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Supply Chain Carbon Footprinting and Climate Change Disclosures of Global Firms

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  • Christian C. Blanco

Abstract

The content of climate change disclosures of large, global companies evolved from 2007 to 2016. Within that window, the same set of firms started measuring and disclosing their supply chain carbon emissions. Does carbon footprinting influence the nature and content of a firm's disclosure on the climate change risks that are expected to affect its business? We explore this question using more than 10,925 climate change disclosures collected by the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) from 2,003 firms worldwide. We use singular value decomposition and text similarity scores to quantitatively examine the content of the CDP disclosures from 2007 to 2016. Using fixed effects and dynamic panel models, we find that measuring supply chain carbon emissions (Scope 3) explains a substantial shift in the content and nature of the disclosures. We find no evidence that measuring and disclosing direct emissions (Scope 1) are associated with substantial changes in the content of the disclosures. One explanation for this is that most of the climate change‐related risks are in the supply chain, not within the company boundaries of large, global firms. Our results show the importance of encouraging firms to voluntarily measure their supply chain carbon emissions if they are not yet aware of their contribution and exposure to climate change. Our work shows that firms’ response to climate change is dynamic, and it may take a decade to detect these shifts.

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  • Christian C. Blanco, 2021. "Supply Chain Carbon Footprinting and Climate Change Disclosures of Global Firms," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(9), pages 3143-3160, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popmgt:v:30:y:2021:i:9:p:3143-3160
    DOI: 10.1111/poms.13421
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    2. Ji, Jingna & Li, Tao & Yang, Lei, 2023. "Pricing and carbon reduction strategies for vertically differentiated firms under Cap-and-Trade regulation," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    3. Shuihua Han & Yudi Mo & Zhenyuan Liu & Cheng Lei & Zhen Ye, 2024. "The impact of public climate change concern on sustainable product consumption: a case study of new energy vehicles in China," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 342(1), pages 323-353, November.
    4. Nur Sunar & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, 2022. "Socially relevant and inclusive operations management," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(12), pages 4379-4392, December.
    5. Khaled El Sakty & Mohamed Abdelraouf & Samira Allam, 2023. "How Logistics Performance Reshapes The Movement Of Stocks In The Context Of Climate Change?," Business Logistics in Modern Management, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics, Croatia, vol. 23, pages 43-62.
    6. Qiang Du & Jiajie Zhou, 2022. "Evolution of Low Carbon Supply Chain Research: A Systematic Bibliometric Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-20, November.
    7. Nguyen, Jason, 2024. "Beyond policy impacts: Internal strategic capabilities as determinants of industrial energy efficiency implementation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    8. Katrina Lintukangas & Heli Arminen & Anni-Kaisa Kähkönen & Elina Karttunen, 2023. "Determinants of Supply Chain Engagement in Carbon Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 87-104, August.
    9. Maximilian Hettler & Lorenz Graf‐Vlachy, 2024. "Corporate scope 3 carbon emission reporting as an enabler of supply chain decarbonization: A systematic review and comprehensive research agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 263-282, February.

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