Sustainable Supplier Selection under Financial Hardships: The Conflicting Impact of Spatial and Temporal Psychological Distances

Alain Balaguer-Mercado (), Samuel N. Kirshner and Chung-Li Tseng
Additional contact information
Alain Balaguer-Mercado: School of Information Systems and Technology Management, Business School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Samuel N. Kirshner: School of Information Systems and Technology Management, Business School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Chung-Li Tseng: School of Information Systems and Technology Management, Business School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-21

Abstract: Economic crises stress trade-offs between costs and sustainability for environmentally orientated firms impacting supply-chain management decisions. Inspired by the disruption to supply caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore supplier selection during a financial crisis, studying the impact of psychological distance on the cost–environmental performance trade-off. Across three experiments ( N = 420), we examine the choice between a low-cost and an environmental supplier at close and far psychological distances. Study 1 and Study 2 demonstrate that closer spatial and social distances, respectively, increase the preference for the environmental supplier. Study 3 extends these studies by showing that distance influences perceptions of the firm’s objectives, mediating supplier preference. In contrast, Study 4 shows that a far temporal distance increases the preference for selecting the environmental supplier, differing from spatial distance, due to a reversal in the appraisal of the firm’s objectives. Taken together, our results provide a greater understanding of the cognitive influences on sustainable procurement decision-making during the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords: sustainable supply chains; supplier choice; psychological distance; COVID-19 financial crisis; sustainable behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9561/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9561/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:12:p:9561-:d:1170869

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().