Data structure and representative quotes
| Aggregate dimensions | Second-order themes | Representative quotes |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier identification stage | ||
| Network reinforcing Description Instances in which the focal social enterprise identifies suppliers from a pool of existing suppliers to form supply relationships | Pre-existing social network and personal relationships with potential suppliers | “Because the quality of our product is so important, we buy the critical components ourselves … You often know which parties are on the market that offer good quality products. So, if that’s already known we go down a list and invite parties to explain things and ask what you can supply and what the costs are.” (Director, Enlight) |
| Increase the order amount and/or order ranges with existing suppliers | “We have a company which is called Beta and near Rotterdam who does the buying for us, if we want to do a new tea, we just say to them, well, source all the things you can get of that type of tea. We go there and we taste and we decide and they buy. So that’s easy. We don’t have to do all the fuss with transports and checking if the tea we get is the same as we sourced.” (Founder, Jonny’s Tea) “In 2019, two Alpha employees who were responsible for the entire its100-year collection and were curious about what we could do for them came to visit us. They thought, how cool would it be if we could make this with our old uniforms? – not knowing that we had a collection made from their old uniforms for a while. Their clothing supplier pointed this out to them and that’s how the ball started rolling.” (Blog, Let’s Remake) | |
| New product development with existing suppliers | “Twice a year we have really official conversations with them, such as evaluating this year and looking ahead. And then you have a number of smaller conversations in between when it comes to, for example, a new type of paper that you purchase together with them.” (Owner and Co-founder, My Notebook) | |
| A limited supplier pool constrains the use of network broadening | “There are only two second-hand machinery suppliers in Europe … So the number of options is pretty limited.” “For example, for the rainforest range (acai fruit) there are only two high-quality suppliers nearby. One of them is a social enterprise and I would love to obtain a product from such a supplier.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| Network broadening Description Instances in which the focal organization actively conducts open searches to identify unknown suppliers through the Internet, advertisement, and network events | Look for qualified new suppliers to enlarge the social impact | “So far Sierra Leone has only provided low-quality cacao beans, but it has the potential to deliver high-quality cacao beans. Last year we have been in touch with a group of different farmers, and we’ve been in a process where we have been testing their beans, and sending feedback in order to do an initial shipment. So for us, it’s the product development, but actually, the main reason is that we think it would be nice to have a new origin of quality beans in the cacao market” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| An open search for unknown suppliers to fulfill new production requests | “Then for the packaging and that sort of thing, we also have a separate department within the sourcing team that looks for the most efficient, but also the best packaging in terms of environmental impact.” (Partnership Manager, Chocolate Store) | |
| Search for a backup supplier to reduce production risks | “What I said earlier, you just want to have a second source. You noticed this last year with a shortage of components on the market. Parties were behind the times and components were no longer supplied. Then you have to start looking. But that happens during the process.” (Director, Enlight) | |
| Indirect Networking Description Instances in which the focal social enterprise indirectly identifies potential suppliers through referrals and recommendations from third-party ties in the existing network | Work with network ties to identify appropriate new suppliers indirectly | “We can work with other foundations or organizations that provide assistance to farmer groups, for example, these will then be our on-the-ground eyes and ears.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| Seek partners’ recommendations about potential suppliers to build third-party ties | “… And if it doesn’t work out, we ask around among partners, are you already working with someone, and do you already have positive experiences. Then you start the conversation with the party in that way.” (Director, Enlight) | |
| Supplier evaluation stage | ||
| Value alignment Description: the extent to which the organizational values between a social enterprise and its supplier are compatible when forming the supply relationship. | Embedding social mission into supplier selection | “I think we are critical about who we buy from and what we buy. It’s not acceptable that we’re buying bad materials at the front end, so suppliers who are either social or circular.” (General Manager, Furniture Renew) “Most of our products within the Netherlands are delivered by B-post. It optimizes their delivery routes and minimizes the CO2 emission.” (Annual report, Green Paper) |
