Abstract
AbstractEthical and sustainable business practices in global supply chains have become a major concern for firms. Media stakeholders hold firms accountable for the environmentally unethical behavior of their suppliers. Based on agenda-setting theory and stakeholder theory, this study presents a model that shows how various internal and external factors explain media reporting of environmental supply chain sustainability risks. It also examines the role of firms’ risk avoidance practices. The study uses regression analysis of secondary data from 541 buying firms. The results show that the size and brand visibility of buying firms, and their affiliation to high-risk industries increase the frequency of media coverage of suppliers’ environmental misconduct, while their affiliation to high-risk countries decreases the frequency of media coverage. In addition, companies can reduce media coverage by implementing proactive supply chain sustainability risk avoidance practices. However, reactive supply chain sustainability risk avoidance practices are not effective in reducing media coverage.
Funder
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference172 articles.
1. Aaker, D. A. (1996). Measuring brand equity across products and markets. California Management Review, 38(3), 102–120.
2. Aerts, W., Cormier, D., & Magnan, M. (2008). Corporate environmental disclosure, financial markets and the media: An international perspective. Ecological Economics, 64(3), 643–659.
3. Ambulkar, S., Ramaswami, S., Blackhurst, J., & Rungtusanatham, M. J. (2022). Supply chain disruption risk: An unintended consequence of product innovation. International Journal of Production Research, 60(24), 7194–7213.
4. Anderson, D. R. (2005). Corporate survival: The critical importance of sustainability risk management. iUniverse Publishing.
5. Aral, K. D., Beil, D. R., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2021). Supplier sustainability assessments in total-cost auctions. Production and Operations Management, 30(4), 902–920.