The role of customer awareness in promoting firm sustainability and sustainable supply chain management

Abstract

In light of the growing complexity of globally dispersed, multi-tier supply chains; sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has become instrumental in the quest for achieving sustainability compliance along the supply chain. This study investigates how sustainability capability develops within a firm, and then extends to SSCM. Using a fixed-effect model and a global dataset of 2,206 firms between 2002 and 2015, this study shows that a firm's information environment, proxied by their customers awareness, has a significantly positive effect on their sustainability performance, and on their implementation of SSCM. Our analysis suggests that the influence of a firm's information environment on a firm's SSCM performance is mediated by the firm's own sustainability capability. We also find that this relationship is affected by stakeholder engagement. This research is relevant because, by investigating the factors that influence the development of SSCM, it provides guidance for firms that wish to achieve sustainability improvements in their supply chains during an era when the natural environment, social responsibility and the related strategic opportunities have increased in importance.

Sustainability-related Communication Patterns on the Websites of European Top R&D Spenders

“…These results suggest that customers should more closely examine a company's sustainability activities when making their purchase decisions. Our research joins others in indicating that customers will favour firms with good sustainability performance (Gong et al, 2019). Our results reveal that sustainability plays an important role in companies' sales arguments and communications to customers in new market niches (Klink et al, 2014).…”

The impact of sustainability reporting quality on the value relevance of corporate sustainability performance

“…Sustainability data were taken from the ASSET4 database provided by Thomson Reuters. ASSET4 data are based on publicly available information that authenticates the trustworthiness and reliability of a proxy of sustainability (Gong, Gao, Koh, Sutcliffe, & Cullen, 2019; Ioannou & Serafeim, 2012; Semenova & Hassel, 2015). The database measures sustainability through four dimensions: environmental, social, economic, and corporate governance.…”

Effective multi-tier supply chain management for sustainability

“…Similar to the previous article (Hannibal and Kauppi, 2019) in this special issue, the special issue's next paper (Gong et al, 2019) faces concerns with information and its role in sustainable supply chain management. Information exchange, especially customer awareness, plays a role in supplier sustainability performance and its diffusion.…”