| Create (maximize) social impact from supplier selection | “We are not a big company but what we can do is maximize our impact from the purchases we do.” “But to give you another example, in Colombia where we started to buy low volumes, they now have a number of clients to buy beans from them. For this farmer group, cacao is a very important product that they make much more money than coffee … So that’s nice because we realized a lot of additional impact without any costs.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| An aligned social mission with supplier for collaboration | “I think the basic attitude, culture, the shared objectives. I think those companies that share the same type of vision, work the best. So, a farmer cooperative that wants to develop the farmer community and deliver quality, could be a very interesting supplier for us.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) The partner cooperatives are incredibly important mission partners: they’re the implementors who deliver a positive impact to each and every farmer (Open Chain Report, Chocolate Store) | |
| Use sustainability certification as an order winner or order qualifier | “Take another example. We get our bamboo from China. We would prefer to do this closer to home and preferably with a certificate.” (Owner and Co-founder, My Notebook) “And we have a lot of that wood, or actually the majority of the wood that we buy from Supplier S or Supplier N carries the FSC label. So that’s a must for us as well. Also, for us to be able to sell the products as FSC-certified products.” (Founder, Woodmaker) | |
| Relationship commitment Description The extent to which a social enterprise and its supplier aim for a close, mutually beneficial, and long-term supply relationship | A social enterprise’s commitment to a long-term collaboration when selecting suppliers | “Sometimes there is a shortage of suppliers in the market (ex. Organic sugar suppliers). Therefore, now we negotiate long-term contracts with suppliers of raw materials and we don’t do spot purchases anymore.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) “We believe in long-term partnerships with coffee cooperatives, purchased on a direct trade basis. By purchasing a significant volume annually and paying a good price, we make a real impact.” (Blog, Amy’s Coffee) |
| The openness of suppliers for a long-term collaboration when forming the supply relationship | “A company that wants to build up a long-term relationship, even for packaging materials, is a partner for us. Or a machine company that has good quality machinery and goes for the long term could be a good partner for us … So that’s why we shifted towards companies that wanted to enter into long-term contracts. It’s not that the other people were bad, but they just didn’t have the tools in place to be able to do that.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) […] We pay a good price for coffee not just once, but every year. This gives farmers more security and the willingness to invest increases.” (Blog, Amy’s Coffee) | |
| A concrete plan or agreement is formed when making the purchasing decision | “That’s why we try to buy more each year to motivate coffee cooperatives to collaborate with us. Then these farmers can also plan their investment in improving the environment for example their irrigation systems, which give problems they currently face in Africa.” (Founder and CEO, Amy’s Coffee) “Every year again, we buy arabica coffee from 11 cooperatives and we buy robusta from one cooperative. We visit all partners and talk to farmers. This way we learn what every cooperative needs.” (Blog, Amy’s Coffee) | |
| Have a backup supplier to scale up the business and reduce the risk | “We have quite a few suppliers where it falters and then you really look, and especially when you get a bit bigger you actually want to have a backup for every supplier. And if a supplier now disappears and you no longer have your product, that is simply no longer possible from a certain size because you are scaling up your company. So the challenge is always to look at: is there a comparable supplier that can also supply it?” (Owner and Co-founder, My Notebook) | |
| Resource complementarity Description: the extent to which a social enterprise and its supplier need the resources of each other (e.g. quality, delivery, or technology), and the buyer-supplier agreement will provide them access to these resources in need. | Emphasis on the quality of products from suppliers | “The only thing that we would need to know is the moment that we send over the money, is the product as we wished to be. This has only to do with do they know what they need to do and whether are they honest and open in the communication of the product that has been shipped.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| Not the best quality suppliers are selected | “Very well-developed cooperatives are not interesting for us, because we try to develop these cooperatives that are at the beginning of professionalizing their organization. That is an important criterion for us.” (Founder and CEO, Amy’s Coffee) | |
| Emphasis on the reliability and final product delivery from suppliers | “Yes, especially for the products that we relatively buy in bigger quantities (ex. Cocoa beans). We need to be sure that the supplier is able to supply its products as we wished to have.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| Emphasis on the resources and capabilities of the supplier | “When we started, it (ex. Supplier Beta) was not a really big company and it was also a family business whose size fits us best. And we learn to appreciate. And we have a good relationship.” (Founder, Jonny’s Tea) | |
