Transparency in global supply chains is of growing importance to firms, regulators, and capital markets. Increasing regulatory requirements and evolving stakeholder expectations have led to greater demands for structured disclosures on upstream networks, sourcing practices, and indirect exposures—ranging from emissions and labor risks to supplier governance and procurement strategies. Recent academic work has substantially improved our understanding of supply chain transparency, particularly regarding its drivers and conceptual foundations. This project complements these efforts by focusing on the empirical links between disclosure practices and firm-level outcomes, aiming to contribute a more integrated perspective on transparency as a governance mechanism in international supply networks.

As part of an interdisciplinary research initiative on the governance of global value chains, this project examines supply chain transparency within the European regulatory context, shaped by frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Adopting a quantitative-empirical approach, it analyzes how corporate characteristics and institutional settings influence disclosure practices, and in what ways transparency is associated with changes in reporting behavior, supply chain structures, or firm-level exposure to sustainability-related risks.

The objective is to identify which firm-specific and contextual factors are associated with particular patterns of supply chain transparency, and to examine how these disclosures relate to observable outcomes at the company level. In doing so, it contributes to an empirically grounded understanding of transparency as a governance mechanism and offers a basis for evaluating its relevance in regulatory and capital market contexts.