African socio-cultural characteristics: enabling or hindering sustainability?

Purpose This paper investigates the impact of African socio-cultural characteristics on the implementation of sustainability in global supply chains (SCs). Specifically, it explains how social agency problems arise and how sustainability-related governance mechanisms need to be modified for this context to meet the unique requirements of the prevalent informal buyer-supplier relationships. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a multi-case study approach, with data collected from the upstream tiers of Ghana's cocoa and fruit SCs that serve global markets. Social agency theory is adopted to explain the insights generated from triangulating data from interviews, observation notes and secondary data sources. Findings The findings suggest that the prevalent weaknesses of formal institutions in African agri-food SCs magnify formal-informal institutional tensions, which lead to cultural and institutional distances between Tier-1 suppliers and lower-tier suppliers. These distances induce social agency problems. Tier-1 suppliers must leverage ties with both formal and informal institutions to mitigate social agency problems and facilitate the embedding of formal sustainability requirements in line with socially expected behaviours within the community. Originality/value The research extends social agency theory by conceptualising hidden agency problems within the context of the formal-informal institutional interplay. It contributes to institutional distance literature by demonstrating how informal governance mechanisms complement formal enforcement to drive sustainability in agri-food SCs. Furthermore, it introduces culturally embedded governance mechanisms that are particularly relevant in informal, non-contractual agency relationships.