Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2026

Abstract

With the growing awareness of sustainable development, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices has increasingly become a critical source for firms to meet stakeholder demands and gain new competitive advantages. In particular, under the backdrop of rising supply chain risks, stakeholder concerns are no longer confined to the ESG performance of individual firms; rather, they have expanded to encompass the entire supply chain, attaching equal importance to the ESG performance of both focal firms and their supply chain partners. With the continuous tightening of ESG regulatory requirements, customers may move beyond managing the ESG practices of first-tier suppliers to paying greater attention to second-tier suppliers and even the entire supply chain. However, existing literature has primarily focused on how firms’ own ESG performance enhances market competitiveness, while little is known about whether suppliers’ ESG performance can also be regarded as a critical component of a focal firm’s competitive advantage.


Against this backdrop, this study develops an empirical framework to examine the relationship between suppliers’ ESG performance and firms’ bargaining power with their customers. Drawing on resource dependence theory, this study incorporates suppliers, focal firms, and customers into a unified analytical framework to assess the direct effect of suppliers’ ESG performance on firms’ bargaining positions. Integrating resource orchestration theory, this study further investigates how firms transform suppliers’ ESG advantages into bargaining advantages in downstream markets through supply chain relationships, and, based on contingency theory, examine the moderating role of external ESG regulatory pressure. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2022, we construct a “supplier–firm–year” panel dataset based on the top five suppliers. The results show that suppliers’ ESG performance significantly enhances firms’ bargaining power relative to customers, and this positive effect is particularly pronounced when supplier switching costs are higher, supplier relationships are more stable, supply chain efficiency is greater, and when firms face higher ESG rating uncertainty, possess stronger brand assets, and exhibit a higher degree of internationalization. By integrating the triadic relationship among suppliers, focal firms, and customers, this study offers a novel analytical framework for understanding firms’ bargaining power from a supply chain and interorganizational interaction perspective, thereby extending the theoretical boundaries of ESG research in supply chain relationships.

Keywords

Suppliers ESG performance, Bargaining power with customers, Supply chain relationship, ESG regulatory pressures, Supply chain management

Degree Awarded

SMU-SJTU Doctor of Business Administration

Discipline

Operations and Supply Chain Management | Strategic Management Policy

Supervisor(s)

LIANG, Hao

First Page

1

Last Page

132

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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