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Improving Social and Environmental Performance in Global Supply Chains

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Sustainable Supply Chains

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Supply Chain Management ((SSSCM,volume 23))

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Abstract

Global supply chains have delivered many benefits for consumers and firms. At the same time, they have become so integral to business that disruptions due to natural or man-made disasters can lead to major shortages in components and final products. Concurrently, social, environmental and ethical problems have arisen and continue to persist, despite government, private sector and nongovernmental efforts to address them. What are effective methods for global firms, or buyers, to gain an understanding of social and environmental problems in supply chains and to address them? We examine strategies using a sense and response framework, and find various approaches within this framework to be associated with improved performance. In particular, research suggests that using a collaborative, proactive approach with suppliers and providing meaningful incentives can be effective. There exists an opportunity to cascade these efforts to second tier suppliers and beyond, where some of the greatest impacts and opportunities to affect change lie.

As discussed in Chap. 1 by Bouchery et al. (Sustainable supply chains: introduction. In: Bouchery Y, Corbett CJ, Fransoo JC (eds) Sustainable supply chains: a research-based textbook on operations and strategy. Springer, Cham, 2023), improving supply chain responsibility is not only seen as a way to mitigate a variety of risks and meet regulations, but also as a means to increase profits, either by saving costs, growing revenues via positive brand image, or doing both. In this chapter, we discuss supply chain practices associated with improved social, environmental, and in several cases, economic performance. We discuss how leading firms are complementing compliance programs, which remain important, with an increased emphasis on building shared value for various actors along the value chain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Originally based on Motorola’s work to eliminate quality defects, the Six Sigma process is a management process used by many companies such as Motorola, GE and others. For an introduction to Six Sigma, see Harry and Schroeder (2000).

  2. 2.

    The Lean production process was championed by Toyota, and has been widely adopted by companies as a way to eliminate waste, improve productivity, and increase the efficiency of production systems.

  3. 3.

    See https://actonlivingwages.com/

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Barchi Gillai, Hau L. Lee & Sonali V. Rammohan

Authors
  1. Barchi Gillai
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  2. Hau L. Lee
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  3. Sonali V. Rammohan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barchi Gillai .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kedge Business School, Talence, France

    Yann Bouchery

  2. Anderson School of Management, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Charles J. Corbett

  3. School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Jan C. Fransoo

  4. Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Tarkan Tan

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Gillai, B., Lee, H.L., Rammohan, S.V. (2024). Improving Social and Environmental Performance in Global Supply Chains. In: Bouchery, Y., Corbett, C.J., Fransoo, J.C., Tan, T. (eds) Sustainable Supply Chains. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45565-0_20

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