This dissertation, "Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Development: Perspective From Greater Pearl River Delta" by Chung-sze, Joyce, Tsoi, 蔡頌詩, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled: Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Development: Perspective from Greater Pearl River Delta Submitted by Chung Sze Joyce Tsoi for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in July 2005 This thesis investigates the application and implications of supply chain management as a modern management model in regulating corporate outsourcing activities within the Greater Pearl River Delta. Globalisation has accelerated the application of supply chain management as a mechanism to enhance corporate performance. At the same time this rapid economic development has also accelerated the destruction of environmental and social conditions in these areas, and this has resulted in a lot of media and public attention. This thesis contributes to the debate on how principles and concepts of sustainable development can be put into modern business practice. Society also expects corporations to play an essential role in creating economic, environmental and social prosperity. The literature integrates the concepts of corporate social responsibility and environmental management into the core supply chain management activities within the wider framework of sustainable development. The environmental and social challenges are investigated since there is a growing recognition that development should go beyond economic growth. Whilst most research in the west has focused on the environmental approaches of supply chain management, this thesis seeks to understand, integrate, evaluate and find other options to improve conditions in suppliers' factories. There is comparatively less literature discussing the social approach to and implications for supply chain management with respect to this region. Perhaps more importantly, social issues such as human rights and labour issues in relation to the physical environment are gaining momentum, and are particularly important in this region because of strong media and western consumer pressure resulting from sweatshop activist group campaigns in the west. The four- tier methodological approach is structured within an action research model to achieve the research objectives. The first and second primary studies confirm that both suppliers' and retailers' knowledge are inadequate in terms of establishing and publishing their environmental and social policies and procedures, such as implementing internal and external controls for employees and workers. Their traditional and conservative mindsets are linked to their unwillingness to make a change despite the economic restructuring rapidly taking place, and China's accession into the World Trade Organisation. In particular, codes of conduct are commonly existing literature, embedded with environmental and social criteria as an important policy imposed by multinational buyers to improve both environmental and social conditions within the supply chain. But how effective are such policies? Specifically, the effectiveness of the code of conduct approach is evaluated in the third study by social compliance audits at ground level in the garment industry. It is found that workers' awareness of the code of conduct is low. The barriers include a lack of continuous training, human resources or systems present to tackle specific problems. Key challenges are found in the areas of excessive working hours, unfair pay to the workers and