Critical review of a supply chain management journal

Stephen Noone
Atu Donegal L00186280
Introduction
The journal entry that will be critiqued is A More Sustainable Supply Chain’. It was written
by Veronice H Villena Assistant Professor at Penn State University and Denis A Gioia
Professor at Penn State University. The entry appeared in the Harvard Business Review
March-April 2022 edition. The entry will be critiqued, and conclusions drawn on the
information gathered from reading of the entry. The purpose of the article was to investigate
the problem put forward by the authors that multinational companies’ supply chain practices
may be sustainable but are those of their suppliers sustainable?

Summary
In short, they were interested in the supply chain sustainability practices of 3 multinational
companies, not only the companies, but all their suppliers from 1st tier suppliers to lower-
level suppliers. As was mentioned in the text in modern times companies’ that wish to be
sustainable bear a responsibility to ensure they are sustainable right the way through the
supply-chain.

The article argues that most modern MNCs aim to create a cascade of sustainable practices
that flows smoothly throughout the supply chain or supply network. This proves to be
difficult as lower tier suppliers have no incentives to push sustainability standards onto their
suppliers.

The article also states that it is increasingly difficult for procurement employees in these
MNCs to find suppliers that hit all the ‘Three P’s’ of sustainability and more often than not,
profit is the area which drives the selection process the most. The authors suggest areas on
which companies can improve in this regard.

In conclusion, the article offers a solution of more awareness by companies and suppliers to
the problems mentioned. They also suggest a set of best practices which could be used to
further help sustainability in their organisations.

Research And Methodology

The study focuses on 3 large MNC that portray themselves as sustainable and matched 5
selection criteria, the criteria was as follows:

1. Included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

 2. Members of the Carbon Disclosure Project and the United Nations Global Compact.
3. Involved in industrywide supply chain sustainability efforts.
4. Certified as having a large percentage of plants which were both ISO and OSHA
certified.
5. Members of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

It was very important that the MNCs matched these criteria as these are companies which you
would presume are at the top of the field regarding supply chain sustainability. They also
included interviews with representatives of industry associations and NGOs in relation to the
area of workers rights and labour issues. Only 9 top-tier suppliers were studied throughout
the 3 MNCs in comparison to 22 lower-tier suppliers, one could perceive this as a bias to
show that the lower-tier suppliers are the problem when in fact sustainability is a collective
issue as set out at the start of the article. It could also be that the lower-tier suppliers where
more cooperative with the research than the top-tier suppliers, but this is speculation and is
not mentioned in the article how many suppliers were initially contacted for the study. There
was a broad geographical spread to the suppliers studied, ranging from Mexico to China,
Taiwan to the US. This did ensure that problems that were being seen were not just specific to
a geographical location but rather the nature of the business the suppliers were undertaking.
As mentioned in the article almost every supplier in every region had environmental and
staffing issues, with the problem being that the MNCs place orders that exceed suppliers’
capacity or place unrealistic deadlines on orders. The authors also interviewed 52
procurement employees throughout all organizations as they identified that these are the staff
that are most responsible for finding sustainable suppliers.

In summary the research and methodology were broad enough to encompass many different
companies and suppliers but also focused on the employees that are ‘on the front lines’ of the
sustainability fight in these companies. The article did a good job of covering the areas the
authors sought to make a fair analysis of the problem.

Strengths
There are many strengths to this journal, mainly that it holds MNCs to account for their
sustainability practices. Although no company is mentioned by name in the article, it gives
readers an insight into how a company may appear sustainable on paper but what are they
doing behind the scenes to achieve sustainability? Also, the recommendations given in the
paper could be implemented by any company that is looking to improve their supply chain
sustainability not just MNCs, the statement which concludes the paper applies to any
company, ‘A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link’. As mentioned above, the
geographical spread of the information gathered was a big strength to this study as there
couldn’t be any bias seen as the problems in USA and Mexico also affected the suppliers in
Taiwan and China. A major strength to the paper is the fact that the researchers physically
visited the plants reviewed to get the most accurate information. They didn’t just send out a
survey and rely on suppliers to give accurate information, they had seen first-hand the
troubles that suppliers face in being sustainable. As one supplier said to the researchers ‘We
don’t comply with this requirement ourselves, so how could we ask our own suppliers to do
so?’. This was in relation to researchers seeing that this supplier did not comply with a strict
60 hr working week as set down by the MNC. Through physically viewing the plants, they
also got to speak to employees who may not have had a voice if only the managers were
answering survey questions.

Weaknesses
Although there are many strengths to the journal, there are also some weaknesses. One of
these weaknesses is that the researchers mentioned that in a lot of cases there was sexual
harassment, retaliation from supervisors, and hazardous labour conditions but there is then no
mention if these abuses were reported by the researchers. Although the researchers are not
solely responsible for reporting these issues there is an ethical question of should they report?
Their hands may be tied in certain circumstances as information may have been given under
the condition of anonymity, but this is not specified in the paper. Another weakness was that
none of the MNC or suppliers were mentioned in the study, again the condition of anonymity
could have been present, but it would have been beneficial to readers if the companies
involved were named. Also, if the MNCs were named it might give them an incentive to tidy
up their practices especially regarding procurement. MNCs should not be allowed present
themselves as sustainable if this is not really the case.

Contribution to the field

This journal entry has a positive impact on its field of study. Sustainability as a topic is
becoming more prevalent in all aspects of life and as consumers become more aware of
where and how products get to them it is only natural consumers would take notice of supply
chain issues. In a 2022 study it was mentioned that Respondents were first asked how
familiar they were with the concept of Green Supply Chain. 426 respondents (42.3%)
answered the question with grades 4 and 5, which shows that just under half of the
respondents are well enough acquainted with the term and understand its importance.
(Kovač, Palić and Margarin, 2022) The journal contributes to the public knowledge of MNC
activities regarding sustainable supply chain but also contributes academically. From a
reading of the journal any scholar or prospective employee of an MNC has a set of best
practices that they can relate to or even implement in their own company. The article gave
very detailed accounts of Direct, Indirect, Collective, and Global approaches to encourage
sustainable practices in a company. The entry also challenges the idea that MNCs are truly
sustainable and are aware of their own suppliers’ practices. As one director remarked to the
researchers ‘The demon in this place is the lower-tier suppliers that I know the least about ‘,
if MNCs are to be truly sustainable and fully utilise the trickle-down method they would need
to learn more about their suppliers and possibly implement the best practices mentioned in
this article.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the article is well-written, well-informed piece of work. The article states
clearly what it intends to portray and does exactly that. The information gathering was
thorough, and methods well explained and best practices suggested for companies moving
forward. It also showed the difficulty of what most MNCs are trying to regarding
sustainability and that is having the whole supply chain sustainable. The reader of the article
is not left with unanswered questions but rather the ability to start posing their own questions
regarding supply chain sustainability. One question that is left on the mind is if the big MNCs
cannot be fully sustainable, how is any size company supposed to be?

Bibliography

Kovač, I., Palić, M. and Margarin, D. (2022). Awareness of green supply chains importance
for consumers in the Republic of Croatia. Transportation Research Procedia, 64, pp.107–118.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2022.09.014.