PhD Thesis Presentation - Bridging the Ambition-Action Gap: A Multi-Level Analysis of Science-Based Target Adoption among Apparel and Footwear Suppliers in Bangladesh and China

The apparel and footwear (A&F) industry, responsible for up to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, faces mounting pressure to align with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 °C target through science-based targets (SBTs). Although leading fashion brands have made significant commitments, their suppliers - which account for most Scope 3 emissions - have been markedly slower to adopt these targets, particularly in key manufacturing hubs such as Bangladesh and China. This divergence highlights a critical ambition-action gap across A&F supply chains.

This thesis investigates this gap through a multi-level comparative analysis addressing three questions: barriers to SBT adoption among suppliers, the potential for consumer demand to drive sustainability uptake, and the influence of brands’ communication and climate ambition on supplier behaviour. Drawing on a mixed-methods design, the study combines qualitative interviews with 27 suppliers, survey data from 1,509 consumers in China and Bangladesh, and computational analysis of sustainability disclosures from 20 leading brands.

The findings reveal that barriers to SBT adoption are highly context-specific, with limited perceived benefits constraining adoption in Bangladesh and operational incompatibilities posing greater challenges in China. At the same time, consumer analysis indicates meaningful potential for demand-side pressure, driven by sustainability awareness, perceived individual impact, and pro-environmental behaviour - albeit with differing emphases across contexts. In parallel, analysis of brand sustainability reporting identifies a predominance of neutral communication and a misalignment between stated ambition and actionable guidance, limiting suppliers’ motivation to engage.

Taken together, the results demonstrate that closing the ambition-action gap requires coordinated intervention across supply, demand, and governance levels. The thesis contributes a novel multi-stakeholder framework for understanding SBT adoption, introduces a Climate Ambition Index (CAI) tailored to A&F supply-chain emissions, and applies a theory-driven configurational approach to diagnose adoption barriers. It offers actionable implications for policymakers and industry actors, including targeted incentives, clearer communication strategies, and mechanisms to translate brand commitments into supplier-level climate action. More broadly, the study presents a scalable model for accelerating decarbonisation across emissions-intensive global supply chains.

KEYWORDS: science-based targets (SBTs), supplier adoption, apparel and footwear supply chain, Bangladesh and China, Diffusion of Innovations theory, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Climate Ambition Index (CAI), crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA)