, R. Shiner, A. Tencati, S. Vallentin, and R. Varey.

The Guest Editors also extend special thanks to the Editor, Andrew Fearne, for giving them the opportunity to guest edit this special issue of Supply Chain Management. Last, but certainly not least, the Guest Editors warmly thank all of the authors who submitted their manuscripts for consideration. The Guest Editors appreciate and are grateful for their desire to share their knowledge and experience with the journal’s readers – and for having their views put forward for possible challenge by their peers. The Guest Editors are confident that the articles in this special issue contribute to our understanding of implementing corporate social responsibility in supply chains. As well, the Guest Editors hope the selected articles generate the kind of dialogue that is necessary to further our understanding in this important area.

Adam Lindgreen, François Maon, Valérie Swaen