Responsible supply chains

Our experts in socially and environmentally responsible supply chain management – who have established expertise through collaborative research with over 300 UK companies – are currently working with several major UK organisations to help develop an understanding of the complexity and challenges of managing sustainability in the supply chain.

Through an analysis of supply chain relationships and impacts, our researchers are developing recommendations that acknowledge uncertainty and complexity in the business environment, within which procurement managers must make tough decisions and prioritise effectively. The research team’s analyses help to guide priorities and thereby enable processes to be more efficient.

Understanding supply

Our researchers, led by Professor Stephen Pavelin from the School of Management, work with organisations to better understand and manage risks associated with changing buyer supplier relationships. They are also helping them to understand and manage a transition from collaborative to transactional supply-chain relationships, to prioritise the adoption and use of environmental management systems and social accountability standards, and to understand the importance and implication of both power asymmetry and trust in buyer-supplier relationships.

Sustainable and responsible organisations

Our Centre for Business, Organisations and Society is concerned with the relationship between corporations and the societies in which they operate, the ethical position of modern corporations in different societal contexts, and the study of corporate social responsibility.

The Centre pulls together expertise from a range of functional backgrounds, encompassing organisational behaviour, international business, marketing, economics, finance and accounting.

The research carried out through the Centre influences the running of many of the country’s largest companies, having an impact on suppliers, stakeholders and the wider community.

The Centre also undertakes research that informs decision makers in government, companies and finance houses of the changing nature of business responsibilities and the merits of social responsiveness.