CSR AND AUTHENTICITY IN SUPPLY CHAINS: A FOCUS ON THE LEATHER INDUSTRY

The fashion sector occupies a prominent position in the market. In 2024, the fashion market worldwide is projected to generate a revenue of US$760.00bn. This market is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 7.53% (CAGR 2024-2028) (Statista, 2024a). Despite the economic value, fashion businesses are one of the world’s biggest manufacturing and polluting industries (Reck et al., 2022) generating negative social and environmental impacts (Ferioli et al., 2022; Grazzini et al., 2021; Islam et al., 2020). Leather goods, largely handbags and shoes, are the biggest and highest margin category in the fashion sector (VogueBusiness, 2021). The market of leather goods is expected to grow at a rate of 3.87% (CAGR 2024-2028) (Statista, 2024b). However, leather industries need complex chemical operations to convert the raw hides and skins into finished leather (Moktadir et al., 2020) and the tanning process relies on toxic chemicals that are harmful for workers and the environment (VogueBusiness, 2021). For these reasons it is considered as one of the most polluted industries (Sathish et al., 2019). Therefore, these industries are trying to find solutions to decrease their social and environmental impact. In addition, companies are increasingly communicating their sustainable efforts to improve their image and reputation to their stakeholders (Cowan and Guzman, 2020). Scholars in fact have frequently connected sustainability reporting, including ESG reporting, to firms’ strategic objective to maintain or repair their societal legitimacy (Reber et al., 2022). Particularly, companies that base their market position on their ESG values are often interested in communicating with their stakeholders their espoused values and how they are enacted (Neher et al., 2022). However, sustainability claims alone may not be sufficient (Tarabashkina et al., 2020) as it is necessary that these initiatives are perceived as authentic (Alhouti et al., 2016). These initiatives can generate negative consequences if stakeholders think the organization is not really committed to the cause (Joo et al., 2019). The link between CSR and authenticity has been widely discussed in the literature by focusing on consumer evaluations and perceptions (Chatzopoulou et al., 2021; Joo et al., 2019; Pérez et al., 2020). The present study focuses on the business side and analyzes CSR authenticity in supply chain industries. Understanding how to increase CSR authenticity is crucial since stakeholders have exerted greater pressure on companies to demonstrate sustainability in both upstream and downstream aspects of the supply chain (Amos et al., 2019). This research wants to understand what sustainable information supply chain companies communicate and how this information helps make their supply chains more transparent and authentic.