With increasing advocacy for supply chain transparency, concerns about greenwashing persist. Companies often make sustainability claims that contradict their actions in practice. This thesis asks: Why do companies struggle to translate supply chain transparency into meaningful sustainability action?
Adopting a behavioral perspective combined with a process approach, this thesis examines three key stages of supply chain transparency, namely, information collection, disclosure, and use. It identifies the organizational, cognitive, and informational conditions, as well as the underlying behavioral mechanisms, that shape whether supply chain transparency leads to substantive action or remains symbolic.
This thesis is structured in two parts. The first part provides a detailed overview (“Kappa”), followed by three empirical studies employing large-scale data analysis, vignette experiments, and case studies. Together, these studies examine information quality in supplier sustainability assessments, the role of power and trust in supplier disclosure behavior, and how buying companies process and use supplier sustainability information. They show that the impact of transparency depends on how information is generated, communicated, and used in practice.
By conceptualizing supply chain transparency as a behaviorally shaped process, this thesis challenges the widely held assumption that greater supply chain transparency automatically leads to meaningful sustainability action. Instead, it offers a more nuanced understanding of its limitations and potential, showing that supply chain transparency is not a straightforward path to sustainability.
- From Information to Action: A Behavioral Perspective on Supply Chain Transparency for Sustainability
- Xiao Liu - Stockholm School of Economics, Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology (House of Innovation)
- Pär Åhlström - Stockholm School of Economics, Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology (House of Innovation)
- Stockholm School of Economics; Doctor of Philosophy (PHD)
- Doctor of Philosophy (PHD), Stockholm School of Economics
- Stockholm School of Economics
- 182
- 9789177313878; 9789177313885
- Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology (House of Innovation)
- English
- Dissertation