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NTU Management Review Vol. 32 No. 3 Dec. 2022

4. Research Limitations/Implications

Although we strive to conduct our research rigorously, owing to the particularity
of our research context, some limitations still exist. First, the research results cannot be

directly applied to other countries/markets for comparison. One reason is that our sample
is solely from RT-Mart, a leading retailer in the Chinese market. Because of the large
number of its suppliers, and the high uncertainty and rapidly changing of Chinese market,
the information we collect is incomplete. Another reason is that the conditions of each

country’s market and industry are usually quite different. We suggest future research
could expand to other emerging markets or other developed countries for more in-depth
comparison and exploration. In this study, we measure CSR based on RT-Mart particular
setting and choose only a few appropriate items to observe. We suggest future research

could explore CSR from Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Last
but not least, owing to the high number of omissions in the objective performance data,
this study eventually analyzes the subjective performance indicators for the measurement
of supplier performance instead. Future research should consider collecting complete

objective performance data.

5. Originality/Contribution

This study investigates the relationship between suppliers engaging in CSR and
retailers’ customer satisfaction based on the stakeholder theory. Few studies have discussed
the mediating effect of CSR on suppliers’ firm performance in the B2B context and thus
we contribute to the literature as follows. First, we emphasize that customer satisfaction

can help maintain supply chain relationships and create value. Namely, suppliers’ CSR
engagement positively impacts its firm performance through retailer customer satisfaction
in the B2B market.
Second, among many stakeholders, this study simultaneously investigates upstream
suppliers and downstream customers (vertical inter-organizations), and competitor

identification (horizontal competition situations). We then add the two moderators (i.e.,
vertical inter-organizational commitment and competitor identification) into our research
model to expand our understanding of CSR practices in supply chains.

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