Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 19
The Impact of Sustainability-
Focused Strategies on
Sourcing Decisions
Ozan Özcan
University of South Florida, USA
Kingsley Anthony Reeves Jr.
University of South Florida, USA
ABSTRACT
This topic chapter examines the relationship between the pursuit of a sustainability-focused corporate
strategy and the level of vertical integration observed in organizations. The study makes two contribu-
tions. First, it develops the theoretical foundation for linking sustainability strategies to organizational
structure. Second, it empirically examines the vertical integration level of 144 sustainability-focused
companies in 9 different industries. The results demonstrate that sustainability-focused companies in the
healthcare industry and the industrials industry tend to have more vertically integrated organizational
structures than their industry competitors that are not pursuing such a strategy. There was no significant
difference in the vertical integration level of sustainability-focused versus non-sustainability-focused
companies for the other seven industries studied. In the literature, the linkage between environmental
strategies and vertical integration has not been thoroughly examined. These study results should be
useful to researchers and managers who are interested in corporate sustainability behavior.
INTRODUCTION
strategies. The issue of sustainability has become
both a national and global focus. For example, is-
sues of sustainability are at the heart of President
Obama's energy and environmental policy. These
issues include: aiming to generate 25 percent of
electricity from renewable sources by 2025, invest-
ing $150B over the next ten years in “cleantech,”
This study contributes to our understanding of the
relationship between supply chain structure and
the pursuit of sustainability-focused corporate
