Socially Responsible Operations in Procurement

This dissertation explores issues regarding socially responsible operations in procurement. When buying firms outsource to upstream suppliers, the potential of socially irresponsible actions from suppliers is an important concern. To prevent or mitigate such behavior, buyers often use informational tools such as audits and/or monetary actions such as paying higher wholesale prices. This dissertation consists of three main chapters. The first two main chapters highlight the importance of prioritizing the auditing of structurally-important suppliers in the supply network by considering exogenous responsibility efforts of the suppliers in Chapter 2 and endogenous responsibility efforts of the suppliers in Chapter 3, respectively. In Chapter 4, we examine the behavioral impact of a buyer’s wholesale price on a supplier’s responsibility effort.