The impact of corporate social responsibility practices on sustainability performance in manufacturing networks: the moderating effect of interplant coordination

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and sustainability performance in the context of manufacturing networks and explores the moderating effect of interplant coordination on this relationship. It is developed theoretically based on the perspective of information processing theory and empirically using the data from the sixth round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey. The results not only demonstrate the significant positive effect of CSR practices on sustainability performance in the context of manufacturing networks, but also suggest that the age and the social orientation of plants can have impacts on sustainability performance. Furthermore, the results reveal that interplant coordination plays a role in moderating the relationship between CSR practices and the social dimension of sustainability performance, but not on the environmental dimension. This paper contributes to the existing literature related to both sustainable and global operations by extending the current discussions on the relationship between CSR practices and sustainability performance to a new context and elaborating the role of a different kind of coordination in moderating this relationship. It also provides suggestions to managers of plants and manufacturing networks, for guiding them to make good use of interplant coordination and achieve better sustainability performance.

Keywords:

• Corporate social responsibility practices
• sustainability performance
• interplant coordination
• moderating effect
• manufacturing network

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Jiangxi “Double Thousand Plan”, and Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research (SDC).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yao Li

Yao Li is a Ph.D. candidate from the School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, and she holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Beihang University. She has published two papers in International Journal of Production Research. Her researches mainly focus on healthcare operations management and supply chain management, with empirical methodology.

Fazil Haleem

Fazli Haleem is a lecturer in the Department of Management Sciences, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Sheringal Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He has a PhD degree from the Centre for Industrial Production (CIP), Aalborg University, Denmark. His research interests include manufacturing and operations strategy, supply chain management, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. His research work has been published in academic journals including the Journal of Cleaner Production, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, and Business Ethics: A European Review.

Yang Cheng

Yang Cheng is an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Production, Department of Materials and Production, Aalborg University, Denmark. He also works as a visiting professor in Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, China. His main research interests include the servitization of manufacturing, global manufacturing and operations network, technology management, and knowledge transfer. In these areas, he has published more than 60 articles in academic journals, such as International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics; Production Planning and Control. Meanwhile, he is the Associate Editor and the guest editor for Production Planning and Control, the guest editor for International Journal of Production Research, and the editorial board member and the guest editor for Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.

Sami Farooq

Sami Farooq is working as Associate Professor Operations and Supply Chain Management at Centre for Industrial Production, Aalborg University (Denmark). The main focus of his research is in the management of international manufacturing networks, risk and sustainability with respect to global supply chain management, advanced manufacturing technologies including industry 4.0 and servitization. He has published his research in journals such as International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, Production Planning and Control, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.