| Cost Description: the extent to which a competitive price is required by a social enterprise when assessing the suitability of potential suppliers | The willingness to pay a higher price | “If you pay too little, the farmer cannot benefit from that. We would like to pay a decent price in order to allow a farmer to manage his farm.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) “(We) don’t purchase at the lowest possible price, but at a price that is profitable for the cooperatives. […] the basic principle is that farmers are paid a living income.” (Website, Amy’s Coffee) |
| The tension between cost and other selection criteria | “From time to time we could purchase at attractive price levels, but for us, long-term availability is much more important.” “Price is not an important factor for us. Actually, it is the other way around, we don’t want to pay too little.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) “This means money is always a means, not the end goal.” (Annual report, Chocolate Store) | |
| A competitive price is expected from the supplier | “Packaging materials is a very opportunistic market segment. There are these types of typical suppliers that try to fool you, the moment they notice you are not aware of prices you get a very different price list. All these simple tricks. There you need to be keen on with whom you’re dealing.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| Aggregate dimensions | Second-order themes | Representative quotes |
|---|---|---|
| Network reinforcing | Pre-existing social network and personal relationships with potential suppliers | “Because the quality of our product is so important, we buy the critical components ourselves … You often know which parties are on the market that offer good quality products. So, if that’s already known we go down a list and invite parties to explain things and ask what you can supply and what the costs are.” (Director, Enlight) |
| Increase the order amount and/or order ranges with existing suppliers | “We have a company which is called Beta and near Rotterdam who does the buying for us, if we want to do a new tea, we just say to them, well, source all the things you can get of that type of tea. We go there and we taste and we decide and they buy. So that’s easy. We don’t have to do all the fuss with transports and checking if the tea we get is the same as we sourced.” (Founder, Jonny’s Tea) | |
| New product development with existing suppliers | “Twice a year we have really official conversations with them, such as evaluating this year and looking ahead. And then you have a number of smaller conversations in between when it comes to, for example, a new type of paper that you purchase together with them.” (Owner and Co-founder, My Notebook) | |
| A limited supplier pool constrains the use of network broadening | “There are only two second-hand machinery suppliers in Europe … So the number of options is pretty limited.” “For example, for the rainforest range (acai fruit) there are only two high-quality suppliers nearby. One of them is a social enterprise and I would love to obtain a product from such a supplier.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| Network broadening | Look for qualified new suppliers to enlarge the social impact | “So far Sierra Leone has only provided low-quality cacao beans, but it has the potential to deliver high-quality cacao beans. Last year we have been in touch with a group of different farmers, and we’ve been in a process where we have been testing their beans, and sending feedback in order to do an initial shipment. So for us, it’s the product development, but actually, the main reason is that we think it would be nice to have a new origin of quality beans in the cacao market” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| An open search for unknown suppliers to fulfill new production requests | “Then for the packaging and that sort of thing, we also have a separate department within the sourcing team that looks for the most efficient, but also the best packaging in terms of environmental impact.” (Partnership Manager, Chocolate Store) | |
| Search for a backup supplier to reduce production risks | “What I said earlier, you just want to have a second source. You noticed this last year with a shortage of components on the market. Parties were behind the times and components were no longer supplied. Then you have to start looking. But that happens during the process.” (Director, Enlight) | |
| Indirect Networking | Work with network ties to identify appropriate new suppliers indirectly | “We can work with other foundations or organizations that provide assistance to farmer groups, for example, these will then be our on-the-ground eyes and ears.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| Seek partners’ recommendations about potential suppliers to build third-party ties | “… And if it doesn’t work out, we ask around among partners, are you already working with someone, and do you already have positive experiences. Then you start the conversation with the party in that way.” (Director, Enlight) | |
| Value alignment | Embedding social mission into supplier selection | “I think we are critical about who we buy from and what we buy. It’s not acceptable that we’re buying bad materials at the front end, so suppliers who are either social or circular.” (General Manager, Furniture Renew) |
