Many companies are implementing transparency initiatives to improve environmental and social impacts throughout their supply chains. Meaningful change, however, is elusive, and transparency efforts are often criticized as legitimizing mechanisms or "window-dressing." This article introduces a model of transformational transparency that enables new insights to drive radical change in companies and supply chains, as well as in industries and society at large. The model highlights the need for technological investments grounded in improving data, empowering stakeholders, and applying moral leadership. It presents examples that demonstrate how the model allows companies to foster dramatic improvements in social and environmental impacts.
Calibrating environmental impacts and dependencies in financial metrics, known as natural capital accounting (natural capital valuations; assessments), is critical for transparency and effective decision-making. Understanding the financial impact of a firm's effects and dependencies on nature not only surfaces new priorities and insights, but also informs and encourages companies' efforts to protect natural resources. Given that transparency and accountability go hand-in-hand, natural capital valuations help companies mitigate impacts and dependencies on the natural world.
Why is it that two firms can use the Internet in the same way (e.g., to reach new customers) and achieve very different outcomes? How can firms better allocate and subsequently leverage the investments they make in Internet technologies? This article shows that e-commerce technologies cannot be successfully leveraged without considering the organizational relationships in which the technologies are being embedded. By properly matching the B2B context with Internet technologies, firms can be in a better position not only to achieve significant economic outcomes, but also to attain sustainable competitive advantages, improve coordination and collaboration processes, and decrease channel resistance.