Title: Effects of managers' communication and satisfaction on their perceived importance of value chain sustainability

Authors: Bowon Kim; Sunghak Kim

Addresses: KAIST Business School, Seoul, 130-722, Korea ' KAIST Business School, Seoul, 130-722, Korea

Abstract: We define value chain sustainability as the firm's sustainability, perceived by the managers in the context of its supply chain or value chain. Consistent with the literature, we put forth that it is a latent concept consisting of three dimensions, i.e., stakeholder economics, stakeholder ethics and environmental dimension. We further hypothesise that managers' communication and satisfaction influence their perception of the value chain sustainability. Using the survey data from 216 managers at a company, we conduct confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) along with a path analysis to verify the hypotheses. From the analysis, we conclude the following. First, the managers do perceive the value chain sustainability as comprised of the three dimensions. Managers' satisfaction with their job and company determines the communication level among the managers. Finally, the managers' communication influences their perception of the firm's value chain sustainability, i.e., the more the managers communicate with each other, the more important the managers perceive the firm's value chain sustainability to be.

Keywords: survey; value chain sustainability; sustainability perceptions; manager communication; job satisfaction; company satisfaction; structural equation modelling; SEM; sustainable development; stakeholder economics; stakeholder ethics; environmental impact.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2016.078069

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2016 Vol.25 No.1, pp.21 - 47

Received: 19 Nov 2014
Accepted: 28 Jan 2015
Published online: 01 Aug 2016 *

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