Environmentally and Socially Responsible Buyer Supplier Relationship Management

Abstract

Stakeholders expect corporations to improve their sustainability performance through observing environmental and social demands, and corporations respond to these requirements through applying corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR can be achieved by designing a sustainable supply chain in cooperation with companies along the supply chain. The stakeholder pressure on corporations to become sustainable transfers across the supply chain to suppliers. Buying firms manage the relationship with suppliers through supply management. Then, supplying managers’ attention to customer’s sustainability demands and reflecting such demands in their supply can improve the sustainability performance of the suppliers. This improvement in performance of suppliers emanates in supplied products and services and it gives buying firm a comparative advantage against competitors. Accordingly, sustainable supply management and buyer-supplier cooperation on achieving sustainability can address the sustainability concerns of the current business world. However, very few existing studies have considered the impact of sustainable supply management on improving sustainability performance of the buying firm. The current study goes beyond improving the sustainability performance of the buying firm. Specifically, the present research illustrates how sustainable supply management and buyer-suppliers cooperation can boost sustainability performance of the suppliers.