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Tensions in sustainable supply chain management: instrumental, institutional, andparadoxical perspectivesXiao, Chengyong

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TENSIONS IN

SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY

CHAIN MANAGEMENT Chengyong Xiao

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Publisher: University of Groningen

Groningen, The Netherlands

Printed by: Printpartners Ipskamp B.V.

ISBN: 978-94-034-1330-3

eISBN: 978-94-034-1329-7

Layout: Chengyong Xiao

Copyright 2019© Chengyong Xiao

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of

any nature, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, now known or

hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, without prior written permission of

the publisher.

ii

Tensions in sustainable supply chain management:

instrumental, institutional, and paradoxical perspectives

PhD thesis

to obtain the degree of PhD at the University of Groningen on the authority of the

Rector Magnificus prof. E. Sterken and in accordance with

the decision by the College of Deans.

This thesis will be defended in public on

Monday 18 February 2019 at 16.15 hours

by

Chengyong Xiao

born on 25 June 1987 in Sichuan, China

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Supervisors Prof. D.P. van Donk

Prof. J.T. van der Vaart

Co-supervisor Dr. M.M. Wilhelm

Assessment Committee Prof. J. Surroca

Prof. M. Pagell

Prof. C. Busse

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谨以此书献给我的母亲 陈寿珍女士 她一直把我视为她的骄傲

To my mother, Mrs. Shouzhen Chen, who was always proud of me

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Acknowledgement

Completion of this thesis was a challenging, mostly exciting, inevitably frustrating,

and eventually rewarding journey. It was a journey of six years, during which I

experienced many ups and downs. More accurately, several overwhelming “downs”

preceded several thrilling “ups”, which was succeeded by another overwhelming “down”.

For me, this journey is a perfect illustration of one of my mottos used in the high-school

period: no pains, no gains; although I am not completely convinced that my gains are

sweet enough to justify all the bitter pains that agonized me in the past six years. By no

means do I believe in hedonism, but I do believe in the value of having a balanced life, in

which gains can somehow outweigh pains. Finally, having scrambled out of this

suffocating tunnel, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the people and

organizations that helped me, directly and/or indirectly, for the completion of this thesis.

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervision

team: Prof. Dr. Dirk Pieter van Donk, Prof. Dr. Taco van der Vaart, and Dr. Miriam

Wilhelm for their continuous support, motivation, and immense knowledge. I first met

Taco back in the autumn of 2011, during the “job interview”. A Chinese proverb says that

千裡馬常有，而伯樂不常有 (Swift horses are usually found but not the same as ‘Pak Lok’,

the person who has good judgment to spot swift horses). Taco has been my Pak Lok, who

has shown consistent support from the very beginning, although I am far from being a

“swift horse”. All through these years, his immense knowledge, network skills, and

negotiation skills have greatly contributed to the completion of all three projects. Thank

you, Taco, for introducing me to our case company and introducing me to a broader

academic network. Taco and Dirk Pieter formed my supervision team in September of

2012, when I officially kicked off my PhD project in Groningen. Many thanks go to Dirk

Pieter for his substantial support which came in many forms: detailed, critical, and

constructive comments, which helped me to improve my academic writing skills

substantially; expansive thinking, which provided gleams of sun shines when my

knowledge and creativity seemed to have failed me; high academic standards, which

prevented the papers from being sent out prematurely, etc. Miriam started to act as my

daily supervisor shortly before the summer of 2013, which further increased the strength

of the supervision team. Her immense knowledge, skillful guidance, and consistent

support have contributed significantly to the completion of my thesis. Miriam and I have

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been working on four projects, but only one of them is included in this thesis. As such,

this thesis is just a partial reflection of Miriam’s contribution to my academic

improvement. Without her participation, my PhD journey would have been very different.

I feel extremely lucky and gratitude to have such a wonderful supervision team.

Second, many thanks go to the SOM, which has provided the logistical support for

completing this thesis. Ellen is always ready to help: course registrations, travel

application and reimbursements, etc. Arthur has prepared more than a dozen of letters for

me: Visa applications, ID extensions, conference registrations, etc. Rina has been so

generous that I was always given adequate travelling budgets to attend one or sometimes

even two international conferences each year. Special thanks go to Rina, Taco, and Dirk

Pieter for extending my scholarship for a period of 6 months in 2016. Last but not least,

many thanks go to the PhD coordinators, Linda, Justin, Jasper, and Kristian, for their kind

support at different phases of this journey. The secretaries of Operations Department,

Durkje, Marjo, Renny, Linda, Ellen, Heleen, and Irene, also provided valuable support

during the past years.

