Kai Foerstl

Does sustainable supplier cooperation affect performance

The increasing importance of sustainable behaviour in business has enhanced its impact on supply chain management. Firms foster sustainability in their supplier base in reaction to growing sustainability requirements in various ways, including sustainable supplier co-operation. Knowledge about the effects of sustainable supplier co-operation on firm performance is limited; therefore, this study tests antecedents and implications of sustainable supplier co-operation according to the triple bottom line. A survey of Western European firms reveals that sustainable supplier co-operation has generally positive effects on firm performance across social, green and economic dimensions. However, only green practices have positive significant effects on economic performance, not social practices (e.g., child labour rules). In contrast to practitioner perceptions, investments in sustainability, for example through sustainable supplier co-operation does indeed result in sufficient returns.The increasing importance of sustainable behaviour in business has enhanced its impact on supply chain management. Firms foster sustainability in their supplier base in reaction to growing sustainability requirements in various ways, including sustainable supplier co-operation. Knowledge about the effects of sustainable supplier co-operation on firm performance is limited; therefore, this study tests antecedents and implications of sustainable supplier co-operation according to the triple bottom line. A survey of Western European firms reveals that sustainable supplier co-operation has generally positive effects on firm performance across social, green and economic dimensions. However, only green practices have positive significant effects on economic performance, not social practices (e.g., child labour rules). In contrast to practitioner perceptions, investments in sustainability, for example through sustainable supplier co-operation does indeed result in sufficient returns.

Cross‐functional integration and functional coordination in purchasing and supply management: Antecedents and effects on purchasing and firm performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of nine hypotheses linking four purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices directly to purchasing performance and indirectly to financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected data in a global cross‐industry survey of 148 companies, combining primary interview and survey data with secondary data on firm performance, in order to minimize the impact of common method variance.Findings – Support was found for eight of the nine hypotheses. In particular, a positive impact was found of cross‐functional integration and functional coordination on purchasing performance, and of purchasing performance on firm performance. Both talent management and performance management have a positive impact on cross‐functional integration and functional coordination. Talent management also has a direct impact on purchasing performance, in contrast to performance management.Originality/value – The association of enhanced PSM maturity levels wi...

Reshoring and insourcing: drivers and future research directions

Purpose – Reshoring and insourcing decisions have been discussed in the popular press, yet coverage of these topics in the academic literature is limited. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks to develop a more complete understanding of the underlying drivers of reshoring and insourcing decisions and their permutations. Second, it seeks to provide directions for future research to further analyze the link between drivers and outcomes of the reshoring and insourcing phenomena. Design/methodology/approach – This research follows a conceptual approach guided by transaction cost economics (TCE) and organizational buying behavior (OBB) theories. First, a theoretical framework of reshoring and insourcing decisions is developed. Next a comprehensive summary of reshoring and insourcing drivers is evaluated, yielding an in-depth discussion of future research directions (FRDs). Findings – The analysis demonstrates that the framework can be utilized to explain recent insourcing and reshoring changes ...

The role of absorptive and desorptive capacity (ACDC) in sustainable supply management

Purpose – Sustainable supply management (SSM) has attracted considerable attention from researchers in recent years concentrating on how firms develop and use SSM capabilities to meet stakeholder demands. Acquiring and sharing sustainability knowledge with suppliers have been identified as critical success factors of SSM. The purpose of this paper is to identify the mechanisms that allow firms to effectively acquire and share sustainability-related knowledge with suppliers and how these knowledge generation and desorption mechanisms support the evolution of firm SSM capabilities. Design/methodology/approach – To address the research purpose, four longitudinal case studies, two industry leaders in SSM and two industry followers, were conducted at multiple consecutive points in time between 2008 and 2013. Findings – The results indicate which mechanisms constitute a sustainability-related absorptive and desorptive capacity and how they support SSM. Thereby, this research explains which mechanisms support fi...

