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  • November 2015 (Revised January 2016)
  • Teaching Note
  • HBS Case Collection

McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs

By: Michael W. Toffel
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:29
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Abstract

This case provides an opportunity for students to consider how large, multinational corporations should respond when targeted by activists regarding environmental and social concerns in their supply chains. Greenpeace targeted McDonald's because its chicken supplier was purchasing soya (soybeans for chicken feed) that were grown on recently deforested land in the Amazon rainforest. Although its supply chain purchased a very small amount of this crop, McDonald's collaborated with other soybean purchasers to avoid purchasing from such cropland. The supplemental materials (in the teaching note and technical note) describe animal husbandry practices associated with egg production, including an activist resolution calling on McDonald's USA to shift to "cage-free" eggs, as McDonald's in the United Kingdom has recently committed to do. This material fosters a greater understanding of the trade-offs associated with sustainability policies being set uniformly by headquarters (as with the soybean case) versus delegating such policymaking to regional managers better able to tailor policies to local stakeholder preferences (as with the egg production policies). The case and these supplemental materials also force students to grapple with defining what it means to have a "sustainable supply chain."

Keywords

Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Welfare; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; Brazil; United States; United Kingdom

Citation

Toffel, Michael W. "McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 616-021, November 2015. (Revised January 2016.)
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About The Author

Michael W. Toffel

Technology and Operations Management
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Related Work

    • November 2015
    • Faculty Research

    McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs: Powerpoint Supplement

    By: Michael W. Toffel
    • November 2015 (Revised January 2016)
    • Faculty Research

    McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs

    By: Michael W. Toffel
Related Work
  • McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs: Powerpoint Supplement By: Michael W. Toffel
  • McDonald's Corporation: Managing a Sustainable Supply Chain—From Amazon Soya to Cage Free Eggs By: Michael W. Toffel
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