One of the most exciting, enjoyable, and memorable parts of this journey was the

field study for data collection. I was very lucky to have received significant support from

our case company COSMOS. Many thanks go to Emile, Zhihai, Steven, Ellen, Jenny,

Amy, Carl, Tommy, Ann, Tao Jian, and Yolanda. With their support, I could have access

to the ten suppliers and did comprehensive and interesting interviews with more than 60

interviewees. Many thanks go to all my interviewees from COSMOS and the ten suppliers

for their time, hospitality, and interesting and insightful stories.

Special thanks go to my assessment committee, Prof. Dr. Christian Busse

(University of Oldenburg), Prof. Dr. Mark Pagell (University College Dublin), and Prof.

Dr. Jordi Surroca (University of Groningen), for their time and efforts put in assessing

my thesis. Thank you all for your positive assessment and constructive comments.

Besides these people and organizations, I would also like to express my sincere

gratitude to several groups of people that have helped me in many ways in the past six

years. First, my sincere thanks go to my UCAS Group: Yanping Zhao (赵艳平), Xin Fan

(范昕), Yuwan Duan (段玉婉), Quanrun Chen (陈全润), Xuan Zhang (张璇), Ye Liu (刘

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晔), Suxiao Li (李苏骁), Binqian Yan (闫冰倩), Qiubin Huang (黄秋彬) & Jenny (翁健莉

), Yan Yan (闫岩) & Jingjing Zhang (张晶晶), Jiyuan Wang (王吉元) & Ya Gao (高雅),

Kailan Tian (田开兰), Huan Liu (刘欢), and Chenming Peng (彭晨明). Inevitably, this is

a very dynamic group, but it has shown extraordinary cohesion and solidarity all through

these years. Special thanks go to Yanping, Quanrun, and Yuwan for helping me to settle

down in Groningen back in 2012. Ye Liu has provided timely and professional

methodological support, which helped me to finish the first two chapters of the thesis.

Many thanks go to my fellow PhD students in the OPERA Group: Oskar, Nick

(Ziengs), Nick (van Beest), Monique, Minou, Sarah, Nonhlanhla, Robert-Jan, Hendryk,

Bart, Aline, Sabine, Roel, Anne, Lisanne, Mitchel, and Lisa…… Thank you, Oskar, for

your sweets and melatonin. Thank you, Monique, for helping me to identify and report

the BSN fraud to the Belasting Dienst. Thank you, Hendryk, for the BBQs and for helping

me to move out of the student house. Thank you, Aline, for providing me with first aid

by the side of Neuchatel Lake. Thank you, Bart, for your skates. Thank you, Lisa, for

taking over the premaster workshops when I was busy with taking care of my daughter

and wife… Special thanks go to my office mate Robert-Jan. It has been a great pleasure

to share Dui-651 with you in the past three years. We had a lot of interesting

conversations, and you have provided me with many helps. Special thanks go to Bart and

Robert-Jan for helping me to finish the last mile of the Marathon, namely preparing the

Dutch summary (Samenvatting) included at the end of the thesis.

Many thanks go to my Badminton Group in Groningen: Zhe Sun (孙哲), Jieqiang

Wei (韦杰强), Qibing Xie (谢其兵), Yanping Zhao (赵艳平), Shuhai Zhang (张书海),

Suping Peng (彭素萍), Lu Zhang (张璐), Ning Ding (丁宁) & Lefon Ching (陈乐方),

Xuewen Zhang (张学文) & Min Wu (武敏), Chenglong Deng (邓成龙), Huatang Cao (曹

华堂), Miaozhen Huang (黄妙珍), Shili Chen (陈仕莉), Yi Yu (余意), and Yueyang Sun (

孙月阳). Thank you, Dut Van Vo, for playing with me and training me in 2013. Special

thanks go to our great trainer, Rik Wilbers, for his professional and patient instructions

and trainings all through the years.

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I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the following friends who have

made my time at Groningen enjoyable and memorable: Tao Yuan (袁涛), Jiquan Wu (吴

继全) & Zhonghong Ma (马忠洪), Weiguo Xia (夏卫国), Jonanthan Gray, Qingkai Yang

(杨庆凯) & Yuhan Wang (王煜涵), Binqi Tang (唐滨琪) & Shili Chen (陈仕莉), Yan Shao

(邵闫) & Fan Wang (王帆), Shuai Feng (冯帅), Cong Duan (段丛), and Aobo Jiang (姜奥

博). Thank you, Tao, for taking good care of me for years. Your hospitality and delicious

foods constantly made me indebted. Thank you, Jiquan and Zhonghong, for providing a

shelter for me in 2014 and 2015. Special thanks go to Qingkai for taking care of my

mother-in-law at Martini Ziekenhuis. Special thanks go to Mengmeng for taking good

care of my wife and daughter while I was teaching in Sri Lanka. Special thanks go to Shili

for taking care of Li and Sofie at UMCG, and Binqi for preparing the delicious and

nutritional food for us when Sofie was born. Special thanks go to Fan and Yan for your

delicious food and great cares… A friend in need is a friend indeed!

