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An emerging body of literature has pinpointed the role of supply chain structure in influencing the extent to which supply chain members disclose information about their internal practices and performance. Nevertheless, empirical research investigating the effects of firm-level relational embeddedness on network-level transparency still lags. Drawing on social network analysis, this research examines the effect of relational embeddedness on supply chain transparency and the contingent role of digitalization in the context of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information disclosure.

In their empirical analysis, the authors collected secondary data from the Bloomberg database about 2,229 firms and 14,007 ties organized in 107 extended supply chains. The authors employed supplier and customer concentration metrics to measure relational embeddedness and performed multiple econometric models to test the hypothesis.

The authors found a positive effect of supplier concentration on supply chain transparency, but the effect of customer concentration was not significant. Additionally, the digitalization of focal firms reinforced the impact of supplier concentration on supply chain transparency.

The study findings contribute by underscoring the critical effect of relational embeddedness on supply chain transparency, extending prior literature on social network analysis, providing compelling evidence for the intersection of digitalization and supply chain management, and drawing important implications for practices.

Drawing on paradox theory and the category of the “performing-organizing” paradox, the study investigates the tensions firms experience in the context of organizing the processes involved in managing their indirect GHG emissions.

The authors develop hypotheses to explain why the paradox elements of supply chain transparency and supply chain coordination affect firms' ability to reduce their indirect supply chains GHG emissions. Using a two-stage method based on data from Refinitiv and CDP for 2002 to 2021, the authors test this study’s hypotheses through panel regression analyses.

While greater transparency experience with scope 3 emissions disclosure, GSCM practices and broader supply chain engagement are all associated with higher levels of scope 3 emissions levels, both long-term transparency experience and GSCM practices are also associated with relative reductions in scope 3 emissions over time.

Given growing pressures on firms to demonstrate both transparency and legitimacy regarding their scope 3 emissions, firms must understand the characteristics of this paradox as this has implications for how emissions performance is perceived and managed. This study's results suggested that firms need to take both a long-term perspective and effectively communicate the differences involved in reporting their emissions performance to avoid unwarranted criticism.

Filling a gap in sustainable OSCM studies by providing large-scale quantitative insights into the relationships between organizing and performing, the authors demonstrate that the processes involved in firms' efforts of measuring and managing their indirect scope 3 emissions are paradoxically affected by whether performance outcomes are specified as annual absolute levels of scope 3 emissions, or relative changes over time.

This paper lays the groundwork for future research in supply chain transparency in two ways. First, the authors delineate the construct and explore how it is shifting the business landscape. Second, the authors connect nine theories to the construct to guide future scholars in this growing research area.

The authors explore the practical implications for the future of supply chain transparency research through the application of nine theories: stakeholder theory; the technology acceptance model; transaction cost theory; commodity theory; competing values theory; ambidexterity; the natural-resource-based view of the firm; actor-network theory and neo-institutional theory. The authors also consider the blending of theories to provide further insights into the ways firms engage in supply chain transparency.

This analysis relates theories from several disciplines (i.e. marketing, supply chain management, economics, information systems and organizational behavior) to add theoretical insights to the concept of supply chain transparency, with suggestions for using these theories in conjunction to address complex emerging issues. The authors offer guidance and direction for cross-disciplinary research to help supply chain and logistics influence other fields.

Supply chain transparency is a boundary-spanning phenomenon swiftly proliferating multiple aspects of business. This research applies nine theoretical perspectives to guide future researchers and lays the foundation for managers looking to adopt transparency into their supply chains.

This paper aims to explore the intellectual capital (IC) information needed to enable relationship transparency and the influences of relationship transparency on supply chain partnerships.

A field experiment research design is adopted to examine whether IC information facilitates relationship transparency with partners in the supply chain of a focal firm and contributes to supply chain partnership enhancement.

This study identifies an IC transparency framework consisting of two components – the transparency of important business characteristics and the transparency of relationship atmosphere – for guiding the provision of IC information and enabling relationship transparency. The provision of the focal firm's IC information to partners in its supply chain significantly increases partner's trust, satisfaction and commitment towards their relationships. Thus the results suggest that relationship transparency derived from IC transparency enhances supply chain partnerships. Relationship transparency facilitates the focal firm to develop and integrate its supply chain through improved understanding pertaining to itself and its relationships with partners in its supply chain. Thus, this transparency of the focal firm with partners constitutes a flexible and attainable alternative to managing the relationships for its supply chain.

