Developing sustainability in global manufacturing networks: The role of site competence on sustainability performance

- In a global manufacturing network, the competence of one plant is positively associated to the adoption of sustainability programs.
- Sustainability programs, in turn, contribute to the improvement of sustainability performance.
- Site competence is therefore fundamental to achieve superior sustainability performance in global manufacturing networks.
- Site competence contributes also directly to the social sustainability performance
- Empirical test of the relationships on more than 500 companies in the manufacturing industry.

Environmental and social sustainability are becoming sources of competitive advantage for multinational companies. Consequently, they need to understand how to manage their global manufacturing networks to enhance both environmental and social performance. Results from an international survey show that site competence-that is, having competences in operations beyond the production activities-is an antecedent of the adoption of environmental and social sustainability programs and, in turn, of higher performance improvement. Moreover, site competence provides also a direct contribution to performance achievement especially to pursue social sustainability.