Theoretical aspects of designing voluntary sustainability initiatives for supply chains

Abstract

Against the conceptual background given in the previous sections, this chapter will explore a theoretical setting for the design of voluntary sustainability initiatives for supply chains and legitimacy. This chapter will therefore begin by briefly identifying relevant theories that consider legitimacy aspects in the design and conduct of voluntary sustainability initiatives for supply chains (see Section 3.1.). Secondly, the chapter will explain these theories (institutional theory and institutional entrepreneurship) in more detail and discuss their contributions to the eclectic research framework (see Sections 3.2. and 3.3.). While the institutional theories takes an institutional field-level perspective as the unit of analysis, the resource-based view and its enhancements will be discussed as a complementary theory (see Section 3.4.). This theory addresses the (inter-)organisational means of establishing successful strategies from the strategic-management perspective of a specific firm that acts in network constellations as the initiating company of a voluntary sustainability initiative.