MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Maximizing the Benefits of B2B Supplier Diversification

Supplier diversity initiatives are a savvy business move as well as an investment in social responsibility.

As America’s population becomes more diverse and social movements highlighting the need for inclusion have taken center stage, governments, nonprofits, and large companies from a wide variety of industries (for example, Nike, Nordstrom, Pfizer, IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Coca-Cola, Fox News) have responded to these demographic changes with initiatives to promote supplier diversity and inclusion. These B2B programs are intended to make it easier for small businesses or those owned and operated by people from socially or economically disadvantaged groups, such as minorities, women, the LGBTQ community, and veterans, to win contracts and sell their goods and services. For instance, Google’s supplier diversity program has helped small and minority-owned businesses win contracts for a wide variety of commodity products and for services like transportation and catering.

About the Author

Simha Mummalaneni is assistant professor of marketing at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Jonathan Z. Zhang is assistant professor of marketing at Colorado State University’s College of Business.

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