Applications of discrete choice experiments to discern social drivers affecting job design in apparel supply chain

Abstract

Due to increasing customer awareness and government regulations, organisations are forced to integrate social sustainability practises into their working environment. Social sustainability aspect in the apparel supply chain has become a major study area due to its impact on the global economic performance as well as its highly intensive labour work. Hence, researchers pay more attention to developing models to assess the impact of social sustainability practices on the focal company. In this study, we developed a Discrete Choice Experiment to assess social sustainability practices. The experiment was conducted among the blue collar and white collar employees in apparel supply chain to identify their preference for implementing the identified social sustainability practices. Different statistical tests related to discrete choice experiments, such as Effect Summary, Chi-square Likelihood Ratio Test, Parameter Estimates, Utility Profiler, and Effect Marginals were used to discover the employee preference towards social sustainability practices. In the next step, willingness to pay for the identified social sustainability practices and their sub-features were estimated. This explores the employee’s maximum trade off for each social sustainability practice if the organisation decides to implement that practice within the organisation. Hence, organisations can identify which practice should be implemented to increase the overall utilisation of their employees, which improves the social and economic performance of the firm. The study identified providing maternity leave and proper sanitary facilities as significantly influencing factors for the behaviour of a blue collar employee among the considered social sustainability practices, while these two practices have a minor consideration from the firms' focal point of view.