Value of Transparency Commitments for Promoting Responsible Supply Chains

The limited success of compliance-based programs alone has led firms, policy makers, and academics alike to consider alternative complementary levers. One such emerging lever for promoting sustainability in supply chain practice is transparency. Over the past decade, motivated by the developments in practice, the sustainable operations management literature has produced a rich stream on transparency, much of it focused on when transparency is likely to succeed in the mission of creating responsible supply chains, and when, despite best intentions, it can create unintended consequences. The goal of this chapter is to synthesize the findings from this research stream and provide directions for the future.