Circular Value Chain Changes in Digital Retail
Summary
In recent years, the interplay of globalisation, sustainability, and digitalisation has
significantly transformed the global value chain, particularly in the retail sector. This thesis
investigates the environmental implications of online retail, focusing on the interactions
between producers and consumers. By examining six prominent digital retailers—Bol.com,
Amazon, Boohoo, ASOS, Coolblue, and Apple—this research aims to determine how these
companies address the environmental impacts associated with digitalisation and whether
their sustainability reports accurately reflect these impacts.
The literature review establishes a foundation by exploring the independent and collective
effects of globalisation, sustainability, and digitalisation on business practices. It highlights
the gap in existing research concerning the specific environmental impacts of digital retail
and the effectiveness of corporate strategies in mitigating these impacts. The study employs
a comprehensive Sustainable Performance Checklist (SPC) to assess the sustainability
reports of the selected companies, followed by in-depth interviews with key stakeholders to
contextualise the findings.
The results reveal significant variations in how companies manage and report their
environmental impacts. While some companies demonstrate a strong commitment to
sustainability through comprehensive reporting and proactive measures, others exhibit gaps
in their approaches, particularly concerning the management of returns and attention to data
centres. The study focuses on six identified problem areas of digitised retail: packaging,
returns, transport, data centres energy use, digital devices production and digital devices
disposal. It analyses the extent to which companies adhere to the PDCA to describe
solutions for the six problem areas. The comparative analysis underscores the need for
more stringent and transparent sustainability practices across the digital retail sector.
The discussion section delves into the theoretical implications of these findings, highlighting
the need for integrating digitalisation into sustainability frameworks more effectively. Many
companies do not utilise all the tools at their disposal in their sustainability reports such as
ISO-14001, ISO-26000 and GRI. The discussion also addresses the limitations of the study,
including the reliance on sustainability reports and the challenges of generalising findings
across the diverse retail sector. Recommendations for future research include more
information in sustainability reports on all the environmental impact of data centres and
developing more standardised metrics for assessing corporate environmental performance.
In conclusion, this thesis emphasises the need for companies to adopt more comprehensive
and transparent sustainability reports to mitigate the environmental impacts of their
operations. By providing a detailed analysis of current practices and identifying areas for
improvement, this research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable business
and innovation, offering valuable insights for academics, policymakers, and industry
practitioners.