School of Management (SoM)

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Browsing School of Management (SoM) by Supervisor "Alinaghian, Leila"

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    Analysing the impact of corporate governance on corporate sustainability at board level.
    (Cranfield University, 2021-06) Bolourian, Soudabeh; Angus, Andrew; Alinaghian, Leila
    Stakeholders are increasingly holding companies accountable for their environmental and social conduct. Organisations are engaging in, and incorporating, social and environmental issues in their business models, organisational structures and processes. The board of directors are responsible for the overall achievement and oversight of the organisation’s aims and objectives. However, there is little detail on the board’s role in monitoring and overseeing social and environmental issues in the corporate governance realm. This thesis addresses this void in several ways. First a systematic literature review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the extant literature investigating the board of director’s role as a core element of corporate governance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Critical assessment of a sample of 67 studies from 18 highly regarded scholarly journals published between 1992 and 2020 uncovers similarities and inconsistencies regarding the effects of various board attributes on CSR-performance. The review reveals these attributes do not work in isolation, but interact with each other and the context in which they are embedded in shaping CSR-performance. Second, empirical analysis of a cross-industry sample of 2891 firm-year observations from 789 FTSE350 and S&P500 listed companies during a 4-year period (2013-2016) investigates the role of the board attributes in driving CSR-performance. The influence of the board-level CSR-committee – a board attribute that despite the increased prevalence of such committees on the board is largely understudied – in driving CSR-performance is explored. This contributes to the growing literature on CSR-committees by investigating their presence, composition and interactive effects with various board attributes in driving CSR-performance. Additionally, contributing to the recent call for investigating interactions among board attributes and their impact on CSR-performance. Finally a configurational approach is used to further explore board attribute interactions and combined impacts on CSR- performance. The results of a Qualitative Comparative Analysis reveals nine board configurations leading to high CSR-performance. This contributes to the argument that “one-size” does not fit all, and different boards can achieve the same results via unique configurations of attributes.
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    The influence of supply network structure on firm sustainability.
    (Cranfield University, 2023-03) Qiu, Jilin; Alinaghian, Leila; Razmdoost, Kamran
    Firms are facing increased pressure from various stakeholders to incorporate social and environmental considerations into their strategies and operations. Yet, the successful realisation and achievement of social and environmental objectives extend beyond the boundaries of one single firm. Firms more and more engage in relationships with various upstream and downstream actors across their supply chains to achieve these sustainability goals. Whilst the literature has highlighted the cruciality of the broader supply networks in driving firms’ sustainability, present literatures as a whole lacks both a synthesis of major findings and a reflection of the current development of this area. Adopting a Systematic Literature Review approach, the thesis extends the understanding of the role of network in supply chain sustainability by identifying distinct network attributes that influence the sustainability performance in the supply chain. Specifically, relational and structural network attributes are distinguished and their individual and interactive effects on both environmental and social dimensions of sustainability in supply chains are examined. The study further adds contributions to the current discussion on the cruciality of broader supply networks in driving sustainability by investigating the interfirm connectivity patterns of a real-world and large-scale Automotive supply network. The findings demonstrate a positive relationship between the interconnectedness of supply networks and firms’ sustainability performance. The study also determines the moderating role of firms’ supply network structural properties in the relationship between their sustainability efforts and sustainability performance; the study shows that whereas firms’ in-degree centrality weakens the relationship between their commitment to sustainability and the extent of sustainability performance, out-degree centrality strengthens this association. The thesis further adds to the existing literature examining the role of supply network structural properties by investigating the structural properties of firms’ neighbours. Particularly, the study distinguishes between two neighbours’ structural properties: neighbours’ interconnectedness and neighbours’ centrality. Moreover, the study determines the moderating effect of firms’ bridging in sustainability controversies. In addition to the sustainability outcome, the study examines firms’ sustainability controversies as an alternative indicator of sustainability performance capturing the importance and significance of the sustainability outcomes through market sensitivities (i.e. market reactions to sustainability conflicts).
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    The governance of interorganizational relations: case study investigation in triads and tetrads Addendum: The response of governance structure to project-critical incidents: case study investigation in triads and tetrads
    (Cranfield University, 2019-09) Fausten, Thierry; Pilbeam, Colin; Alinaghian, Leila
    BSTRACT The management of supplier relationships is asserted to be a key contributor to the performance of firms and organizations, notably as the globalization of the economy and the pace of change have significantly increased the competitive pressure. The interdependence of organizations, reflected in supplier portfolios, demands a finer understanding of the interplay of relationships across multiple tiers. After a thorough literature review on the governance of triads, an empirical investigation was conducted in the energy sector in Switzerland. Four cases studies were executed to investigate how does the governance of buyer-supplier relationships influence the other relationships within a buyer-supplier-supplier triad. Data was collected during semi-structured interviews and complemented with documentary evidence, on four concomitant projects involving the same organizations. The findings revealed the interplay of external and internal factors in the choice of governance arrangements and were summarized in a causal network. As well, the evolution of governance in response to threats to the attainment of goals exposed the primacy of functional-level logics in the prioritization of problem resolution. This also allowed to highlight how the governance of one link can affect another link, by changing the structure of the project-level triad, and/or the instruments enacted in the links. Managerial implications were materialized in a practical model displaying the interactions of internal and external influences to be accounted for in the continuous adaptation of supplier relationship and portfolio management practice. A limitation is that full reciprocal recounting of events was not achieved due to access restrictions even when data was collected from all parties in the triads. The value of this research lies in the demonstration of governance evolution across multiple tiers, how it affected both the structure of the triads and the choice of instruments, and the importance of intrinsic values in decision making. The contribution to managerial practice provides insights to improve readiness and flexibility in the management of intra and inter organizational relationships.