2021/09/16 by Paul McGrath, Lucy McCarthy, Donna Marshall +1 · 4 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · #Business #Computer science #Corporate governance #Industrial organization #Marketing #Mindset #Multinational corporation #Process management #Supply Chain Resilience and Risk Management #Supply chain #Sustainability #Transparency (behavior)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/00081256211045993
openalex publication_date 2021/09/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
This article explores the role that technology plays in creating and fostering transparency in global supply chains. Transparency is deemed vital in the creation of sustainable and resilient supply chains and overall effective corporate governance. There are two distinct orientations toward the use of technology by multinational corporations (MNCs) in creating sustainability transparency within their global supply chains: control and relational. A control orientation views technology as a tool to gather the ever-increasing levels of sustainability data on supplier practices in an efficient, secure, and progressively automated manner. A relational orientation adopts a view where technology is a tool to help build social relations and improve dialogue and collaboration on sustainability throughout the supply chain. A key difference in the two orientations lies in the mindset of the MNC manager toward the development of supply chain sustainability transparency. The article illustrates the effective application of both approaches and offers advice to managers on the design choices they need to consider in choosing technologies.