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This paper aims to provide a starting point to discuss how social enterprises can drive systemic change in terms of social impact through operations and supply chain management.

This paper reviews existing literature and the four papers in this special issue and develops a conceptual framework of how social enterprises and their supply chains create social impact and further enable systematic change.

Our paper finds that social impact and systemic change can be shaped by social enterprises at three different levels of analysis (organization, supply chain and context) and through three enablers (cognitive shift, stakeholder collaboration and scalability). Such dimensions are used to position current literature and to highlight new research directions.

This paper proposes a novel understanding of operations and supply chain management in social enterprises intended as catalysts for systemic change. Based on this premise we distinguish different practices and stakeholders to be considered when studying social impact at different levels. The conceptual framework introduced in the paper provides a new pathway for future research and debate by scholars engaged at the intersection of social impact, sustainable operations and supply chain management.

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of social capital on supply chain performance via supply chain quality integration (SCQI), which refers to integrating supply chain partners from the perspective of quality management. It also examines the moderating role of environmental uncertainty in the link between social capital and SCQI and determines the conditional indirect effect of social capital on supply chain performance via SCQI.

Data were collected using a time-lagged research design through a self-administered survey of supply chain professionals in manufacturing firms in Pakistan. Hayes’ PROCESS Macro was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show a positive relationship between social capital and supply chain performance. SCQI partially mediates the relationship between social capital and supply chain performance. Environmental uncertainty significantly moderates that relationship in such a way that firms that operate under high environmental uncertainty are more likely to use their social capital to develop SCQI than firms that operate under low environmental uncertainty.

The study has practical implications for managers who seek to implement SCQI practices using social capital. Leveraging social capital across the supply chain fosters strong connections and a quality-oriented approach across the supply chain, and improves overall performance. Managers can use the power of social capital to navigate environmental uncertainty.

This study’s originality lies in its drawing on the dynamic capability theory and contingency theory and integrating the dispersed scholarly work on social capital, SCQI, and supply chain performance under the boundary condition of environmental uncertainty.

The study explores manufacturers' supply chain social capital (SCSC) (structural social capital and relational social capital) and supply chain performance, respectively, as drivers and outcome of green supply chain management practices (GSCMPs). Additionally, the study explores the direct relationship between SCSC and supply chain performance of manufacturers.

The author develops and tests a research model grounded in the resource-based view and the natural resource-based view theory using survey data from 100 manufacturing firms operating in Ghana. The measurement model and hypothesized paths were examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings revealed that relational social capital of manufacturers has a positive and significant relationship with supply chain performance, but structural social capital does not. Additionally, manufacturers' structural social capital and relational social capital were found to have a positive and significant relationship with GSCMPs. Lastly, GSCMPs were found to have a positive and significant relationship with supply chain performance.

The study contributes to the limited literature demonstrating the contribution of intangible relational assets, specifically SCSC, toward GSCMPs implementation.

Previous literature on sustainable supply chain management has largely adopted an instrumental view of stakeholder management and has focused on understanding the effect of powerful stakeholders who have a more decisive influence on an organization's supply chain decisions. Social enterprises have emerged as organizations that often aim to create impact by integrating marginalized stakeholders into their operations and supply chains. This study examines the trade-offs that social enterprises experience due to their moral stance toward stakeholder engagement, evidenced in their commitment to serving marginalized stakeholders, as well as the responses adopted to these trade-offs.

The study follows a theory elaboration approach through a multiple case study design. The authors draw on insights from stakeholder theory and use the empirical insights to expand current constructs and relationships in a novel empirical context. Based on an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary qualitative data on ten social enterprises, the authors examine how these organizations integrate marginalized stakeholders into various roles in their operations.

When integrating marginalized customers, suppliers and employees, social enterprises face affordability, reliability and efficiency trade-offs. Each trade-off represents conflicts between the organization's needs and the needs of marginalized stakeholders. In response to these trade-offs, social enterprises choose to internalize the costs through slack creation or vertical integration or externalize the costs to stakeholders. The ability to externalize is contingent on the growth orientation of the organization and the presence of like-minded B2B (Business-to-Business) customers. These responses reflect whether organizations accept the trade-offs at the expense of one or more stakeholders or if they avoid the trade-offs and find mutually beneficial solutions.

Building on the empirical insights, the authors elaborate on stakeholder theory with a focus on the integration of marginalized stakeholders by emphasizing a moral justification for stakeholder engagement, identifying the nature of the underlying trade-offs which can arise when various stakeholder needs are in conflict and examining the contingencies affecting organizational responses to these trade-offs.

Forced labour is one of the most exploitative practices in supply chains, generating serious human right abuses. The authors seek to understand how relationships for reducing forced labour are influenced by institutional logics. The emerging supply chain efforts of social enterprises offer particularly intriguing approaches, as their social mission can spur creative new approaches and reshape widely adopted management practices.

The authors study supplier relationships in the smartphone industry and compare the evolving practices of two cases: the first, a growing novel social enterprise; and the second, a high-profile commercial firm that has adopted a progressive role in combating forced labour.

The underlying institutional logic influenced each firm's willingness to act beyond its direct suppliers and to collaborate in flexible ways that create systematic change. Moreover, while both focal firms had clear, well-documented procedures related to forced labour, the integration, rather than decoupling, of forced labour and general supply chain policies provided a more effective way to reduce the risks of forced labour in social enterprises.

As authors’ comparative case study approach may lack generalizability, future research is needed to broadly test their propositions.

The paper identifies preconditions in terms of institutional logics to successfully reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains.

This paper discusses how social enterprises can provide a learning laboratory that enables commercial firms to identify options for supplier relationship improvement.

