Impediments to Social Sustainability Adoption in the Supply Chain: An ISM and MICMAC Analysis in Indian Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

Although sustainability and its adoption have been talked about for many years, attention to social sustainability in the literature as well as practice has been rather limited. In the developing countries, glaring social issues, such as inequality, poor living conditions, child and bonded labour, inappropriate wages and gender discrimination, combined with increased stakeholder awareness, are exerting pressure on the corporates for social sustainability. This research identifies the social sustainability barriers and their inter-relationships, so as to determine the practices that can lead to the adoption of social sustainability in the supply chain of manufacturing industries. The barriers to social sustainability have been identified through an extensive literature review and their relevance has been ascertained through a questionnaire survey and interviews with the experts. The interpretive structural modelling approach has been used to model the contextual relationships among the barriers. The findings show that lack of pressure from the employees' unions, with high driving power and low dependence, leads at the bottom of the digraph. Lack of pressure by stakeholders occupies the second level, while lack of customer requirements, lack of pressure from social organisations and lack of zeal on the part of the skilful policy entrepreneurs are positioned at the middle level. The fourth level is occupied by lack of social concern and inadequate competitive pressure, while at the top of the digraph come lack of regulatory compliance and lack of awareness of social sustainability. The model has been developed based on the opinions of the academics and industry experts, yielding a hierarchical structure of the social barriers and their interrelationships, which is expected to help the supply chain practitioners and policy makers to address the problems in the adoption of social sustainability in manufacturing supply chain.

Sustainable supply chain management in developing countries: An analysis of the literature

“…When seeking the integration of environmental concerns into supply chain management, coordination among actors in the supply chain has been found to be the key (Zhu et al, 2010). Social sustainability is associated primarily with labour conditions, well-being, quality of life, equality, diversity and connectedness, both within and outside the community (Mani et al, 2016), with an emerging research area on integration of the local community into supply chain activities (Bendul et al, 2016). Finally, the economic dimension is usually measured in terms of sales, market share, operational efficiency, and upgrading (Gimenez and Tachizawa, 2012;Marchi et al, 2013).…”

Exploration and assessment of the motivators of social sustainability in healthcare supply chains: Multistake holder's perspective

“…Though social aspects are essential for overall sustainability, the bigger question is whether these social issues can be addressed in supply chains, leading to long‐term social sustainability (Mani et al, ). Some researchers put this question under the microscope and attempted to find answers by highlighting the motivators of sustainability in general and social sustainability in particular.…”

“…Though social aspects are essential for overall sustainability, the bigger question is whether these social issues can be addressed in supply chains, leading to long-term social sustainability (Mani et al, 2016).…”

“…Companies are more inclined toward satisfying their stakeholders, who are concerned about the social influences these businesses have. Despite this fact, attention to social sustainability in the literature, as well as in practice, has been limited (Mani, Agrawal, & Sharma, ), creating a sense of urgency for all supply chain managers to achieve a more people‐oriented approach (Holliday, Schmidheiny, & Watts, ). This is also witnessed in healthcare, where the demand for effective healthcare services has resulted in a great shift toward more socially sustainable practices within and outside the healthcare supply chain (Aptel & Pourjalali, ; de Vries & Huijsman, ).…”

Interpretive structural modelling and fuzzy MICMAC approaches for customer centric beef supply chain: application of a big data technique

“…Mani et al, (2015a) have employed ISM to explore different enablers and the interactions among them in incorporating social sustainability practices in their supply chain. Mani et al, (2015b) have developed ISM model to investigate the barriers (and their contextual relationships) to adoption of social sustainability measures in Indian manufacturing industries. Dubey and Ali, (2014) have applied ISM, fuzzy MICMAC and Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) to explore the major factors responsible for flexible manufacturing systems.…”