Provision of transparency of supply chains in the context of achieving sustainable development goals

Abstract

Methods. The results are obtained with the following methods: analysis and synthesis were applied to state a problem, to formulate research tasks; scientific abstraction, comparison were used in determining the essence of the concept of supply chain transparency, in defining the benefits of ensuring the transparency of supply chains; methods of general and particular, analogy were applied to group the consumer companies according to the level of the transparency of their supply chains. Results. The issues of ensuring the supply chains transparency of the consumer companies are studied. The urgency and importance of these issues are justified from the point of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The essence of a concept of «supply chain transparency» is investigated at the fundamental and applied levels. The approach to grouping the consumer companies by the level of transparency of their supply chains is justified. Four groups of companies have been identified, namely, absolute majority; early majority; early adopters, and innovators, as well as the characteristics (parameters) of a company belonging to each of them. Attention is focused on the fact that meeting standards of sustainable development at various levels of the supply chain is an extremely important issue. It has been established that the requirements for ensuring transparency depend on the category of users of supply chain information – they are higher for governments or international non-governmental organizations than for local communities or for the end consumers. The obtained results made it possible to specify the advantages of ensuring the supply chains transparency of consumer companies. Novelty. The advantages of ensuring the supply chains transparency of the consumer companies in the context of the actualization of the concept of sustainable development have been substantiated. Practical value. Specifying particular advantages of ensuring supply chains transparency of the consumer companies helps increase the level of awareness of the business leaders and stimulate their interest in achieving the goals of sustainable development.