Scope 3 emissions management calls for boundary-spanning practices of the focal firm and shared responsibility among value chain members. As such, the first aim of this study is to identify what practices are adopted by focal firms to manage Scope 3 emissions upstream and downstream of their value chains and which actors are involved in these practices. Our second aim is to understand the links between boundary-spanning and shared responsibility when adopting Scope 3 emissions practices. We used a qualitative longitudinal study based on content analysis of self-reported and tertiary data from 31 European manufacturing companies’ leaders in climate action to unravel Scope 3 emissions management actions adopted. Overall, we analysed 381 documents for a total of 16,680 pages in addition to two online databases. We found that organisational boundary-spanning practices and shared responsibility are not a precondition for each other. Boundary-spanning practices only create a shared responsibility setting when they go beyond coordination activities and include sharing resources for developing solutions. It is also possible for shared responsibility to exist in the absence of boundary-spanning when companies internally tackle their mutually exclusive opportunities. Companies should also increase their focus on reducing downstream emissions.
