Sustainability in Supply Chains: A Study on the Effects of Sustainability on Supplier-Buyer Relationships (Essays on Supply Chain Management)

Sustainability advanced to an omnipresent topic among academics and business leaders, while at the same time, a growing share of a firm’s total expenditure accounts for purchased products and materials. Even though suppliers become increasingly important for their buyers with regards to sustainability, academic research still lacks a detailed understanding of how sustainability considerations affect the relationship between buyers and suppliers. Thomas Leppelt contributes to extant sustainability literature across the research disciplines of supply chain management, management and marketing by cross-functionally investigating the effects of sustainability on supplier-buyer relationships from both a supplier and a buyer perspective. The results of in total three academic articles provide valuable insights on how buyers as well as suppliers deal with sustainability upstream and downstream the supply chain. The results indicate that sustainability leaders, in contrast to sustainability followers, intensively invest in sustainable supplier relationship management practices. Moreover, a became evident that the effective marketing of sustainability-related capabilities enhances a supplier’s reputation and can render comparative advantages, if it sends consistent positive signals to the market and if it integrates purchasing and marketing in the context of sustainability. Sustainability advanced to an omnipresent topic among academics and business leaders, while at the same time a growing share of a firm’s total expenditure accounts for purchased materials and services. Yet, academic research still lacks a detailed understanding of how sustainability considerations affect the relationship between buyers and suppliers in a competitive supply chain setting. With his three articles on Sustainability in Supply Chains, Thomas Leppelt contributes to extant literature across the disciplines of supply chain management and marketing by cross-functionally investigating the effects of sustainability on supplier-buyer relationships from both a supplier and a buyer perspective. Contents · Sustainable supplier relationship management · Marketing of sustainable supply chain management capabilities in business markets · Drivers of marketing-purchasing integration at the supplier level Target Groups · Researchers and students in the fields of supply chain management, marketing, and management · Managers and experts who are interested in strategically managing their supply chain towards sustainability About the Author Dr. Thomas Leppelt received his doctor’s degree from Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg in business administration at the Chair of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Evi Hartmann. He is working in the automotive industry. In his research he focuses on sustainability aspects in interdependent supply chain settings. .-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages I-XIII Introduction....Pages 1-7 Sustainability Beyond Boundaries....Pages 9-31 CSR in Buyer-Supplier Relationships....Pages 33-76 Drivers and Mechanisms of Purchasing-Marketing Integration....Pages 77-115 Final Conclusion....Pages 117-121