Sustainability Along Global Value Chains

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For a couple of decades, decision makers from a variety of industries sought to concentrate on core competencies and outsourced other, non-core activities to outside suppliers. This led to an unprecedented growth of global value chains. Before the mid-1990s, supply chain management focused almost exclusively on finding ways to exploit favorable sourcing conditions worldwide. Outsourcing to countries with lower production costs enhanced firm success by reducing costs overall. At that time, most firms turned a blind eye to potential issues in working conditions or environmental protection, but series of scandals increased consumer awareness of global sourcing practices and forced firms to take action and adopt sustainable practices in their supply chains.

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I have been active in this area of research for almost one decade now and shed light on both the key drivers and outcomes of company engagement in making their value chains more sustainable. Although insights are applicable to a variety of different industries, I often collected data from the fashion and apparel industry as this industry often lends itself as study ground – for rather sad reasons (cf. Rana Plaza). A companion in this domain has been and continues to be Sabine Benoit, maiden name Moeller. Sabine is Professor of Marketing at the University of Surrey. Together, we regularly strike the bow from consumer expectations over organizational buying behavior and to improvements in environmental and social conditions in the upstream supply chain. This fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration has led to novel insights about the successful integration of sustainability thinking across supply chain tiers.