COVID-19 affected the global supply chain substantially, severely compromising the efficiency of the supply chain due to delays and disruptions. The effects continue to impact consumers and businesses, primarily in terms of rising inflation and increasing living costs.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Simon Sheng, Ph.D., professor in the Collat School of Business’ Department of Marketing, Industrial Distribution and Economics, is a marketing channels expert. His recent research, published in the Journal of Business Ethics, focuses on the role of distributor whistleblowers in deterring unethical behaviors in marketing channels.
According to Sheng, distributors’ wrongdoings eventually will hurt the efficiency of the supply chain, augmenting the current shortages. But distributor whistleblowing can help improve the supply chain and eventually help lower inflation.
The current high inflation rate in the United States can be partially attributed to the rising cost of the supply chain because it accounts for 20 percent of the final price of products that consumers pay. According to Sheng, distribution whistleblowers can help lower this cost in the long term.
“Distributor whistleblowing provides an alternative mechanism for the distributor and regulative entities to identify misconduct in the marketing channels, preventing consumers from being hurt by wrongdoings or unethical behaviors in the distribution networks,” Sheng said.
For example, one of...
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