This study suggests that the field experiment research design allows researchers to effectively observe IC transparency's influences on supply chain partnership enhancement.

For firms increasingly interconnected with supply chain models of competition, this study proposes a practical IC transparency framework specific for guiding the provision of IC information to enable relationship transparency and enhance supply chain partnerships.

This study combines limited research on relationship transparency with IC theories to propose an IC transparency framework for enhancing supplier relationship management and represents a first step to examining the quantitative effects of IC transparency in the context of supply chain partners.

This study seeks to explore the intricate relationship among supply chain transparency, digitalization and idiosyncratic risk, with a specific focus on newly public firms. The objective is to determine whether supply chain transparency effectively mitigates idiosyncratic risk within this context and to understand the potential impact of digitalization on this dynamic interplay.

The study utilizes data from Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) on China’s Growth Enterprise Board (ChiNext) over the last five years, sourced from the CSMAR database and firms’ annual reports. The research covers the period from 2009 to 2021, observing each firm for five years post-IPO. The final sample comprises 2,645 observations from 529 firms. The analysis employs the Hausman test, considering the panel-data structure of the sample and favoring fixed effects over random effects. Additionally, it applies the high-dimensional fixed effects (HDFE) estimator to address unobserved heterogeneity.

The analysis initially uncovered an inverted U-shaped relationship between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk, indicating a delicate equilibrium where detrimental effects diminish and beneficial effects accelerate with increased transparency. Moreover, this inverted U-shaped relationship was notably more pronounced in newly public firms with a heightened level of firm digitalization. This observation implies that firm digitalization amplifies the impact of transparency on a firm’s idiosyncratic risk.

This study distinguishes itself by providing distinctive insights into supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk. Initially, we introduce and substantiate an inverted U-shaped correlation between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk, challenging the conventional linear perspective. Secondly, we pioneer the connection between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk, especially for newly public firms, thereby enhancing comprehension of financial implications. Lastly, we pinpoint crucial digital conditions that influence the relationship between supply chain transparency and idiosyncratic risk management, offering a nuanced perspective on the role of technology in risk management.

Existing literature demonstrates the important role of information transparency in enterprise development and market surveillance. However, little empirical research has examined the information transparency effect in supply chain management. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the significant role of information transparency on supply chain financing and its mechanism, taking trade credit as the starting point.

From the data set comprising 3,880 Chinese firms with A-shares listed on the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges from 2011 to 2020, we obtain the basic picture of information transparency and trade credit. Panel fixed effects regression is used to test the hypotheses concerning the antecedents to trade credit.

The empirical results show that: first, information transparency can significantly support corporate access to trade credit and is found to facilitate financing by mitigating perceived risk. Second, among companies with higher levels of financing constraints, weaker market power and more concentration of suppliers, information transparency promotes trade credit more markedly. Third, the outbreak of COVID-19 causes a substantial increase in uncertainty and risk in external circumstances and then the effect of information transparency is weakened. Fourth, the contribution to trade credit is likely to be stronger for disclosures containing management transparency elements compared to single financial transparency.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to explore the positive role of information transparency to supply chain financing, which to a certain extent makes up for the lack of information transparency research in the supply chain. It provides new ideas for enterprises to obtain trade credit financing and promote the improvement of supervision departments’ disclosure policies.

This study has two major objectives. First, comprehensively review the literature on transparency in supply chain management. Second, based on a critical analysis of literature, identify the attributes and sub-attributes of supply chain transparency and develop a numerical measure to quantify transparency in supply chains.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using the PRISMA approach. Utilizing SCOPUS database past eighteen-year papers search resulted in 249 papers to understand major developments in the domain of supply chain transparency. Subsequently, graph theoretic approach is applied to quantify transparency in supply chain and the proposed index is evaluated for case supply chains from pharma and dairy sectors.

