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SUPPLIER CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ITS IMPACT ON BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS BUYERS’ PROCUREMENT DECISIONS
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Thesis/Dissertation
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2025-06
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Business Administration/Interdisciplinary
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https://doi.org/10.34944/xdw8-kq10
Abstract
The focus of this mixed-methods dissertation research studies the landscape of purchasing agents in privately held and publicly traded firms, with respect to sustainable procurement. The theoretical foundation is based on transaction costs, and trust is included in Study 1 as a means of mitigating transaction costs.
Study 1 used qualitative analysis on business-to-business (B2B) procurement personnel interview data—collected via convenience sampling—to explore whether suppliers’ corporative social responsibility (CSR) records influence purchasing decisions made by B2B procurement personnel, and the results were mixed. B2B procurement personnel did not automatically perceive a supplier to be more or less trustworthy, simply on the basis of the supplier’s CSR record. While Study 1 focused on responses from procurement personnel for privately held, for-profit, B2B firms within the biotechnology, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries, Study 2 was not limited to select industries. The focus remained on B2B procurement personnel employed by privately held or publicly traded for-profit companies.
In Study 2, the theoretical foundation expanded to include transparency as a means of taking a deeper dive into trustworthiness, given the mixed results found in Study 1. Study 2 utilized survey research to assess participants on their perceptions of supplier trustworthiness, transparency, the importance of a supplier’s CSR record to the buying firm, and the level of investigation taken by a buying firm to assess their supplier’s CSR record. Cronbach’s Alpha confirmed reliability for all items in every construct, and four of the correlations are statistically significant. The presence of many and few suppliers was investigated as a means of ruling out effects, simply as a result of fewer suppliers being able to escape pressure to be socially responsible from buying firms. An Independent Samples T-Test revealed no difference in results for B2B procurement personnel, regardless of the number of suppliers providing any given product. An ANOVA regression revealed that transparency is not a statistically significant factor for the interaction between the importance the B2B purchasing agent places on the supplier’s CSR record and the B2B purchasing agent’s perceived trustworthiness in the supplier. B2B purchasing agents report that their suppliers’ CSR records are important, but they also report not being diligent in investigating a supplier’s CSR record.
By conducting quantitative analysis using SPSS software on Study 2’s collected survey data and by comparing responses between B2B procurement personnel in publicly traded firms and those in privately held firms, the results revealed a significant correlation between the importance a purchasing agent assigns to a supplier’s CSR record and the purchasing agent’s perception that the supplier is trustworthy.
Knowing that B2B buying firms want their suppliers’ CSR records, managers must prioritize establishing their CSR records for their customer’s consumption; according to this research though, managers typically do not need to provide complete and detailed transparency for their company’s CSR records to their B2B customers. This finding leads to concerns about a firm’s ability to greenwash. However, managers should stay proactive regarding CSR record transparency, especially if their firm is committed to sustainable practices and they wish to partner with like-minded customers. Another reason to stay ahead of new CSR disclosure requirements and/or new regulations requiring CSR records to achieve new standardized levels, thereby regulating CSR records to become more involuntary, is if the firm believes governmental regulation will be increasing in the future or supplies to customers in other countries with more stringent requirements. Also, they should look to improve their CSR record with their B2B customers year-over-year, and investing in a third-party to assess their company’s CSR record may be a worthy investment.
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