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to several friends for their

consistent support all through the years beyond my PhD journey: Zelin Hao (郝泽林), Jian

Chen (陈剑), Long Liu (刘龙), Chuzhao Wang (王初照), Shaoyong Wang (王少永), and

Jiajia Wu (吴嘉佳).

Special thanks go to Dr. Qian Wang (王谦) for her generous and consistent support

in the past ten years. I am very lucky to have you as the supervisor for my master’s

program at UCAS.

Last but not least, my sincere gratitude goes to my wife Li Jiang. Your consistent

and timely encouragement, among others, has prevented me from being overly

complacent and motivated me to aspire for a higher goal. Your talents in organizing and

calm personality are a great complement to me. Special thanks go to Li for transcribing

basically all my interviews in 2014. Moreover, special thanks go to Li for taking great

care of our daughter Sofie.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1...................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Sustainability in global supply chains ................................................................................. 1

1.2 Tensions in sustainable supply chain management ............................................................. 2

1.3 Instrumental, institutional, and paradoxical perspectives toward SSCM ............................ 5

Chapter 2.................................................................................................................................... 10

When does corporate sustainability performance pay off? The impact of country-level

sustainability performance ....................................................................................................... 10

2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 10

2.2 Theoretical foundation and hypotheses development ....................................................... 12

2.2.1 The CSP-CFP relationship ......................................................................................... 12

2.2.2 The impact of country-level sustainability performance on the CSP-CFP relationship

............................................................................................................................................. 13

2.3 Methods ............................................................................................................................. 16

2.3 1 Sample and data ......................................................................................................... 16

2.3 2 Measurements............................................................................................................. 17

2.3.3 Common method bias ................................................................................................. 19

2.3.4 Data analysis .............................................................................................................. 20

2.4 Results ............................................................................................................................... 21

2.4.1 Construct validity of corporate sustainability performance ....................................... 21

2.4.2 Hypothesis testing with HLM .................................................................................... 22

2.4.3 Simple slope analysis ................................................................................................. 24

2.5 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 25

2.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 28

Chapter 3.................................................................................................................................... 30

When are stakeholder pressures effective? An extension of slack resources theory ........... 30

3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 30

3.2 Theoretical foundation and hypotheses ............................................................................. 33

3.2.1 Stakeholder pressures and corporate sustainability management............................... 33

3.2.2 Slack resources theory ................................................................................................ 34

3.2.3 Country-level sustainability performance .................................................................. 35

3.3 Methods ............................................................................................................................. 37

3.3.1 Sample and data ......................................................................................................... 37

3.3.2 Measurements............................................................................................................. 38

3.3.3 Common method bias ................................................................................................. 41

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3.3.4 Endogeneity ................................................................................................................ 42

3.3.5 Data analysis .............................................................................................................. 43

3.4 Results ............................................................................................................................... 45

3.4.1 Hypothesis testing with HLM .................................................................................... 45

3.4 2 Simple slope analysis ................................................................................................. 46

3.5 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 48

3.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 52

Chapter 4.................................................................................................................................... 56

Inside the buying firm: exploring responses toward paradoxical tensions in sustainable

supply chain management ........................................................................................................ 56

4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 56

4.2 Theoretical background ..................................................................................................... 58

4.2.1 Paradoxical tensions in SSCM ................................................................................... 58

4.2.2 Managerial responses to paradoxical tensions in SSCM ............................................ 60

4.3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 61

4.3.1 Case selection ............................................................................................................. 61

4.3.2 Data collection............................................................................................................ 63

4.3.3 Data analysis .............................................................................................................. 67

4.4 Findings ............................................................................................................................. 67

4.4.1 The tension between sustainability standards and the Chinese socio-economic

environment ......................................................................................................................... 67

4.4.2 Purchasing managers’ responses to sustainability tensions ........................................ 69

4.4.3 Sustainability managers’ responses to sustainability tensions ................................... 71

4.5 Discussion ......................................................................................................................... 75

4.5 1 Contributions to theory ............................................................................................... 78

4.5 2 Managerial implications ............................................................................................. 80

4.5 3 Limitations and future research .................................................................................. 81

4.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 82

Chapter 5.................................................................................................................................... 85

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 85

5.1 Main findings .................................................................................................................... 85

5.2 Managerial implications .................................................................................................... 87

5.3 Future research directions ................................................................................................. 89

References ................................................................................................................................... 91