Also, given that one plant’s suppliers are another plant’s customers, an
interesting implication arises if more than two adjacent organizations in the
supply chain are considered for collaborative practices. These results suggest that
pollution prevention is likely to be more prevalent further downstream in the
supply chain and, conversely, less prevalent upstream. This conclusion holds
some logic. Because products become more commoditized moving upstream and
production processes are more capital intensive and complex, organizations
prefer less disruptive solutions, such as those provided by end-of-pipe
technologies. However, a caveat to this conclusion is the fact that collaborative
activities with customers push resources away from infrastructural investments
(e.g. training, reporting, procedure development, and implementation) and
toward more structural investments essentially split between pollution prevention
and pollution control technologies. In contrast, because monitoring is not
mutual, each member of the supply chain can make these decisions
independently, with no necessity for a pattern to form along the supply chain.
Therefore, this paper questions the incentives, aside from the possible marketing
benefits, for suppliers to enter into such a strategic partnership. Moreover,
monitoring by customers did not consistently encourage (or discourage, for that
matter) greater allocation toward pollution prevention.