EMERGING DISCOURSE INCUBATOR: Delivering Transformational Change: Aligning Supply Chains and Stakeholders in Non‐Governmental Organizations

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12164
• Author: Jury Gualandris,Robert D. Klassen
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Date: 01 April 2018

Emerging Discourse Incubator:

DELIVERING TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE:

ALIGNING SUPPLY CHAINS AND STAKEHOLDERS IN

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

JURY GUALANDRIS AND ROBERT D. KLASSEN

Ivey Business School at Western University

Governments and global corporations increasingly both confront and rely

on international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) to identify,

design, and deliver interventions that prompt transformational change in

societies, industries, and supply chains. For INGOs, transformational

change is defined as a fundamental, long-lasting reframing of a social or

industrial system through synergistically altering the knowledge, practices,

and relationships of multiple stakeholder groups. With each intervention,

the focal INGO assembles its own complex supply chain of nonprofit orga-

nizations and for-profit firms to provide the necessary resources and skills.

While prior supply chain management literature provides a good starting

point, with some generalizability to the nonprofit sector, this study begins

with several key differences to explore how interventions are delivered, and

then, how INGOs’supply chains must be aligned. In doing so, at least three

critical factors must be taken into account to improve alignment: stake-

holder-induced uncertainty; supply chain configuration; and supply chain

dynamism. By synthesizing these factors with prior literature and emerging

anecdotal evidence, tentative frameworks and research questions emerge

about how INGOs can better leverage their supply chains, thereby offering a

basis for scholars in supply chain management to build a much richer and

more nuanced research understanding of INGOs.

Keywords: nonprofit organizations; sustainability; rigid resources; services; supply

networks

INTRODUCTION

A growing body of sustainability research has

explored how global corporations can create value for

society by addressing needs and challenges that

extend beyond customers and shareholders (Carter &

Easton, 2011; Linton, Klassen & Jayaraman, 2007;

Pagell & Wu, 2009). While global corporations

undoubtedly should take a leadership role in sustain-

ability, their capabilities and relational connections

often are limited (Wilhelm, Blome, Bhakoo & Paulraj,

2016), and their motives can be viewed skeptically

(Kim & Lyon, 2014). Fortunately, recent sustainable

supply chain management literature (Gualandris,

Klassen, Vachon & Kalchschmidt, 2015; Pagell &

Shevchenko, 2014; Rodr

ıguez, Gim

enez Thomsen,

Arenas & Pagell, 2016) has started to expand this for-

profit-centric perspective to theoretically and empiri-

cally examine how non-governmental organizations

(NGOs) can actively encourage transitions toward

more sustainable social and industrial systems. As a

result, we must now explore how NGOs might best

fulfill this role, often as focal organizations assem-

bling complex supply chains to pursue key sustain-

ability goals.

This study builds upon related literatures and emerg-

ing anecdotal evidence to examine the central role of

international NGOs (INGOs) and their supply chains

in prompting societies, industries, and supply chains

Acknowledgments: We are grateful for the excellent guidance

provided by JSCM Editor-in-Chief Mark Pagell as well as three

anonymous reviewers. We also acknowledge the support of

Oxfam Novib, which provided much appreciated insights and

guidance. During the completion of this study, we also benefited

from comments by Larry Menor, Tima Bansal, Oana Bronzei,

and Diane-Laure Arjali

es.

Volume 54, Number 234

Journal of Supply Chain Management

2018, 54(2), 34–48

©2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.