Circular Value Chain Changes in Digital Retail

Abstract

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.