EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Socially Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Suppliers’ Social Performance: The Role of Social Capital

Mohammad Alghababsheh () and David Gallear ()
Additional contact information
Mohammad Alghababsheh: Mutah University
David Gallear: Brunel University London

Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, vol. 173, issue 4, No 11, 855-875

Abstract: Abstract The implementation of socially sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices (i.e. assessment and collaboration) to tackle suppliers’ social deficiencies (e.g. the use of child labour) often requires a level of cooperation that can be difficult to establish. Despite this daunting challenge, scant scholarly attention has been paid to explore how the implementation of socially SSCM practices can be effectively facilitated and enhanced. Drawing on social capital theory, this study examines the individual impact of assessment and collaboration practices on suppliers’ social performance and explores whether and how these effects can be moderated (strengthened) by the level of social capital (i.e. relational, cognitive, and structural) embedded in the buyer–supplier relationship. Based on a survey of 119 manufacturing companies in the UK, we found that assessment practices are less likely to influence suppliers to improve social performance compared to collaboration practices. However, when relational and structural capital are manifested in the relationship, assessment practices become significant in driving suppliers’ social performance. We also found that the positive impact of collaboration practices is more pronounced when relational and cognitive capital are established in the relationship. This paper contributes to the growing socially SSCM literature by disentangling the vital and relative importance of social capital dimensions on the implementation of socially SSCM practices.

Keywords: Responsible; Social capital; Social performance; Supplier; Supply chain; Sustainable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04525-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:173:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04525-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04525-1

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:173:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04525-1