Smart Disclosure: MNE Supply Chain Transparency as an Enabler for Suppliers' Human Rights Commitments

Presenter: Dr Stephanie Lu Wang

Associate Professor, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

Abstract
Human rights violation remains an urgent global grand challenge, and multinational enterprises (MNEs) face increasing pressure to address it in their global supply chains. Drawing insights from the information as regulation literature, we propose that MNEs can leverage supply chain transparency as a smart disclosure (i.e., smart technologies medicated disclosure with enhanced reprogrammability, accessibility, communicability, and expansibility of the information disclosed) to promote suppliers' human rights commitments. We theorize that through smart disclosure, MNEs can enlist all relevant stakeholders to influence suppliers through a crowdsourcing approach to solve human rights issues. Furthermore, we argue the information conditions in the global supply chains serve as important boundary conditions. Specifically, we argue that smart disclosure is more effective for suppliers with stronger relational embeddedness with MNEs (i.e., internal information condition) but less effective for suppliers located in countries with greater institutional voids (i.e., external information condition). We test our arguments by analyzing 4,025 MNE-supplier-year data in the global apparel industry from 2011 to 2019. These findings stress the theoretical and practical importance of information as regulation in tackling global grand challenges.

Biography
Dr. Stephanie Lu Wang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Stephanie's primary research interests lie at the intersection of internationalization and social and environmental sustainability topics. She is particularly interested in studying emerging market multinationals and cultural industries as research contexts. Stephanie has won numerous awards, such as the Alan Rugman Fellow in 2021, the International Management Division's Emerging Scholar Award from the Academy of Management (AOM) in 2019, the Academy of International Business (AIB) Best Paper Award in 2018, the Inaugural Journal of Word Business (JWB) Best Phenomenon-Based Article Award in 2018, the Woman AIB Emerging Scholar Award in 2017, the International Management Division Best Dissertation Award (finalist) in 2015, the Best Paper Award from the AOM in 2015, Excellent Service Award from both AOM and AIB, and others. Stephanie serves as a guest editor for the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), a consulting editor for Journal of International Management, and an editorial board member for the JIBS and Global Strategy Journal. She has published 18 articles in top management and IB journals, such as the JIBS, Strategic Management Journal, JWB, Journal of Management Studies, etc. She is the faculty advisor for the Indiana University Chapter of Ascend, the largest non-profit Pan-Asian organization for business professionals in North America. Stephanie is a Non-Resident Research Fellow of the Core Research Team at the Center for Emerging Markets of Nanyang Business School at the Nanyang Technological University. Stephanie received her Ph.D. from the University of Miami, a master's degree from Peking University, and an undergraduate degree from the Renmin University of China.