Supplier Development for Sustainability: Contextual Barriers in Global Supply Chains.

This article explores contextual barriers to supplier development for sustainability (SDS) in global supply chains and managerial remedies to mitigate them. A dyadic case study design was adopted with a Western European buyer and six of its Chinese suppliers. The database consists of 41 interviews and 81 documents. Contextual barriers to SDS in global supply chains arise from spatial, language, cultural, and socio-economic difference between buyer and supplier as well as complexity of the sustainability concept. Partial remedies comprise effective joint communications, an open organizational culture, and the fostering of cross-context understanding. The findings contribute to theory development at the intersection of sustainable and global supply chain management research. They help to explain why sustainability-related progress in global supply chains was only modest in recent years. The identified barriers facilitate managerial decision making with respect to SDS in global contexts. By diffusing the knowledge on the available remedies, the study may contribute to improving SDS effectiveness, thereby fostering suppliers' sustainability capabilities and performance. This research highlights the criticality of contextual barriers to SDS. Moreover, it points to sustainability-related dilemmas for buyers and suggests the notion of sustainability paternalism as a valuable amendment to understanding buyer behavior surrounding SDS in global supply chains. Finally, it explores different real-world conceptions of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]