It can be concluded from SLR that supply chain transparency research has evolved from merely tracking and tracing of the product towards sustainable development of the whole value chain. The research identifies four major attributes and their sub-attributes that influence transparency in supply chains, which are used to develop transparency index. The proposed index for two sectors helps to understand areas that need immediate attention to improve transparency in the case supply chains.

This paper attempts to understand the development of transparency research in supply chain using the PRISMA approach for SLR. In addition, development of mathematical model to quantify supply chain transparency is a novel attempt that would help benchmark best practices in the industry. Further, transparency index would help to understand specific areas that need attention to improve transparency in supply chains.

The purpose of this paper is to create an instrument for conducting future supply chain transparency research by developing and validating a measure of supplier transparency. Specifically, the research develops a two-dimensional measure of supplier transparency that builds on previous studies that independently examine visibility and traceability in supply chain management (SCM)/logistics.

The scale development process is carried out over three stages (item generation, scale purification, scale validation). Survey methods are used with two separate data collection phases involving a total of 358 managers from multiple and diverse industries.

The new supplier transparency measure is a concise, two-dimensional scale that has the potential for significant usage in the development and testing of SCM theory.

This study implemented a purposefully general sampling procedure. However, different industries may have additional, specific constraints regarding what it means to be a transparent supplier. Additional opportunities for future research include applying the new supplier transparency measure to examine supply chain frameworks, regulatory compliance, supply chain relationships and the implementation of information technology.

Firms are under increasing pressure to be transparent about partner sourcing, resource utilization and other transactional issues related to the products and processes in their supply chains. The new measure may be utilized to address these issues as well as the interaction between supply chain operations and stakeholders by facilitating a quantitative assessment of supplier transparency.

Drawing on the established constructs of supply chain visibility and traceability, a measure of supplier transparency is developed, supported by a review of the literature, input from subject matter experts and interviews with supply chain managers. Suggestions are made for future validation of supplier transparency within established supply chain frameworks.

This paper discusses how the features of blockchain technology impact supply chain transparency through the lens of the information security triad (confidentiality, integrity and availability). Ultimately, propositions are developed to encourage future research in supply chain applications of blockchain technology.

Propositions are developed based on a synthesis of the information security and supply chain transparency literature. Findings from text mining of Twitter data and a discussion of three major blockchain use cases support the development of the propositions.

The authors note that confidentiality limits supply chain transparency, which causes tension between transparency and security. Integrity and availability promote supply chain transparency. Blockchain features can preserve security and increase transparency at the same time, despite the tension between confidentiality and transparency.

The research was conducted at a time when most blockchain applications were still in pilot stages. The propositions developed should therefore be revisited as blockchain applications become more widely adopted and mature.

This study is among the first to examine the way blockchain technology eases the tension between supply chain transparency and security. Unlike other studies that have suggested only positive impacts of blockchain technology on transparency, this study demonstrates that blockchain features can influence transparency both positively and negatively.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the variables for the non-existence of transparency information in red meat supply chains operating in Gulf cooperation council (GCC) countries. The study provides a synthesis and proposes a hierarchy-based model among the identified inhibitors of transparency with their respective importance.

The synthesis and prioritization of inhibitors are done on the basis of an extensive literature review as well as consultation with academicians and meat supply chain professionals. Using semi-structured interviews and Fuzzy-Interpretive Structure Modeling (F-ISM) approach, the research presents a structured model of the identified inhibitors.

The research has two major contributions, first, it presents variables that can be considered as inhibitors for transparency in a supply chain. Second, utilizing the F-ISM model it shows that there exists a group of inhibitors having a high control power and low reliance and are of strategic importance. These variables require utmost attention to make implementation of transparency initiatives to be successful.

At a time when management of red meat supply chain is crucial for the food security in the GCC region, these findings will be immensely helpful for the government and industry professionals in developing suitable policies to regulate the red meat supply chains. The study would be particularly relevant when the upstream side is in a developing nation and the need is to avoid any health hazards resulting from the consumption of contagious meat and jeopardize the whole supply chain.

Cases of discarding plausible contagious meat into sea or abandoning it in open to create environment hazards can be minimized if transparency is implemented in meat supply chain by considering the variables and their relationships discussed in the research.

Key issues related to transparency in a food supply chain are discussed and interconnectedness of critical factors for the red meat supply chain are delineated.