Investigating the Overdependence on Supply Chain Partners, Exploitation, and Willingness to Focus on Sustainability Performance in Business-to-Business Firms
基于资源依赖理论，研究企业过度依赖供应链伙伴如何导致被剥削，进而降低其关注可持续绩效的意愿，并发现伦理文化能削弱这种负面影响。
This study contributes to the field of sustainable supply chain management by shedding light on the relationship between overdependence on supply chain partners, exploitation, and the willingness of business-to-business partner firms to focus on sustainability performance. This study further investigates how ethical culture moderates this relationship. Drawing on the resource dependency theory, the study involves developing a model and validating it using multivariate analysis among 120 dyads. The findings reveal that a business-to-business firm’s overdependence on its supply chain partners can lead to it being exploited, which in turn negatively impacts its willingness to prioritize sustainability within the supply chain. Moreover, the study demonstrates that the stronger the firm’s ethical culture, the weaker the effect of overdependence on exploitation, while at a lower level of the firm’s ethical culture, the effect of overdependence on exploitation is stronger. The utilization of resource dependency theory unveils the potential downsides of overreliance on business-to-business supply chain partners and its consequences within the supply chain.