Brokering for the Benefit of Others: How Purpose‐Driven Organizations Create Sustainable Supply Chains
研究了使命驱动型组织（如咖啡供应链中的组织）如何通过中介活动帮助低收入国家供应商连接高收入市场，实现可持续发展和改善农民生计。
ABSTRACT Structural holes in global supply chains isolate suppliers in low‐ and middle‐income economies from buyers and consumers in high‐income economies, hindering the accomplishment of sustainability goals. Previous research has studied how for‐profit organizations bridge these structural holes. This study examines how purpose‐driven organizations, which place their purpose above profits to improve farmers' livelihoods in coffee supply chains, bridge the same structural holes. Knowledge on structural holes is elaborated by exploring the brokering activities of these purpose‐driven organizations. This is accomplished by analyzing case data from 31 purpose‐driven organizations: nine cases of sourcing intermediaries and exporters in Colombia and 22 cases of roasters and importers in the Netherlands (NL), United States (US), and United Kingdom (UK). The cases are grouped and compared according to their primary activities, with the average or typical case as the unit of analysis. The findings unpack an approach to brokerage motivated by the purpose‐driven organizations' goal of improving the livelihoods of marginalized suppliers. Their approach to brokerage centers around aligning, empowering, educating, and mobilizing practices and the legitimation of novel practices in regulative, normative, and cognitive domains. This is achieved through either single‐direction or multi‐stakeholder brokerage. The study contributes to society by considering the implications for other entities and global supply chains of exemplar organizations' innovative approaches to sustainability issues.