Resumen de The roles of regulatory pressure and company orientation in socially sustainable supply chain management: the case of the European aerospace and defence industry
This thesis contributes to the emerging academic field of socially sustainable supply chain management (SSSCM) and to business practice by providing new insights into the roles played by company orientation and regulatory pressures. The main novelties brought by this study introduce the roles played in the development of a SSSCM by the corporate understanding of the “sustainability” concept, by an instrumental logic, by new European regulations and by firms’ involvement in SSSCM-related policy-making. The European aerospace and defence sector has been employed as a « testbed», as it is one of the few sectors in the world counting on a long-term view and multi-year orders backlogs, which offer a unique possibility to plan its operations and address social issues in its supply chain.
The questionnaire technique and linear regressions have been employed to test the formulated hypothesis. The results illustrate that firms' difficulties in seizing the "sustainability" concept act as a negative predictor for the development of SSSCM. An instrumental logic of the firm partially acts as a negative predictor for the development of SSSCM. These results also call for further conceptual maturation, the need for correct employment of concepts by academics and practitioners. The results confirm the importance of the analysed countries, the legal context and the industry’s types for the development of a SSSCM.
This study brings new insights into the role of SSSCM-related regulatory pressure and of firms’ involvement in SSSCM-related policy-making for the development of SSSCM. These novel findings incite researchers to use a holistic view of the firm and to further analyse corporate stakeholder’s management and the associated impact on SSSCM.
This thesis also reinforces the need for professionalization and regularisation of SSSCM to rethink and reset our system, involving every actor, from firms to academia.
