Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility in Supply Chain Management

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The applicant proposes to address decision modeling issues concerning corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply chain management (SCM). Both CSR and SCM have been active research areas in the past decades, but it is still at its inception stage to integrate CSR into SCM. This proposal will investigate this important emerging issue from both a strategic and an operational point of view. The first component is to model and analyze the conflict among supply chain partners in face of CSR decisions from a strategic perspective. The graph model for conflict resolution will be employed as the basic decision tool and different partners' value and interests will be reflected as distinct preferences with or without uncertainty. The dynamics of the interactions among supply chain partners will be explored by using the status quo analysis tool so that the analyst can provide structural insights on how supply chain members may act and interact to direct the conflict to desirable equilibriums. The second component is to develop game-theoretic models to examine the interactions of supply chain members with respect to CSR operational decisions. The study will enable us to understand how supply chain partners interact and reach their profitability and social performance equilibriums. The third component is to develop a multicriteria decision analysis framework for coordinating CSR operational decisions in supply chains. In the well-known Starbucks C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity) Practices program, Starbucks rewards a premium to its strategic coffee bean suppliers if their growing and processing practices meet certain socially and environmentally sustainable standards. It has been conjectured that this premium may be interpreted as a strategic balance between Starbucks' long-term and short-term objectives. In this case, multicriteria decision analysis is a natural choice to model supply chain social responsibility behaviour. The proposal aims to establish a multicriteria decision analysis framework for handling CSR operational decisions in supply chains.