| Create (maximize) social impact from supplier selection | “We are not a big company but what we can do is maximize our impact from the purchases we do.” “But to give you another example, in Colombia where we started to buy low volumes, they now have a number of clients to buy beans from them. For this farmer group, cacao is a very important product that they make much more money than coffee … So that’s nice because we realized a lot of additional impact without any costs.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| An aligned social mission with supplier for collaboration | “I think the basic attitude, culture, the shared objectives. I think those companies that share the same type of vision, work the best. So, a farmer cooperative that wants to develop the farmer community and deliver quality, could be a very interesting supplier for us.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| Use sustainability certification as an order winner or order qualifier | “Take another example. We get our bamboo from China. We would prefer to do this closer to home and preferably with a certificate.” (Owner and Co-founder, My Notebook) | |
| Relationship commitment | A social enterprise’s commitment to a long-term collaboration when selecting suppliers | “Sometimes there is a shortage of suppliers in the market (ex. Organic sugar suppliers). Therefore, now we negotiate long-term contracts with suppliers of raw materials and we don’t do spot purchases anymore.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| The openness of suppliers for a long-term collaboration when forming the supply relationship | “A company that wants to build up a long-term relationship, even for packaging materials, is a partner for us. Or a machine company that has good quality machinery and goes for the long term could be a good partner for us … So that’s why we shifted towards companies that wanted to enter into long-term contracts. It’s not that the other people were bad, but they just didn’t have the tools in place to be able to do that.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) […] We pay a good price for coffee not just once, but every year. This gives farmers more security and the willingness to invest increases.” (Blog, Amy’s Coffee) | |
| A concrete plan or agreement is formed when making the purchasing decision | “That’s why we try to buy more each year to motivate coffee cooperatives to collaborate with us. Then these farmers can also plan their investment in improving the environment for example their irrigation systems, which give problems they currently face in Africa.” (Founder and CEO, Amy’s Coffee) | |
| Have a backup supplier to scale up the business and reduce the risk | “We have quite a few suppliers where it falters and then you really look, and especially when you get a bit bigger you actually want to have a backup for every supplier. And if a supplier now disappears and you no longer have your product, that is simply no longer possible from a certain size because you are scaling up your company. So the challenge is always to look at: is there a comparable supplier that can also supply it?” (Owner and Co-founder, My Notebook) | |
| Resource complementarity | Emphasis on the quality of products from suppliers | “The only thing that we would need to know is the moment that we send over the money, is the product as we wished to be. This has only to do with do they know what they need to do and whether are they honest and open in the communication of the product that has been shipped.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| Not the best quality suppliers are selected | “Very well-developed cooperatives are not interesting for us, because we try to develop these cooperatives that are at the beginning of professionalizing their organization. That is an important criterion for us.” (Founder and CEO, Amy’s Coffee) | |
| Emphasis on the reliability and final product delivery from suppliers | “Yes, especially for the products that we relatively buy in bigger quantities (ex. Cocoa beans). We need to be sure that the supplier is able to supply its products as we wished to have.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| Emphasis on the resources and capabilities of the supplier | “When we started, it (ex. Supplier Beta) was not a really big company and it was also a family business whose size fits us best. And we learn to appreciate. And we have a good relationship.” (Founder, Jonny’s Tea) | |
| Cost | The willingness to pay a higher price | “If you pay too little, the farmer cannot benefit from that. We would like to pay a decent price in order to allow a farmer to manage his farm.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) |
| The tension between cost and other selection criteria | “From time to time we could purchase at attractive price levels, but for us, long-term availability is much more important.” “Price is not an important factor for us. Actually, it is the other way around, we don’t want to pay too little.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
| A competitive price is expected from the supplier | “Packaging materials is a very opportunistic market segment. There are these types of typical suppliers that try to fool you, the moment they notice you are not aware of prices you get a very different price list. All these simple tricks. There you need to be keen on with whom you’re dealing.” (Founder and CEO, Chocolate Factory) | |
Source(s): Authors’ own creation
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