Political ties and information technology: Untangling their impact on supply chain social responsibility and sustainable performance

Abstract

Political ties and information technology (IT) are critical elements of a company's socio-technical system that can improve sustainability. This study empirically investigates how political ties and IT influence supply chain social responsibility and sustainable performance using survey data collected from 216 Chinese manufacturing companies. We conceptualize IT as a second-order construct that includes two first-order constructs (i.e., exploratory IT and exploitative IT) and sustainable performance as a second-order construct that includes three first-order constructs (i.e., economic performance, social performance and environmental performance). Supply chain social responsibility is conceptualized as environmental responsibility, philanthropic responsibility and supply chain partner responsibility, which is a second-order construct that includes four first-order constructs (i.e., supplier responsibility, customer responsibility, employee responsibility and investor responsibility). Our findings demonstrate that IT positively affects environmental, philanthropic, and supply chain partner responsibility and mediates political ties' impact on supply chain social responsibility. Besides, environmental responsibility positively affects philanthropic and supply chain partner responsibility. Furthermore, fulfilling environmental and supply chain partner responsibility improves sustainable performance. Our study not only enriches the empirical evidence on the antecedents of supply chain social responsibility and its impact on sustainable performance but also guides managers to allocate resources effectively and fulfil supply chain social responsibility.