Corporate Social Responsibility in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Is it Beneficial for Top-Tier Suppliers to Market their Capability to Ensure a Responsible Supply Chain?

This study assesses how top-tier suppliers market their capabilities to ensure a responsible upstream supply chain to their downstream buyers, and how the marketing of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related supply management practices affects the reputation of top-tier suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) markets. In a cross-functional multiple-case study involving marketing, purchasing, and sustainability executives of five supplier organizations in Central Europe, we explored four distinct approaches for marketing superior CSR management abilities in B2B markets that potentially foster long-term comparative advantages: (1) Fact-based communication of measurable CSR capabilities, (2) targeting of indirect customers and influencers, (3) marketing through education, and (4) marketing of CSR as a service. Moreover, our inductive results provide evidence that the effective marketing of CSR capabilities enhances a supplier’s reputation only if it sends consistent signals to the market. Therefore, a close integration of marketing and purchasing is crucial for achieving signaling consistency. Building on an established framework of purchasing-marketing integration in the particular context of CSR we developed a crossfunctional theory on the link between marketing, supply chain alignment and reputation, which is expressed in four sets of testable research propositions.

Towards a deeper understanding of managerial green investment patterns – a USA–Germany comparison

Green investments are crucial mechanisms for translating green operation strategies into managerial action. We examine the impact of external pressures on green investment patterns in terms of their scope, type and time horizon across 251 German and US managers. A scenario-based experiment was conducted using a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design in which managers were assigned to high and low consumer, community, and resource treatment groups before being asked to make green investment decisions. Our hypotheses are developed based on resource advantage theory and tested in a number of regression models. The results demonstrate that German and US managers respond differently to external pressures in their green investment decisions. Regarding the scope of green investments, German and US managers invest differently if end consumer pressure increases and partially differently if resource scarcity increases, but they act in a similar way if community pressure increases. Moreover, we detected specific variations in the type and time horizon of green investments across US and German managers. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for green operations management research and for firms operating in multinational settings are explained.

Tackling the sustainability iceberg: a transaction cost economics approach to lower tier sustainability management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how buying firms manage their lower tier sustainability management (LTSM) in their supply networks and what contextual factors influence the choice of approaches. As most of the environmental and social burden is caused in lower tiers, the authors use the iceberg analogy. Design/methodology/approach Findings from 12 case studies and 53 interviews, publicly available and internal firm data are presented. In an abductive research approach, transaction cost economics (TCE) conceptually guides the analytical iteration processes between theory and data. Findings This study provides eight LTSM approaches grouped into three categories: direct (holistic, product-, region-, and event-specific) indirect (multiplier-, alliance- and compliance-based) and neglect (tier-1-based). Focal firms choose between these approaches depending on the strength of observed contextual factors (stakeholder salience, structural supply network complexity, product and industry salience, past supply network incidents, socio-economic and cultural distance and lower tier supplier dependency), leading to perceived sustainability risk (PSR). Research limitations/implications By depicting TCE’s theoretical boundaries in predicting LTSM governance modes, the theory is elevated to the supply network level of analysis. Future research should investigate LTSM at the purchasing category level of analysis to compare and contrast PSR profiles for different purchase tasks and to validate and extend the framework. Practical implications This study serves as a blueprint for the development of firms’ LTSM capabilities that suit their unique PSR profiles. It offers knowledge regarding what factors influence these profiles and presents a model that links the effectiveness of different LTSM approaches to resource intensity. Originality/value This study extends the application of TCE and adds empirically to the literature on multi-tier and sustainable supply chain management.

Supply Chain Risk Management in the Automotive Industry: Cross-Functional and Multi-tier Perspectives

This publication endeavours to capture some of the rich dialogues and insights that the research team has generated based on fourteen in-depth case studies and literature mining about supply chain risk management in the automotive industry. We introduced three conceptual models adopting cross-functional and multi-tier perspectives to help companies not only avoid supply chain risks but also seize potential opportunities.