Seminar in presence

Building BL26 – Room 0.18 (ground floor)
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Via R. Lambruschini 4/B, 20156 Milano

Quynh Do
Lancaster University, UK

Abstract:

Supply chain traceability is no longer an option but a legal and moral imperative for firms to monitor and enhance sustainability performance in their upstream networks. However, pursuing supply chain traceability is inherently challenging due to the relational, operational and data complexity. The advent of digital technology gives rise to a novel type of supply chain actors, digital platform organisations, with the potential to address traceability challenges. Yet, how these intermediaries operate and manage their complex traceability ecosystems remains ill-understood. Drawing on ecosystem and relational view lenses, this study addresses this by examining different strategies employed by four platform organisations to generate value for traceability initiatives in the garment and footwear sectors. Our findings first identify key stakeholders participating in these traceability platform environments, then unravel four strategies in which platforms used to enact sources of collective rent: knowledge-sharing routines, complementary capabilities, traceability-specific assets, and governance. We also show how two layers of value creation are harnessed in the platform environment in terms of network effect and traceability-derived value. This empirical work extends digital platform literature through new use cases, while providing a foundation for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the link between digitalisation and sustainability in global supply chains.

Quynh Do is an Assistant Professor in the Management Science Department at Lancaster University, UK. She has researched and published widely on innovative solutions to tackling sustainability issues in global supply chains (focusing on agri-food and garments). These include digital innovations, multi-stakeholder initiatives, meta-organisation models in human rights, supply chain fairness and bioeconomy. She has undertaken collaborative research in a number of countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America. In her research, she has been working with a number of corporate, SMEs, platform organisations(Reverse Resources, the ID Factory, Retraced), NGO (e.g., Global Fashion Agenda, Responsible Sourcing Network, Better Cotton), local government and international organisations (e.g., ILO).

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