Global Supply Chain Management -Professor Stephen Brammer - 5 November 2011

Warwick Business School

Dr. Stephen BrammerProfessor of Strategy and Associate Dean

for Research, Warwick Business School

Building sustainable

global supply chains

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Setting the scene

Globalisation as undoubtedly brought vastly increasing standards of living to us in the west

Major companies have truly global reach, and increasingly source from around the world

While this is efficient, it exposes companies to competing cultural, moral, and legal norms

These variations have led in a significant number of cases to substantial reputational harm

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Core questions

1. What are the main issues, drivers and motivators identified in the research?

2. What does the data suggest most firms are doing to manage these issues? What risks does such an approach entail?

3. What practices characterize cutting-edge approaches to sustainable global supply chains?

4. What conditions contribute to the attainment to sustainable global supply chains?

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Data analysed in the study

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Prominent issues

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Motivations

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Prominent practices

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Problems with the dominant paradigm Un-negotiated expectations lack legitimacy with local

stakeholders Codes of conduct are relatively static and

unresponsive to new issues or changes in stakeholder expectations

Third-party certification (e.g. SA8000 or ISO14001) imposes substantial costs on suppliers

Monitoring and auditing undermine trust and commitment in buyer-supplier relationships; unethical practices can be promoted

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Revised model of best practice

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Conditions under which best practice thrives

Purpose

Inter- and Extra- Organisational Environment

Organisational Environment

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Conclusions

Managing a global supply chain sustainably is a complex and multifaceted task

The most common practices identified in our research provide a useful first step, but suffer from some inherent limitations

More ambitious “best practices” address these limitations but require more integrated consideration of the relationship between a firm’s strategy, operations, and partnerships