Is there an Enhanced Role for Corporate Leadership to Integrate Its CSR Strategies into Supply Chain Management? A Conceptual Inquiry

Abstract

This paper argues that there is an emergent and enhanced role for corporate governance in the area of supply chain oversight, due to on-going problems in the multi-tiered webs of today’s buyer-supplier relationships. The challenge is for corporate leadership in buyer firms to develop improved methods of ensuring that their suppliers manage with ethical values consonant with the sustainability strategies of those buyer firms, whose brands and reputations are at stake. For pragmatic reasons, today’s corporate leaders must view embedding of ethics in their supply chains not only as deontological value, but as crucial risk management tools. This study raises the question: what is the role of corporate leadership in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (Note 1) in Supply Chain Management? (Note 2)