Horizontal Buyer Collaboration Drives Social Sustainability in Developing Country Supply Chains

Why It Matters

This insight is crucial for designers and businesses aiming for ethical supply chains. It suggests that a unified approach among stakeholders, rather than isolated demands, can be more effective in driving meaningful change and preventing superficial compliance.

Key Finding

Suppliers in challenging environments are more likely to adopt social sustainability practices when multiple buyers collaborate, creating stronger incentives and consequences for compliance, and when factors contributing to superficial adoption are addressed.

Key Findings

• Coercive, mimetic, and normative institutional pressures drive the adoption of socially sustainable practices.
• Horizontal collaboration between buyers intensifies coercive pressure and increases the consequences of non-compliance for suppliers.
• Decoupling of practices is influenced by firm-specific, supply chain, and environmental factors.

Research Evidence

Aim: How can institutional pressures, particularly horizontal collaboration among buyers, influence the implementation of socially sustainable practices in developing country supplier contexts?

Method: Multi-case study

Procedure: The study analyzed seven apparel industry suppliers in Bangladesh, examining the institutional pressures (coercive, mimetic, normative) they faced regarding social sustainability and identifying factors contributing to the decoupling of stated practices from actual operations.

Sample Size: 7 suppliers

Context: Apparel industry supply chains in developing countries (Bangladesh)

Design Principle

Collective stakeholder pressure is a powerful catalyst for embedding social sustainability in complex supply chains.

How to Apply

When sourcing from developing countries, engage with other brands sourcing from the same suppliers to establish common ethical standards and monitoring protocols.

Limitations

The findings are specific to the apparel industry in Bangladesh and may not be directly generalizable to other industries or geographical regions with different institutional frameworks.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: If multiple companies that buy from the same factory work together, they can push the factory to be more socially responsible.

Why This Matters: Understanding how to effectively implement social sustainability is crucial for creating ethical and responsible products and businesses.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can the findings on horizontal buyer collaboration be applied to other areas of sustainability, such as environmental impact or fair labor practices?

IA-Ready Paragraph: Research indicates that horizontal collaboration among buyers significantly enhances the implementation of socially sustainable practices in challenging institutional contexts, such as developing country supply chains. This collective pressure can overcome supplier resistance and mitigate factors that lead to superficial compliance, suggesting that a unified approach is more effective than isolated demands for ethical sourcing.

Project Tips

• When researching ethical sourcing, consider the power dynamics between buyers and suppliers.
• Investigate how different types of pressure (rules, copying others, social norms) affect a company's behavior.

How to Use in IA

• Use this research to justify the importance of collaborative approaches in your design project's ethical sourcing strategy.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how external pressures, beyond just the designer's direct control, influence product development and manufacturing.

Independent Variable: Horizontal collaboration between buyers, coercive pressure, mimetic pressure, normative pressure

Dependent Variable: Implementation of socially sustainable practices, decoupling of practices

Controlled Variables: Supplier context (developing country, apparel industry), firm-specific factors, supply chain factors, environmental factors

Strengths

• Provides a novel perspective on the role of horizontal buyer collaboration.
• Addresses the critical issue of decoupling in social sustainability practices.

Critical Questions

• What are the potential downsides or unintended consequences of intense horizontal buyer collaboration?
• How can suppliers themselves proactively foster collaboration among their buyers?

Extended Essay Application

• An Extended Essay could explore the effectiveness of different collaborative models between buyers in improving specific social sustainability metrics within a chosen industry.

Source

Implementing Socially Sustainable Practices in Challenging Institutional Contexts: Building Theory from Seven Developing Country Supplier Cases · Journal of Business Ethics · 2018 · 10.1007/s10551-018-3951-x