Reveal the Supplier List? A Trade-off in Capacity vs. Responsibility

Under what conditions and how can a buying firm, by committing to publish a list of its suppliers and/or the identities and violations of terminated suppliers, increase its expected profit and supplier responsibility? This paper contributes to a recent thrust in the operations-management literature on how various sorts of transparency influence social and environmental responsibility in a supply chain. In practice, companies are under pressure to publish their supplier lists and suppliers’ violations, and some are beginning to do so. This paper could help guide their decisions.