Driving digital sustainability in global value chains: Multinational enterprises as chief orchestrators

Digital sustainability has the potential to transform how multinational enterprises (MNEs) capture, create and distribute value in their global value chains (GVCs). Yet, a real problem persists in understanding how MNEs drive digital sustainability across their GVCs. This is a complex and evolving process that requires MNEs to coordinate with and collaborate across a multiplicity of globally dispersed partners. Adopting an orchestration perspective, our paper constructs a novel take on digital sustainability in several ways. First, we reimagine the role of MNEs as ‘chief orchestrators’ in GVCs, driving digital sustainability through orchestration activities underpinning coordination and collaboration, which in turn generates opportunities for value capture and creation along the GVC. Second, we disentangle the impact of MNE-driven digital sustainability, unpacking the undesired consequences for GVC partners relating to dependency, power dynamics, transparency and supplier squeeze or exclusion. Our insights temper claims about the transformative potential of digital sustainability, challenging scholars, practitioners and policymakers to reflect on and respond to the double-edged effects of MNE-driven digital sustainability in GVCs. Our arguments are demonstrated through three illustrative cases from firms across industries (agriculture, energy and fast-moving consumer goods). We identify implications for management practice and policy and offer guideposts for future research.