Case Name :      Trip Trap: Managing Certification in the Global Supply Chain

Authors :           Jette Steen Knudsen, Dana Brown

Source :             Ivey Publishing

Case ID :            W14528

Discipline :        International Business

Case Length :    08 pages

Solution Sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

A small Danish design company seeks to collaborate with its largest supplier in Thailand in order to improve health, safety and environmental conditions, as well as labour standards, as a core element of complying with the UN Global Compact principles. The company takes its corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda seriously and has developed a new standard for CSR in its supplier factories that is implemented and audited by a non-governmental organization. New challenges emerge as attention shifts to the certification of production inputs such as wood. Although Western small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face pressures to audit their suppliers in developing countries, these SMEs often lack the financial and political resources to change behaviours in supplier factories. The firm’s quality manager must evaluate its sustainability approach. How much leverage can a small company expect to have with its suppliers? Furthermore, is the cost of auditing suppliers in a country such as Thailand too high?