Supply chain social sustainability for developing nations: Evidence from India

Abstract

Economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability have been shown to span beyond organizational boundaries, indicating the importance of managing sustainability initiatives across the supply chain. Although scholars and practitioners focus a great deal of attention toward economic and environmental sustainability in supply chains, less attention is paid to social aspects. This is unfortunate, because social sustainability not only plays an important role in enabling other sustainability initiatives, but social injustices in one echelon of a supply chain can lead to significant losses for firms across the chain. Social issues have been especially problematic in developing nations, where abusive labor practices continue to negatively affect trading partners. This research seeks to disambiguate supply chain social sustainability in developing nations by uncovering relevant dimensions of social sustainability and resultant outcomes. Using semi-structured interview data collected from supply chain executives in Indian manufacturing companies, this research uncovers dimensions of social sustainability in terms of not only the focal firm, but also first-tier suppliers and customers. Each of these dimensions are then associated to potential performance outcomes. The findings not only provide a baseline for future research, but help practitioners understand where to focus their attention to enhance social sustainability in their supply chains.

Social sustainability in the supply chain: Construct development and measurement validation

“…These measures differ across countries and contexts (Gugler and Shi, 2009;Huq et al, 2014), whereas their majority is supplier performance oriented (Carter and Jennings, 2002;Lu et al, 2012;Ahi and Searcy, 2015b;Silvestre, 2015a). In India safety, wages and labour practices were identified as dimensions (Kumar et al, 2014;Mani et al, 2015a;Mani et al, 2016).…”

Upstream supply chain visibility and complexity effect on focal company’s sustainable performance: Indian manufacturers’ perspective

“…We provide a better understanding of the sustainable supply chains in BRICs (Jabbour et al, 2012;Kannan et al, 2014;Gunasekaran et al, 2014;Mani et al, 2016).…”

Role of Normative Pressures to Adopt Green Supply Chain Management Practices and Their Impact on Environmental and Economic Performance

“…Every company wants to build a green image and they cannot do it so alone as every product has to pass through a long supply chain and all the members should follow the green practices (Gopal and Thakkar, 2016). So, the pressures being exerted by suppliers, customers, media and NGO's are the most important motivators to adopt GSCM practices in developing countries , Mani, et al, 2016. Government regulations (coercive pressures) are not that much effective in developing countries because of non-implementation of rules due to corruption, nonavailability of resources and lack of interest by the officials (Amer, et al, 2016, Zhu andGeng, 2013).So, this study is an attempt to explore the existence of normative pressures and their influence on manufacturing companies of Pakistan.…”

“…There are many terms and definitions for GSCM but the most commonly accepted and used term is triple bottom line (TBL) which guides to focus on environment, economy and social aspects of any supply chain (Hoejmose, Grosvold and Millington, 2014).The main focuses of TBL are to minimize toxic wastes, harm to environment and human health, minimize the use of natural resources (Gopal and Thakkar, 2016);2) to improve the profitability by cost reduction through improved eco-friendly product designs that use useless materials and recycled materials (Rao and Holt, 2005) and ;to improve the working conditions for employees and benefits to the society at large (Mani, et al, 2016). For manufacturing companies in developing countries with less R&D budgets the best way to reach TBL targets is to focus on those existing set of practices such as lean practices, continuous improvements, Eco design practices, risk management and ethical behaviors (Gopal and Thakkar, 2016).…”

“…H2b: GSCM practices are directly and positively associated with economic performance. Many studies have stated that there is a strong positive relationship between environmental performance and economic performance (Amer, et al, 2016, Gopal and Thakkar, 2016, Mani, et al, 2016. Main reasons can be divided into two categories.…”