Managing Socially-Responsible Buying:: How to Integrate Non-economic Criteria into the Purchasing Process
Section snippets
What is SRB?
In accordance with contemporary views of corporate social responsibility (e.g., Maignan et al., 1999, McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, Rowley and Berman, 2000), SRB can be defined as the inclusion in purchasing decisions of the social issues advocated by organizational stakeholders. In this perspective, stakeholders are the agents that bring broad social demands to the attention of individual firms. While an individual business may not have the resources to consider the impact of its activities on
SRB Strategies and Practices
Various strategies are employed by businesses when faced with specific stakeholder demands. These strategies can be positioned along a continuum ranging from proactive to reactive approaches (see Table 2). An organization reactive in terms of SRB rejects the social duties assigned by its stakeholder groups. Such a business systematically resists stakeholders’ calls for a greater scrutiny of suppliers’ practices. In contrast, a proactive organization in terms of SRB systematically anticipates
Which Level of Proactiveness?
The selection of a SRB strategy is based on a trade off between the associated costs and the motivations underpinning proactive strategies. Three main factors stand out in favor of proactive strategies: (1) stakeholder pressures, (2) organizational values, and (3) concrete business benefits.
Steps Towards Proactive SRB
The discussion above suggests that the development of sound purchasing practices respectful of corporate social responsibilities is based on six consecutive steps:
- 1.
Assessing stakeholder pressures. Managers should first establish where the organization stands in relation to its stakeholders and which issues are of greatest concern to stakeholders. At this stage, answers should be provided to the following questions: How powerful are our stakeholders? To what extent can they coordinate their
ISABELLE MAIGNAN, University of Nijmegen, School of Management, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Isabelle Maignan is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Nijmegen School of Management. Her research interests focus on the concept, implementation, and marketing impacts of corporate responsibility.
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ISABELLE MAIGNAN, University of Nijmegen, School of Management, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Isabelle Maignan is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Nijmegen School of Management. Her research interests focus on the concept, implementation, and marketing impacts of corporate responsibility.
BAS HILLEBRAND, University of Nijmegen, School of Management, P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Bas Hillebrand is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Nijmegen School of Management. His research interests include product management, market orientation, corporate responsibility and inter-organizational co-operation.
DEBBIE THORNE McALISTER, Department of Marketing, College of Business Adminstration, Southwest Texas State University, 601 University Dr., Derrick Hall 226, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Debbie Thorne McAlister is Chair of the Department of Marketing at Southwest Texas State University. She has published on business ethics and corporate citizenship. A recent book is Business and Society: A Strategic Approach to Corporate Citizenship (co-author), published by Houghton Mifflin.