Publication Type

Conference Paper

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

6-2012

Abstract

Recommendations for sustainability strategies for business have predominantly taken an individual firm level perspective. Yet, sustainability efforts are by essence collaborative and span firm level boundaries. Multiple stakeholders espousing often divergent goals need to work together over long periods on sustainability collaborations. Well recognized externalities in the firm’s economic existence need to be addressed by multiple stakeholder skill sets and are fraught with high risks and uncertainties. These are conditions ripe for syndication, as financial and corporate syndicates have demonstrated.The rules of syndication cover the structure of membership, setting of goals and objectives, governance, incentives and sharing of rewards and costs between stakeholders. Stakeholders can harmonize their goals, rent other stakeholder skill sets and achieve scale economies, while they hedge their risks by diversifying across the uncertainties that they individually confront. Syndication has implications for value oriented marketing strategy, some of which are for product and process innovation, contracts and relationships, positioning and marketing communications, and customer equity models. The clothing supply chain, specifically knitting and hosiery from India, provides an illustrative case study. Business networks and configurations in clothing need to evolve a syndicate model to further accommodate multiple stakeholders, self-regulation and mutual self-interest.

Keywords

Sustainability, business syndicates, ethical sourcing, plural governance, multiple stakeholders, marketing

Discipline

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Marketing

Research Areas

Marketing

Publication

Proceedings of the 37th Annual Macromarketing Conference, Berlin, 13-16 June 2012

First Page

453

Last Page

465

ISBN

9783941240506

Publisher

Macromarketing Society

City or Country

Berlin, Germany

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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