The Process of Responsibility, Decoupling Point, and Disengagement of Moral and Social Responsibility in Supply Chains: Empirical Findings and Prescriptive Thoughts

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to explore and assess the process of responsibility, decoupling point and disengagement of moral responsibility, in combination with business sustainability

The role of moral disengagement in supply chain management research

“…These include consumer attitudes (Egan et al, 2015), unethical employee behavior (Martin et al, 2014), and counterproductive workplace behavior (Fida et al, 2014). However, the theory has still not made a breakthrough in SCM where it holds great potential for the intersection between the field itself and business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability (Eriksson and Svensson, 2014). Recently, a few authors have used moral disengagement in SCM research (e.g., Eriksson et al, 2013a;Eriksson et al, 2013b;Eriksson and Svensson, 2014;Egels-Zandén, 2015), but guidelines for how to actually use the theory in this research field are not yet established.…”

“…However, the theory has still not made a breakthrough in SCM where it holds great potential for the intersection between the field itself and business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability (Eriksson and Svensson, 2014). Recently, a few authors have used moral disengagement in SCM research (e.g., Eriksson et al, 2013a;Eriksson et al, 2013b;Eriksson and Svensson, 2014;Egels-Zandén, 2015), but guidelines for how to actually use the theory in this research field are not yet established. By offering guidelines in an early stage of the theory adoption, this paper seeks to reduce potential future problems through misuse of the theory.…”

Transfer of responsibility between supply chains

“…Still, the activity of breaking the ship is not included in the responsibility boundaries (Egels-Zandén, 2015) of either supply chain. This is perhaps to expect, as transparency is low and there are several actors that can be attributed with blame (Bandura, 1999;Eriksson and Svensson, 2016b). In a B-flow of a supply chain the salvaging/scrap company would either play a clear role in the first supply chain, or in the second.…”

“…The debate of the responsibility of the businessman traces back over fifty years (Bowen, 1953), and is still not resolved. What we do know is that structures similar to those of C-flows, where transparency is low, responsibility is uncertain, and materials from different sources are often combined, it is easy for companies to avoid or escape responsibility, and likely that individuals in the companies feel less personal responsibility for potential misconduct (Eriksson and Svensson, 2016b).…”

“…Second, the case gave us an opportunity to direct the research toward a transportation audience. The conceptualization reported is derived from several years of studying responsibility in supply chains including moral responsibility in supply chains (Eriksson et al, 2013a;Eriksson et al, 2013b), social responsibility in supply chains (Eriksson and Svensson, 2015), and application of theoretical perspectives to understand responsibility in supply chains (Eriksson and Svensson, 2016b). The conceptualization reveals a deficit in existing theory and previous studies making a relevant and valuable contribution to describe non-transparency and uncertainty of transferring responsibility between supply chains.…”