Engaging supply chains in climate change
By: Chonnikarn (Fern) Jira, Michael W. Toffel
Contributors: Toffel, Michael W.; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 12-026; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 12-026
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 33
Description: Suppliers are increasingly being asked to share information about their vulnerability to climate change and their strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They vary widely in their responses. We theorize and empirically identify several factors associated with suppliers being especially willing to share this information with buyers, focusing on attributes of the buyers seeking this information and of the suppliers being asked to provide it. We test our hypotheses using data from the Carbon Disclosure Project's Supply Chain Project, a collaboration of multinational corporations requesting such information from thousands of suppliers in 46 countries. We find evidence that suppliers are more likely to share this information when requests for information from buyers are more prevalent, when buyers appear committed to using the information, and when suppliers belong to a competitive industry. Moreover, we found evidence that these three factors also influenced the comprehensiveness of the information suppliers shared and whether they would also share the information publicly. Finally, we found that suppliers in countries with greenhouse gas regulations were more likely to include quantitative emissions data and reduction targets in the information they shared.
Notes: "October 2011" -- Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.