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SUSTAINABLE CONTRACTUAL CLAUSES AS A WAY FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES TO BECOME A DRIVING FORCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS
In the modern world, contracts favour social purposes by providing a good setting for the regulation of sustainability. Within this framework, this article points out the inequality in bargaining power between lead companies and their suppliers that has hitherto not been extensively explored in the literature. This is emphasised by transnational laws, whose focus is on the role of buyers for the implementation of sustainability in global supply chains. Thus, suppliers, usually small and medium-sized enterprises, are mere rule followers, which could make them vulnerable. It is postulated here that is possible to overcome this by bottom-up activities – that is, the negotiation of sustainable contractual clauses including the input of small and medium-sized enterprises, and compromises by the parent company in capacity-building for them. This implies a repurposing of the contract, bringing small and medium-sized enterprises to the centre and making them aware of their power and co-responsible for the spread of sustainability. Buyers should be amenable to this change since it would allow production according to their values, opening their reach to potential new markets and also complying with law, which is more stringent every day in terms of sustainability. This rationale is complemented in the article by examination of a real case and a consideration of the anatomy of a sustainable contractual clause according to these suggestions.