Researching social responsibility in the supply chain context

Abstract

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) research has evolved significantly in the last two decades and it is addressing a once recognised lack of focus on the social dimension of sustainability (Walker et al., 2014; Hoejmose & Adrien-Kirby, 2012; Winter & Knemeyer, 2013). Social responsibility is increasingly at the centre of the SSCM debate (Nakamba et al., 2017) and is now developing its own specific and focused directions of study, which offer extensive future research opportunities. This chapter considers how SSCM research has developed, particularly in terms of dominant paradigms and their limitations (Matthews et al., 2016; McCarthy et al., 2018), and how these developments have informed the research of social responsibility within the supply chain context. It reflects on the different ways that social responsibility is conceptualised and practiced in supply chains, drawing on both SSCM and CSR literature and highlighting how these related fields could be harnessed to provide more definitional certainty. Key gaps in SSCM and social responsibility research are identified to include a lack of developing country, supplier and multi-tier perspectives, and the need for a unified approach to measuring social performance in supply chains (Yawar and Seuring, 2017). The chapter concludes with a summary of the different research opportunities for the field, through the application of (multiple) theoretical lenses, methodologies and units of analysis that will enable researchers to more fully understand if, how and why social responsibility is being addressed in the supply chain context.