Dr. Satwant Dahiya

What sparked your interest in researching sustainability in global value chains?

While overseeing supply-chain sustainability compliance at a leading fashion brand, I became increasingly curious about how rules crafted in the Global North fits with everyday life in the Global South, and how well-intentioned due diligence measures by multinationals impact the people who produce their goods. This interest in compliance and real-world outcomes motivated me to pursue a PhD in this area.

What is the focus of your current research, and what impact do you hope it will have?

Treating sustainability as a field-level practice, a performance metric for adopters, and an outcome for beneficiaries, my doctoral research examined how sustainability advances in the supply chains. Empirically, I examined fashion and agricultural commodity chains in the Global South, with a focus on India and Bangladesh. I am now extending this work with colleagues by studying multi-tier supply chain settings and exploring how both performance and perceptions of sustainability travel across the chain. Our goal is to explain and ultimately help narrow the gap between downstream ambition and upstream impact of sustainability due diligence efforts.

What do you see as the biggest knowledge gaps in sustainable global value chains?

In my view, three knowledge gaps deserve particular attention. First, despite a growing academic literature on sustainable supply chain management, firms still lack clear, hands-on guidance for navigating fragmented and opaque supply chains and addressing context-dependent sustainability challenges. Second, most academic studies focus on Northern buyers; we need more research on suppliers and production regions in the Global South. Third, many sustainability risks originate beyond direct suppliers, yet lower-tier actors remain understudied. A sharper focus on these “high-hanging fruits” would deepen our understanding of the risks embedded in global production networks.

How do you hope to collaborate with others in this research network?

I look forward to collaborating with colleagues interested in multi-tier supply chain governance across industries and contexts, and to learning from the network’s rich expertise.