Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations

Goldstein, Benjamin; Newell, Joshua P.

doi:10.1111/jiec.12932

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…In other words, our study does not explain whether the firms with high CSR performance increase their levels of VI due to monitoring costs or inability to effectively implement CSR initiatives through suppliers or both. We call supply-chain CSR scholars to conduct follow-up studies to shed light on this ambiguity, ideally by focusing on specific corporations to conduct in-depth case studies (Goldstein & Newell, 2019). Third, due to data set limitations, we could not consider the location of suppliers as a variable in determining the CSR-VI relationship but would expect it to influence the CSR-VI relationship.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socially Responsible Firms Outsource Less

2020

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Implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply chains is not a trivial task. In fact, many firms in recent years have publicly proclaimed that in order to keep their CSR commitments, they had to reduce reliance on external suppliers by vertically integrating their operations. Our aim in this article is to examine whether there is truly a relationship between a firm’s CSR performance and its level of vertical integration. Drawing on a multi-industry sample of 2,715 firm-year observations, and after addressing endogeneity concerns, we demonstrate that firms with higher CSR performance tend to vertically integrate more (or, outsource less). We also demonstrate that this tendency is weaker for firms that have higher degrees of asset specificity or international diversification. Our core conclusion is that CSR performance and outsourcing are at odds, but firms can reconcile this tension by deepening their collaborations with suppliers.

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Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socially Responsible Firms Outsource Less

2020

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“…In this study, we make a first attempt to estimate the carbon footprint of MNEs’ foreign affiliates operating within the EU. MNEs are particularly relevant to mapping global value chains (Goldstein & Newell, 2019; Johnson, 2017) and global emissions chains. Country and sector carbon inventories, as estimated here, can be used as average benchmarks to assess individual companies’ performance, including not only scopes 1 and 2 (on‐site and energy direct consumption emissions), as usual, but also scope 3 (emissions from indirect inputs).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The carbon footprint of foreign multinationals within the European Union

Ortiz

Cadarso

Santiago

2020

J of Industrial Ecology

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Although European countries have made great efforts to reduce their territorial carbon emissions, global emissions are still growing. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating within Europe, as transnational institutions, can make significant contributions in translating European efforts into global emissions reduction. Here, we estimate the carbon footprint of the foreign multinationals’ affiliates (FMNEs) operating within the European Union (EU) in 2015 as a first assessment of the MNEs’ potential regarding European and global carbon emissions reduction targets. Our findings show that FMNEs generate 17% of the total carbon footprint of the EU but only 12% of the total value added. Thus, the net impacts of FMNE are considered to be in environmental deficit because their adverse environmental impacts are relatively higher than their positive economic ones. Calculations are made under the assumption that FMNEs produce using the same technology as their domestic peers; therefore, the carbon/economic imbalance found is attributed to the FMNEs’ distribution across sectors. The participation of FMNEs in carbon‐intensive industrial sectors are remarkably high in low‐income EU members; therefore, the effective reduction of the carbon footprint in those countries is largely conditioned by the decisions of foreign MNEs’ headquarters. Furthermore, those countries are more vulnerable to capital leakages in the case where a European carbon tax was to be imposed. We conclude by discussing the economic and policy implications of the country‐level inequality of MNEs’ environmental impacts within the EU.

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“…On considering institutionally and spatially specific context, a salient example is the emerging political‐industrial ecology (Newell & Cousins, 2015). Combining industrial ecology with political ecology, part of the research agenda is dedicated to the application of conventional, generic IE methods with social and geography perspectives for the specificity of individual corporations and urban areas (Goldstein & Newell, 2019; Newell, Cousins, & Baka, 2017).…”

Section: Toward More Transparent and Reliable Evidence: Advances In Data And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The usefulness of IE research has been recognized in the early days (Ehrenfeld, 1997) and addressed in several ways. One is to apply IE methods to single firms or areas (Baumann, 2000; Goldstein & Newell, 2019). With a fine resolution and context‐specific findings, they could at least provide decision support for individual organizations and local communities, where decision‐make process may also be more flexible and less dependent on existing constructs.…”

Section: Toward More Informative Evidence: Considerations In a Decision‐making Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suggested use? On evidence‐based decision‐making in industrial ecology and beyond

Zhu

2020

J of Industrial Ecology

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Industrial ecology (IE) research has well established expertise in accounting for the material stocks, flows, and associated impacts of industrial and consumer activities in a variety of scales and manifestations. As with many other science and social science fields, however, the pathways from IE research findings to policy and business decision-making are often unclear and unsatisfactory. This issue creates a challenge for the application of industrial ecology to sustainable development. By reviewing several strands of literature, this article investigates alternative ways to generate and use research findings to support decision-making and social change. It argues that advances in both the core and the emerging methods in IE complement each other to improve transparency and reliability of research evidence; extension and contextualization of current findings corresponding to different stages in policy-making and organizational decision processes make research evidence more informative; a learning perspective makes research evidence valuable and used in more flexible ways. To better assist decision-making for societal change, more dialogues between researchers of different methodological cultures and between researchers and other stakeholders and a paradigm shift in social systems for which industrial ecologists should be conscious and proactive are required.

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Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations

Cited by 21 publications

References 60 publications

Socially Responsible Firms Outsource Less

Socially Responsible Firms Outsource Less

The carbon footprint of foreign multinationals within the European Union

Suggested use? On evidence‐based decision‐making in industrial ecology and beyond

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