Sub-supplier compliance with a focal firm's corporate sustainability standards (CSS) is increasingly recognized as an important dimension of sustainable supply chain management. This paper draws on recent sub-supplier management studies and their critical success factors (CSFs) to investigate the interrelationships between and strengths of CSFs. While previous research focused on the perspective and practices only of focal firms, this exploratory field study investigated a focal firm, one of its suppliers and one of its sub-suppliers in a multi-tier supply chain setting. Our findings suggest that sub-supplier assessment and collaboration are influenced by (1) the committed long-term relationship between the direct supplier and the sub-supplier, (2) the involvement of the direct supplier, and (3) the focal firm's buyer-power over the direct supplier. In return, sub-supplier assessment and collaboration influence those and further CSFs in a feedback loop, enabling virtuous or vicious cycle effects. The perspective of the sub-supplier revealed substantial differences to the supplier and the focal firm, in particular the lower feedback loop effect of collaboration on CSFs.

次级供应商对重点公司的企业可持续性标准（CSS）的遵守越来越被认为是可持续供应链管理的重要方面。本文利用最近的子供应商管理研究及其关键成功因素（CSF）来研究CSF与优势之间的相互关系。先前的研究仅关注重点公司的观点和实践，而该探索性实地研究则在多层供应链环境中调查了重点公司，其供应商之一及其子供应商之一。我们的发现表明，子供应商的评估和协作受到以下因素的影响：（1）直接供应商与子供应商之间长期的长期关系；（2）直接供应商的参与；以及（3）焦点企业的' 买方对直接供应商的权力。作为回报，子供应商的评估和协作会在反馈回路中影响那些以及进一步的CSF，从而带来良性或恶性循环效应。次级供应商的观点揭示了供应商和焦点公司之间的实质性差异，特别是协作对CSF的较低反馈回路效应。