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The purpose of this paper is to explore reputational risk that are borne in the supply chain and contribute to this contemporary but growing research stream.

First, a theoretical framework is provided to help in the characterisation of reputational risks and how they impact supply chain members that may be multiple tiers away from the manufacturer. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted with practitioners who were familiar with reputational risks and who were engaging in varying mitigating techniques. Cognitive modelling was utilised to report the findings.

The practitioners in this paper were very familiar with the risks and were active in varying mitigating practices as budgets and resource constraints would allow. The brevity of the risks identified and the significance of specific risks with how they impact a reputation was revealed. Mitigation is an ongoing and haphazard process with very little information available as would be expected with a typical risk management approach.

This paper serves to provide practitioners insight into the varying methods used by firms with supply chain members that number in hundreds. Based on our findings, a recommendation was made that utilise corporate social responsibility as a foundation that is proposed to address a number of risks including those related to price, availability and quality. The limits of this work are that it is specific to a select group of practitioners specialised in this area. Although the information is rich, it is not generalisable.

This paper makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing insight into the perceptions of practitioners who make decisions on mitigating reputational risks. The results suggest that this is a very new area of management that is striving to find a way to minimise their exposure.

Effective management of suppliers is one of the ways manufacturing companies can improve their performance. Typically, it has been argued in the literature that close relationships with suppliers should be developed, in contrast to the traditional price‐driven transactional relationships. However, there has been relatively little empirical research on how supplier management is applied.

This paper presents research probing how manufacturers manage their suppliers and takes a sample from Germany – which has a large manufacturing sector. In‐depth interviews with purchasing managers were used to understand whether relationships with suppliers were being utilised.

The analysis of the data indicates that a significant portion of the companies surveyed had experienced a change in their relationship with suppliers in the last few years. In the main, relationships had become closer and the use of partnerships was in evidence.

The research results have implications for German manufacturing companies, as they indicate the potential for improving performance through the greater adoption of best practices in the area of supplier management. The research results indicate the need for German manufacturers to adopt leading‐edge practices in the area of supplier management.

Although exploratory in nature, the investigation demonstrated the need for researchers to better understand the range of relationships in a typical manufacturer's supplier base.

Streamlining the supplier base is a common approach in many US and UK manufacturing companies. However, is this approach being adopted in Germany as fast as it has in the UK? This paper describes research that answers this question and investigates how German companies are managing contacts with their suppliers. The research was conducted in two stages. First, a postal survey of German and UK manufacturers identified the supplier base trends. Second, a follow‐up telephone survey of a random sample of German plants investigated supplier management processes. The findings show that German manufacturers have not reduced their supplier base by as much as their UK counterparts. However, German manufacturers that have reduced their supplier base perceive significant benefits. Currently, many companies appear to have failed to recognize the potential of working with a reduced supplier base.

Supplier partnerships can be the key in enhancing the performance of manufacturing companies. Consequently, partnership has been strongly recommended by academics and practitioners alike. Surprisingly, the concept of partnership is only poorly understood. Many authors have identified the advantages that it can bring but far less has been published on the attributes of partnership itself. What is known is that partnerships are “close” relationships and thus, the level of relationship closeness is an appropriate angle for exploring supplier partnerships. Research was conducted using the repertory grid technique with an exploratory sample of ten managers from four German engineering companies. It revealed that supplier partnerships are very different from other forms of relationship and identified five distinct attributes of partnerships. These findings have a number of implications for both practitioners and researchers.

In the supply chain context, professionals manage various risks that have the potential to disrupt supplies. Surprisingly, one kind of risk is often overlooked: reputational risk. It is critical to recognise the risk potential that impacts on the reputation of the organisation. Furthermore, managers require an appropriate tool set to control it. The present paper aims to have a twin focus: first, it will lay out the basic premises behind corporate reputation, reputational risk, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Second, the practical implications will be addressed that lead to a substantial teaching component.

The present paper is based on two research stages. Initially, the authors adopted the “reflective practitioner” philosophy that aimed at discovering the common beliefs in practice that explain working processes and management thought. In particular, they explored the foundation of CSR, reputation and risk management with specialists in dedicated workshops (electronics, energy, life sciences, telecommunications and defence industries, located at different stages of the supply chain). To gain more insight, the authors subsequently conducted in‐depth interviews in these topic areas with key informants. The combination allowed them methodological triangulation.

Reputation can be created and controlled as soon as its nature is fully understood (Reputational Owner). Interestingly, it is a transceiving business phenomenon that crosses organizational boundaries. Spillover effects can thus be observed at all stages of the supply chain by mere business association (Reputational Borrower). Reputation can range from positive to negative extremes and needs to be managed. The results of the authors' exploratory work are presented as quotations to provide the substance of the current and relevant subject.

