Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of negative media attention regarding a buyer's (female) corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues on its supplier's (male) innovation absorption. We argue that the public criticism towards supply-chain related CSR issues brings reputation risks to the firm reported and such risks diffuse through its supply chain. The finding shows that the negative media attention on a buyer’s supply chain risks inhibits her supplier from absorbing the buyer’s innovation intelligence and this finding is robust to the form of measures, different severity and coverage of the media attention, high- tech and non-high-tech industries, and value chain unethicality. This study extends the scope of previous research in two regards: first, it is the first paper empirically investigate the relationship between CSR issues with supply chain innovation; second, this paper extends the current paper on CSR spillover by exploring how buyer’s ethical issues influence supplier’s behaviors.

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