Supplier corporate social responsibility practices and sourcing geography

Abstract

In the perspective of globalization, the role of sourcing geography (local versus global) is increasingly relevant in exploring the relationship between stakeholder pressure, supplier related corporate social responsibility practices, and performance. Studies addressing these relationships have limited presence in literature. This study investigated the mediation effects of supplier related corporate social responsibility practices in the relationships of stakeholder pressure and environmental, social, and financial performance. This study further examined the moderating role of sourcing geography (local versus global) in these relationships. This study is based on data from 381 manufacturing firms across 22 countries via sixth round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS-VI). A bootstrapping technique was used for testing mediation, as well as moderated-mediation for the assessment of the moderating role of sourcing geography (local versus global) on the mediation effects. The results in this study suggest supplier related corporate social responsibility practices to have mediation effect in the relationship of stakeholder pressure and environmental performance, and stakeholder pressure and financial performance, respectively, with no mediation effects found for social performance. Furthermore, our results show the moderating role of sourcing geography (local versus global) in the mediation effects of supplier related corporate social responsibility practices within the relationships of stakeholder pressure and environmental and social performance, respectively, yet do not show such effects for financial performance. This study contributes to the current body of literature by analyzing the moderating role of sourcing geography (local versus global) in the mediation effects of supplier related corporate social responsibility practices between stakeholder pressure and performance.