The present work is exploratory in nature. Quantitative research methods are now required to validate and substantiate the findings.

CSR is a contemporary foundation to mitigate reputational risk throughout the supply chain. The authors outline the reputational risk factors in this context and the ways of managing those.

In the market place, reputation is a reflection of the supply chain offering (products, services), communication (promotion, PR), and action (behaviour and views expressed). Consumers adopt supply chain reputation as a yardstick when making purchase decisions. It is therefore critical to manage reputational risk in the supply chain and this paper outlines the cause and effect relationships that this topic entails in modern society.

This paper discusses the importance of reputational risk in the supply chain. It also explains the ways it can be mitigated via CSR. This is the management baseline that adds tremendous value for theory builders and present and future managers. Having the education of Master students in mind, the authors outline three specific teaching units that bring the conceptual underpinnings alive in an interactive learning environment.

There is a research gap in terms of understanding how green consumers perceive green products in a marketplace context. The purpose of this paper is to respond to this omission by exploring the green consumers' product demands and consumption processes.

Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with Portuguese green consumers are used to discuss potential key factors (reasons to buy green products, defining green product characteristics, feelings about pricing, perceived product confidence, willingness to compromise, environmental knowledge, consideration of alternatives, product's point of purchase and use and disposal).

The analysis indicates that green consumers represent an artificial segment and provides further empirical support to the definition of sustainability as a market‐oriented concept. The paper's findings suggest that mainstreaming green products is a more positive alternative than green segmentation.

This research is exploratory in nature and the authors followed established guidelines to ensure objectivity. However, the study's findings are restricted to Portuguese green consumers and a replication in other countries would help to remove any potential country bias.

Sustainable businesses are eager to learn who the green consumer is in order to define this market segment. This may not represent the best strategy, however. Targeting green products to a niche market based only on intangible environmental or ethical values may not only be hindering the progress of sustainability as a market‐oriented concept but also missing the huge opportunity of gaining competitive advantage in the inevitable future marketplace.

Most marketing studies were unsuccessful in segmenting green consumers even “on average”, resulting in elusive and contradictory outcomes. Only very few studies are aimed at exploring the green consumer's behavior using qualitative research approaches. This paper explores the product demands of green consumers, as well as their consumption processes in detail.

A key issue for manufacturers is supplier management, i.e. organising the optimal flow of high quality, value‐for‐money materials or components from appropriate innovative suppliers. Many companies now recognise the central role that supplier management plays in achieving long‐term competitive advantage. This paper presents the results of a study of supplier management practices in Germany, contrasted against those in the UK. It identifies a key difference – German manufacturers have not reduced their supplier base as much as the companies in the UK. However, it appears that German manufacturers will be reducing their supplier base in the near future, although they are likely to follow a policy of multiple sourcing rather than single‐sourcing from suppliers. The results of the research have strong implications for German companies as they clearly indicate the potential for performance improvement through the adoption of best practices in the field of supplier management.

The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship (CC) in supply chain development, by analyzing the current literature, contemporary concepts, data and gaps for future discipline research.

This research identifies information from existing academic journals and investigates research designs and methods, data analysis techniques, industry involvement and geographic locations. Information regarding university affiliation, publishers, authors, year of publication is also documented. A collection of online databases from 2001 to 2018 were explored, using the keywords “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in their title and abstract, to deliver an inclusive listing of journal articles in this discipline area. Based on this approach, a total of 164 articles were found, and information on a chain of variables was collected.

There has been visible growth in published articles over the last 18 years regarding supply chain sustainability, CSR and CC. Analysis of the data collected shows that only five literature reviews have been published in this area. Further, key findings include 41% of publications were narrowly focused on four sectors of industry, leaving gaps in the research. 85% centered on the survey and conceptual model, leaving an additional gap for future research. Finally, developing and developed nation status should be delineated, researched and analyzed based on further segmentation of the industry by region.

This research is limited to reviewing only academic and professional articles available from Emerald, Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Scopus, JSTOR and EBSCO containing the words “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in the title and abstract.

This assessment provides an enhanced appreciation of the current practices of current research and offers further directions within the CSR and CC in supply chain sustainable development.

The authors introduce a new approach to estimate high-dimensional factor-augmented vector autoregressive models (FAVAR) where the loadings are subject to idiosyncratic regime-switching dynamics. Our Bayesian estimation method alleviates computational challenges and makes the estimation of high-dimensional FAVAR with heterogeneous regime-switching straightforward to implement. The authors perform extensive simulation experiments to study the finite sample performance of our estimation method, demonstrating its relevance in high-dimensional settings. Next, the authors illustrate the performance of the proposed framework for studying the impact of credit market disruptions on a large set of macroeconomic variables. The results of this study underline the importance of accounting for non-linearities in factor loadings when evaluating the propagation of aggregate shocks.