Balancing core enterprises’ TBL challenge: considering the involvement of NGO

Abstract

In light of the triple bottom line(TBL) challenges of the core enterprise to promoting supply chain, we examine how non-governmental organization(NGO)’s involvement influence on the motivation and decision-making of core enterprises in supply chains. In order to distinguish the difference of price leadership level of core enterprises in the industry, we analyse the equilibrium results when the price of a unit product is endogenous and exogenous. We find that the core enterprise considering NGO involvement may sets a higher price but make lower eco-effort. We further determine which feature of the market is the least affected by NGO and which feature of the core enterprise has the most motivation to lead in sustainable innovation. Using numerical examples, we further extend our results by differentiating the diverse types of core enterprises as a market player. We find that a hybrid market composed of multi-players appears to have more certainty in green policy and the market for myopic core enterprises remains a challenge. We provide decision-making implications for core enterprises to operate green supply chains and contribute further knowledge in terms of collaborative sustainable governance to balance the TBL challenge. We hope to provide further insights into the link between the operation of supply chains and the public involvement of NGO and consumer.