Values to mutual value creation for common good outcomes

Corporations are concerned about the future sustainability of supply chains which fail to produce sufficient value for fair distribution between stakeholders, or which create value by means which risk environmental or social harms. it is too common for producers and suppliers to suffer insufficient and unreliable income streams, a lack of decent work and diminished opportunities for human capability development. In early phase CSR initiatives, corporations have relied upon the remedy of voluntary codes, certification schemes, participatory initiatives and private governance arrangements. Despite these efforts, many supply chains continue to languish in low fairness equilibria: trapping producers and suppliers in potentially exploitative relationships, where power imbalances expose the weaker party to vulnerabilities.

Escaping the low fairness trap will require innovations in supply chain practices which link values to value creation. Here, values of fairness, care and flourishing in supply chains have an important role to play, and are explored in my project on ‘values to shared value creation in sustainable supply chain management’. The project is funded by Oxford’s John Fell Fund, involving Dr Lauren McCarthy, Royal Holloway University of London and Dr Milena Mueller Santos, University of Oxford. Our participating organisations include Primark and their partners, CottonConnect and SEWA (self-employed women’s association).

Supply chain fairness is an under-researched topic. We draw upon key contributions to the psychology, economics and organizations studies literature to illuminate the salient features of fairness in social and economic systems, such as supply chains. We seek to show how fairness influences economic behaviour and firm performance in important ways. Even though the business case for supply chain fairness is well established, the role of stakeholder fairness perceptions in supply chain management warrants further investigation.