Firms are implementing sustainability into their supply chains by nurturing buyer-supplier
relationships and holding their partners accountable for maintaining specific ESG (environmental,
social, and governance) criteria. In this sustainability partnership, both parties may hold specific
requirements for the other, and these perceived reciprocal obligations develop into idiosyncratic
psychological contracts. Psychological contracts include a wide range of nonmonetary currencies,
one of which is ideological currency dependent upon an alignment of ideologies between parties.
Sustainability can be such an ideology, and our research provides a novel investigation into the
ideological currencies of buyer-supplier sustainability management. If perceived ESG obligations
are unmet, a psychological contract breach may occur and lead to managerial actions to remedy
the perceived breach. Based on a series of scenario-based experiments, the impact of three
attributes of breach is explored—personal values, corporate values, and type of sustainability
breach (environmental versus social). Preliminary results indicate that ideology affects the nature
and outcome of the buyer-supplier relationship, with a purchasing manager’s personal values
toward sustainable business practices significantly influencing their response to a psychological
contract breach. Our research provides insight into the role of values in sustainability decision making.
We provide empirical evidence concerning when and how ideology fundamentally alters
the nature of a buyer-supplier relationship and its outcomes. Practically, this study demonstrates
how managers balance their personal values with their corporation’s values in purchasing
decisions.