Socially Responsible Organizational Buying: Environmental Concern as a Noneconomic Buying Criterion

Abstract

The greening of corporate America has added a new and different type of criterion to some organizational buying decisions—social responsibility. Scholars have given little attention to such noneconomic buying criteria. On the basis of a study of 35 buying processes in ten organizations and an in-depth examination of 21 of those processes, the author addresses how and why socially responsible buying comes about in organizations. The findings suggest that two factors have been key to the success of socially responsible buying initiatives. One factor is the presence of a skillful policy entrepreneur. Policy entrepreneurs are found to have many of the same characteristics as business entrepreneurs, but invest their resources in instituting new organizational policies. Their zeal for socially responsible buying is rooted in a commitment based on a complex and often difficult process of moral reasoning. The second factor influencing the success of socially responsible buying is the organizational context within which policy entrepreneurs operate. The author differentiates organizational contexts on the basis of whether the socially responsible buying is part of a deliberate corporate strategy and further classifies them through a framework and identifies themes observed across the contexts. Guidance is offered for vendors marketing socially responsible products and services.

Managerial Commitment to Sustainable Supply Chain Management Projects

“…). Firm and facility level antecedents include top and middle management support (Drumwright ; Carter et al. ; Carter and Jennings ), customers (Simpson et al.…”

“…Indeed, numerous earlier studies have also found that when it comes to supply chain‐related environmental projects, a key success factor is the ability of the project advocate or champion to gain buy‐in or commitment of others in the company (Drumwright ; Handfield et al. ; Crane ; Carter and Jennings ; Carter et al.…”

“…Although the ability of a change agent to influence others is an important issue, only a few studies address how project champions gain the commitment of colleagues to sustainable SCM projects. Exploratory (Drumwright ; Carter and Dresner ) and confirmatory (Gattiker and Carter ) studies have yielded insights regarding the processes by which internal champions work to advocate environmental initiatives. Nevertheless, significant gaps within this area remain—both theoretical and methodological.…”

Towards green loyalty: driving from green perceived value, green satisfaction, and green trust

“…Similarly, stakeholder theory suggests that firms should take into account the preferences of their multiple stakeholders to formulate their strategies to win the trust and satisfaction of their key stakeholders (Freeman, 1984; Mitchell et al ., 1997). If companies' decisions are based only on economic goals, incorporating environmental concerns into their strategies may be impossible (Drumwright, 1994). Companies need to adopt long‐term sustainable thinking that relies on noneconomic goals as well as highlighting stakeholder and institutional pressures (Prakash, 2002).…”

Joint Emission Reduction Strategy in Green Supply Chain under Environmental Regulation

“…With the development of a low-carbon economy, sustainable supply chain management has become a hot issue in the academic community. Drumwright [11] pointed out that enterprises should have a sense of social responsibility and focus on social benefits while pursuing economic benefits. Within the theme of low-carbon economy, several scholars have been concerned about the problems of green product design, remanufacturing, green procurement system and reverse logistics [12][13][14][15][16].…”