Nils Peters

Institutional entrepreneurship capabilities for interorganizational sustainable supply chain strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the implementation of proactive interorganizational sustainable supply chain strategies by empirically exploring the relationship between key (inter‐)organizational resources of the initiating company and the establishment of widely accepted voluntary sustainability initiatives.Design/methodology/approach – The study is built on comparative case studies as well as literature on institutional entrepreneurship and the resource‐based view.Findings – The authors identify capabilities that enable the creation and establishment of company‐driven voluntary sustainability initiatives – namely external stakeholder integration, cross‐functional integration, the management of loosely coupled business units, supply chain implementation, process improvement and cultural framing.Originality/value – With this study, the authors introduce institutional entrepreneurship theory to supply chain management literature and show that institutional entrepreneurship theory may con...

Institutionalizing Proactive Sustainability Standards in Supply Chains: Which Institutional Entrepreneurship Capabilities Matter?

External stakeholders have built up sustainability consciousness and expectations, putting companies under regular surveillance by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and by the media (Doh & Guay, 2006). Stakeholders often do not differentiate between a company’s operations and its suppliers’ operations; they hold the company responsible for all practices involved in the making of the product, including any potential sustainability concerns (Rao, 2002). Thus, suppliers not complying with the company’s promised values are likely to damage corporate reputation or harm customer confidence. Levi’s, Nike, and Mattel are prominent examples that show how brands can suffer as a result of using noncompliant suppliers (Wagner, Lutz, & Weitz, 2009). A proactive supply chain sustainability strategy is therefore vital (Handfield, Scroufe, & Walton 2005; Rao & Holt, 2005). To implement such a strategy, companies provide specific sustainability standards for their supply chains (Bansal & Hunter, 2003; Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006). These standards, known as proactive supply chain sustainability standards (PSCSS) may provide statements to comply with legal requirements and may add elements that go beyond the law. Having introduced these PSCSS, companies still face the challenge of ensuring that their supply chain partners comply. Monitoring supplier processes and assessing the quality of procured products is challenging, because global supply chains have become more complex (Matten & Moon, 2008; Roth, Tsay, Pullman, & Gray, 2008). The large number of suppliers, as well as the organizational and geographical distance between the company and its direct and indirect suppliers, hinder a company from controlling its suppliers’ sustainability practices (Bremer & Udovich, 2001). Further problems may arise when suppliers are located in developing countries, as local legal standards may not conform to the main company’s requirements (Detomasi, 2007).

Konzepte und Erfolgsfaktoren für Anlaufstrategien in Netzwerken der Automobilindustrie

Die Automobilindustrie verfolgt das Ziel, im Markt angekundigte neue Fahrzeugbaureihen nach einer zeit- und kosteneffizienten Anlaufphase termin- und qualitatsgerecht auszuliefern. Dies bedingt eine enge Abstimmung der an der Leistungserstellung beteiligten internen wie externen Akteure. Hierzu dient die Formulierung und konsequente Einhaltung einer Anlaufstrategie auf Unternehmensebenewie auch deren Ausbreitung auf samtliche am Serienanlauf beteiligte Unternehmen.

Design of voluntary sustainability initiatives for supply chains

Voluntary sustainability initiatives such as codes of conduct, certification schemes or environmental/social management systems have become the predominant applied approach for companies to specify proactive environmental or social obligations for supply chains. However, companies face two main challenges in the design of voluntary sustainability initiatives for their supply chains: Firstly, they recognize acceptance problems by stakeholders and supply chain partners as well as opposition by competing initiatives. Secondly, companies have realized significant resource demands to set up voluntary sustainability initiatives for supply chains and ask for more efficient solutions. The article at hand addresses these challenges by identifying the key and complementary resources that enable an effective (i.e., legitimized) as well as efficient design of voluntary sustainability initiatives for supply chains.

Axel Springer's sustainability entrepreneurialism in Russian wood supply: just a CSR fad or real change in the makings?

Title – Axel Springers sustainability entrepreneurialism in Russian wood supply: just a CSR fad or real change in the makings? Subject area – Entrepreneurship, Corporate sustainability, CSR, Supply chain. Study level/applicability – Masters courses: Entrepreneurship, Strategic management. Case overview – In 2002, potential risks deriving from emerging normative demands in the CSR debate prompted Axel Springer (AS) to rethink their supply chain strategy for Russian wood. Being one of the first movers in CSR in the publishing business, AS realized that current practices could spark future public discussion that might put pressure on AS, a key player in these supply chains. In early 2002, AS and one of their main suppliers, Stora Enso, started a joint initiative to redesign the supply chain processes in two of the major Russian logging regions to improve their social and ecological performance. Sometime later, other major players in the publishing sector as well as critical reviewers from several non-gover...