“And Here's What I Think About Tariffs…”: What Happens When Politics Enters Supply Chain Decisions?

As supply chain topics like tariffs have become increasingly prominent in public and political discourse, the influence of potential biases from politics has also grown. This study investigates how differences in political ideology influence supply chain management decisions. We use a between‐subjects vignette experiment with a final sample of 216 supply chain professionals who evaluated a new sourcing plan proposed by a manager in response to tariffs. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions where the proposal by the manager included statements that were conservative (pro‐Trump), liberal (anti‐Trump), or politically neutral. These statements influenced participants' view of the manager's political ideology and resulted in different levels of support for a tariff‐related plan and the manager. Our findings include three key insights. First, conservatives were more likely to support a tariff‐related sourcing plan. Second, a manager including a political statement did not significantly impact employee support for the plan, but it did decrease employee support for that manager. Third, ideological dissimilarity between an employee and their manager strongly decreased the support for both the plan and manager—even in the neutral condition. Overall, political ideology biases supply chain decision making, suggesting an important new stream of research.