The Impact of Sustainable Sourcing on Customer Perceptions: Association by Guilt from Scandals in Local vs. Offshore Sourcing Countries

Claire Veit, Wim Lambrechts*, Lieven Quintens, Janjaap Semeijn

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This study analyzes whether customer perceptions towards sustainability are affected by a company’s country of origin and sourcing strategies. This study builds upon the literature regarding customer interest in sustainable products. It adds the country of origin to the link between customer and company, and analyzes if and how customer perceptions change when they are introduced to a sustainability scandal, hence analyzing possible ‘association by guilt’. It compares their reactions to offshore scandals and to local scandals, therefore taking psychic distance as an important variable into consideration. Customer perceptions of company sustainability was found to have an impact on purchasing behavior. Findings show that perceptions are influenced by psychic distance. Furthermore, companies should take into account the risk of association by guilt when developing their global sourcing strategies.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2519
Number of pages18
JournalSustainability
Volume10
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2018

Keywords

  • customer perception
  • psychic distance
  • supply chain
  • sustainability
  • sourcing strategies
  • SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
  • CORPORATE SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY
  • TRIPLE BOTTOM-LINE
  • DECISION-MAKING
  • FRAMEWORK
  • PERFORMANCE
  • MATTER
  • MODEL
  • INDEX
  • FIRM

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