How Can Buyers Engage Suppliers to Be More Socially and Environmentally Responsible?
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Date
2019-09-18
Authors
Rikhtehgar Berenji, Hossein
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
A major concern for buyers in a given tier of the supply chain continues to be the challenge of balancing the economic benefits of outsourcing with the loss in their ability to control and influence sustainability performance of their suppliers. The overarching question in this dissertation is how buyers can engage suppliers to improve social and environmental performance of the supply chain. A combination of analytical and empirical models are developed and analyzed to offer a buyer guidance at strategic (i.e., managing trust in buyer-supplier relationships) and tactical (i.e., designing suitable contracting mechanisms) levels on how to make suppliers more socially and environmentally responsible. In the first essay, we consider a buyer who enjoys the pricing power and also has the ability to commit to contract terms. We investigate how such a buyer's commitment to contract terms affects the sustainability and financial performance of the supply chain. The second essay focuses on understanding the impact of supplier competition on the buyer's ability to influence suppliers' compliance when suppliers have more parity in contracting power. Unlike the first essay, wherein the buyer stipulates both price and quantity, this essay considers situations wherein the supplier offers a wholesale price and the buyer is limited to only offering the quantity in a wholesale contract. In the third essay, we propose a framework to investigate the role of specific nature of trust (i.e., calculative and relational trust) between buyers and suppliers in influencing the impact of their supplier relationship management strategies on suppliers' sustainability performance.
This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material.
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Keywords
Commitment to Contract Terms, Contracting Mechanisms, Social and Environmental Responsibility, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Operations