Building Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Operations and Supply Chains: Bringing Public Policy Back In

Abstract

While we have seen some encouraging examples of firms that try to drive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices into their supply chains, progress has been frustratingly slow. We argue that a key impediment today and a potential enabler tomorrow—and thus an important subject of operations and supply chain management (OSCM) research—is the array of public policies that sets the “rules of the game” in OCSM. We differentiate three types of public policy regimes—laissez-faire, regulatory, and transformative—and analyze how each differentially affects DEI practices in OSCM. Our analysis suggests that the laissez-faire type may not offer sufficient incentives to trigger a comprehensive change in DEI practices, while the regulatory and transformative types offer more incentives but, in many instances, do not work as expected. By analyzing the effects of distinct public policy activities for DEI-related practices—for example, through comparative empirical studies or modeling and simulation—OSCM scholars can make important contributions to a more comprehensive implementation of DEI practices.