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Toward a standardized supplier code of ethics: development of a design concept based on diffusion of innovation theory

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Logistics Research

Abstract

Supplier codes of ethics have become important instruments for ethical supplier management. They capacitate firms to govern numerous supplier relationships simultaneously toward ethical business conduct. Since many actors nowadays pursue the goal of ethical supplier management, a cascade of codes has emerged. However, this plurality poses multiple problems on its own account, such as lacking effectiveness of some of these codes, restrictions on the development of universally accepted ethical standards, and greenwashing. It also creates operational difficulties and unnecessary procedural costs for firms and is thus inefficient. The aggregated amount of issues suggests the development of a standardized supplier code of ethics as a remedy. Based on diffusion of innovation theory as theoretical lense and as conceptual support, we employ a multi-method research design to develop a design concept for such a standard. We begin with a content analysis of relevant scientific literature on content, adoption, and effectiveness of codes of ethics, in which we also study numerous extant codes and initiatives. It leads to six propositions on key success factors of a standardized supplier code of ethics. We then amend a design science approach to develop a design concept for such a standard that complies with these requirements, with the support of corporate experts from Germany, China, and India. Our results are informative about the content of a standardized supplier code of ethics, and we propose multiple effectiveness- and diffusion-facilitating mechanisms as additional components in the overall design concept. With stakeholders’ further support, the envisioned standard is expected to foster businesses’ corporate social performances around the globe.

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Notes

  1. We use this label to refer to a standardzed supplier code of ethics which is yet to be created.

  2. There was no need to employ specific coding procedures. The reason is that we did not study causal relationships between variables (as one would usually have done in empirical case study research, for example), but sought to design the SCGC as a new artifact.

  3. We replaced the DOI factor “complexity” with its opposite, “simplicity”, so as to have only positive effects in the causal model that we seek to develop.

Abbreviations

CEO:

Chief executive officer

CMM:

Capability maturity model

CPO:

Chief procurement officer

CSP:

Corporate social performance

CSR:

Corporate social responsibility

DOI:

Diffusion of innovation theory

NGO:

Non-governmental organization

SCGC:

Supply chain governance code

SCoE:

Supplier code of ethics

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge that this project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Grant No. 01IC10L14A. We would also like to express our deep gratitude to Daniela Bartscher-Herold, Sebastian Hartmann, Michael Henke and all other corporate experts who supported our research project in numerous ways.

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  1. Institute for Supply Chain Management—Procurement and Logistics (ISCM), EBS University for Business and Law, Konrad-Adenauer-Ring 15, 65187, Wiesbaden, Germany

    Martin C. Schleper

  2. Chair of Logistics Management, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Weinbergstrasse 56/58, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Busse

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Schleper, M.C., Busse, C. Toward a standardized supplier code of ethics: development of a design concept based on diffusion of innovation theory. Logist. Res. 6, 187–216 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12159-013-0109-1

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