Dear Colleagues -
As a way to promote M&SOM (Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Journal), I am delighted to let you know that INFORMS has allowed me to post 2 selected articles for each issue (free of charge for a limited amount of time). To kick start this new initiative, I am very excited to get INFORMS to post the following article for free (limited time). Free is good! Please read.............
Featured Article—Spring 2016
Erica L. Playback, Terry A. Taylor
Firms with prominent brands (e.g., Apple, Disney, Marks & Spencer, Zara) have recently been exposed as sourcing from suppliers that have caused major harm to workers or the environment. When a firm’s supplier is revealed as abusing workers (e.g., through hazardous working conditions leading to workplace injuries and deaths) or damaging the environment (e.g., through a major, illegal release of toxic chemicals) the ensuing scandal damages the brand of the buying firm. A supplier’s risk of causing a major harm to workers or the environment depends on the extent of the supplier’s effort to employ responsible safety and environmental practices. Currently, buyers’ auditing of suppliers’ practices is the primary motivation for suppliers to exert that responsibility effort, because regulatory institutions and law enforcement are weak in developing and emerging economies in which suppliers are concentrated. The aforementioned buying firms have responded to scandals by increased auditing. More generally, buying firms are under increasing pressure from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other actors that expose and publicize suppliers’ harms to workers and the environment. This paper provides an explanation for how these efforts (increased auditing, increased pressure on buyers) can backfire by reducing suppliers’ efforts to be responsible.
This featured article will be freely available through the journal web site until July 15, 2016.
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Christopher Tang
Professor
University of California-Los Angeles
Los Angeles CA
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