大客户提升抑或降低了公司供应链透明度?——基于供应商名称信息披露的经验证据

Do Major Customers Enhanceor Reduce Corporate Supply Chain Transparency:Evidence from Disclosure of Major Suppliers’Identities

利用我国上市公司对于前5名供应商名称和采购额信息的自愿披露这一数据,本文研究了大客户对于上市公司供应链透明度的影响,即具体考察客户集中度是提升抑或降低了上市公司对于其主要供应商名称信息的自愿披露。本文的研究结果表明,大客户会提升上市公司的供应链透明度,即客户集中度越高,上市公司自愿披露其主要供应商名称信息的可能性越大;进一步的研究发现,在关系专有化投资越多的公司、供应商集中度越低的公司、处于重污染行业的公司,上述两者之间的正相关关系有所增强。本文的研究不仅在供应链信息自愿披露与客户集中度的经济后果两方面具有重要的理论研究意义,而且对于推动我国企业构建可持续供应链,进而提升我国全球竞争力与实现经济高质量发展具有重要的现实启示意义。

Recently,stakeholders’appealing for corporate social responsibility(CSR)has extended from a single firm to all firms along the supply chain.Thus,understanding the determinants and economic consequences of a firm's supply chain transparency has emerged as a hot topic both in academics and practice.Using adataset from voluntary information disclosure of the names of top five suppliers and the amount of procurement from each of them by Chinese listed firms,this paper investigates the effect of major customers on corporate supply chain transparency.Specifically,we examine whether customer-base concentration enhances or reduces focal firms’voluntary disclosure of major suppliers’identities.The results show that,major customers can enhance corporate supply chain transparency.That is,when customer-base concentration is higher,focal firms are more likely to voluntarily disclose identities of major suppliers.Further evidence shows that,the above results are stronger for focal firms with high relationship-specific investment,for focal firms with low supplier-base concentration,for focal firms in high-polluting industries.Our paper not only contributes to the literature on supply chain information disclosure and on economic consequences of customer-base concentration,but also provides insight into building sustainable supply chain,which plays a significant role on enhancing China’global competitiveness and thus achieving high-quality economic development.