Supplier Engagement for Sustainability: The Case of Delhaize

Abstract

This study serves the purpose to find out how power- and collaboration-based factors contributed to the success of a supplier engagement strategy for achieving sustainability. This research is conducted at case study company Delhaize in Brussels, Belgium. The setup is a single embedded case study design, wherein Delhaize served as the primary unit of analysis and the three supply chains of pork, eggs and dairy as secondary units of analysis. The focus is on own-brand products of Delhaize. The study includes an empirical analysis of different supplier engagement strategies in place and the “success factors” thereof. The supplier engagement strategies for pork and eggs are the “Beter voor Iedereen” initiative and for dairy it is the “Biomilk.be” project. The case-studies highlight that power- and collaboration-based factors can be used jointly to reinforce their use in supplier engagement strategies. For power-based factors the main factors identified are: (i) power imbalance, and (ii) bases of power; whereas for collaboration-based factors these are: (iii) trust, (iv) commitment and (v) information. This study offers insights into the way in which a large retailer works with supply chain actors to implement sustainable practices along the supply chain and shows how managing both power and trust – that is, the various ways in which these multi-dimensional factors are used – can support or hinder effective engagement around sustainability in the supply chain.