This paper aims to introduce corporate social responsibility into the green supply chain and analyse the impact of different decision makers’ decision-making schemes on carbon emission reduction in the supply chain.

This study uses a two-stage low-carbon supply chain composed of a manufacturer and retailer as the research object. It uses the Stackelberg game model to analyse optimal carbon emission reduction and its influence under different decision-making modes.

Increased consumer green preferences and trust can improve the manufacturing enterprises’ carbon emission reduction rate. The carbon emission reduction rate decreases with increased green innovation costs. When green technology innovation costs remain constant, the greater the market capacity, the higher the carbon emission reduction rate. Market capacity has the most significant impact on the optimal carbon emission reduction rate without considering social responsibility decisions and has the least impact on the optimal carbon emission reduction rate while fully considering the social responsibility decision. To achieve decarbonisation production, the market capacity must be small, and when green innovation costs are high, it is the optimal choice without considering social responsibility. To achieve a higher level of carbon emission reduction, when the market capacity is low and the research and development cost is high or when the market capacity is large, it is the optimal choice.

The results provide scientific policy decisions and management significance for governments and enterprises in low-carbon subsidies and supply chain management. The findings also provide a basis for future theoretical research and enterprise practice.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this study aims to investigate the impact of social capital, namely, structural (information sharing), cognitive (shared value) and relational (relationship commitment) capital in the supplier and the customer side on supply chain performance in a longitudinal design. It further aims to examine the moderating effect of change in competition intensity.

Based on two-wave data collected from 203 manufacturers in China, this study uses the ordinary least square and first-difference regression methods to test the proposed relationships.

The results show the effect of social capital on supply chain performance and the dynamic nature of supply chain social capital. The causal analysis further reveals the significance of supplier-side structural and relational capital in improving supply chain performance. Moreover, competitive intensity plays an important moderating role.

This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is one of the first to demonstrate the longitudinal effect of supply chain social capital on supply chain performance.

This article investigates how micro-foundations of sustainability can build supply chain resilience (SCRes). Specifically, by defining supply chains as social-ecological systems, this article explores how sustainability as a supplier capability leads to the transformative development of SCRes capabilities.

Longitudinal multi-case studies were developed over the first year of the COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 52 interviews were conducted with managers and employees of 12 global supplier firms as well as associated local cooperative and consultancy managers. Secondary data were also used for triangulation. An inductive approach was used for data analysis to elaborate theory through a metaphor.

Nine micro-foundations of sustainability were identified and categorised using the dynamic capabilities steps: sensing, seizing and reconfiguring. They were found to move together with the preparing, responding and transforming steps of SCRes, respectively, and thus to perform as dance partners using our dance performance metaphor. Moreover, ten supplier cases were found to be adopting a transformative social-ecological perspective as they performed all key stages of our dance performance metaphor. The transformations all resulted from either institutional or social sustainability, and the associated micro-foundations generated six main SCRes capabilities, most commonly linking visibility and organisation with institutional and social sustainability respectively.

A deeper understanding of sustainability micro-foundations is provided for supply chain managers to enhance the development of SCRes strategies in preparation for future sustainability-related crises.

Unlike previous research, this article explores an intertwined understanding of SCRes and sustainability during a crisis. Through the micro-foundations of sustainability we explain how sustainability capability builds transformative SCRes using a supplier perspective.

Social risk management is vital for growth and business continuity. This study investigates the social risk shift in supply chain management during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Data were retrieved from Bloomberg between 2010 and 2021 regarding all supply chain enterprises from nine countries. The authors undertake a confirmatory examination of formulated hypotheses. Social supply chain risk (SSCR) refers to “firms that took the necessary steps to decrease social risks in their supply chain. Social risks involve the child or forced labor, poor working conditions, lack of a living and fair or minimum wage”. The authors complement the analysis and address the endogeneity issue using the dynamic generalized moments method (GMM).

A significant positive relationship between COVID-19 and SSCR was discovered in this study. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain firms faced supply chain social risk. Notably, SSCR policies differ from one country to another during this period.

The research has some limitations. The sample data are limited to 9 countries. Furthermore, it was somewhat difficult to determine the country-wise difference using COVID-19 as a dummy variable. Future research may adopt qualitative approaches, such as structural or semi-structural interviews.

The results have important implications for supply chain practitioners to consider the critical role of social risk in their operations. COVID-19 has exposed the new political economy and re-centered governments as the key actors in tackling grand challenges to safeguard workers, produce socially useful products and protect their stakeholders. Also, the study highlights the importance of governments and policymakers having a well-structured regulatory framework and environment for firms to comply with the social norms in their supply chain management. Finally, the study's findings should encourage supply chain managers to adopt a proactive mechanism that reduces the social risk impacts of pandemics.

Considering the historical backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is unique in measuring the SSCR of enterprises from a worldwide viewpoint.

This paper examines the nexus between supply chain social capital (relational social capital and structural social capital), supply chain responsiveness (operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness) and firm performance. Additionally, the study examines the mediating role of supply chain responsiveness on the relationship between supply chain social capital and firm performance.

The authors test their hypotheses on a sample of 120 firms operating in Ghana. The measurement model and hypothesized paths were assessed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings revealed that structural social capital had a significant direct effect on firm performance, but relational social capital did not. It was also revealed that both relational and structural social capital have significant effects on operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness. Additionally, operations system responsiveness fully mediated the effect of relational social capital on firm performance and partially mediated the effect of structural social capital on firm performance. Supplier network responsiveness, on the other hand, partially mediated the effect of both relational and structural social capital on firm performance.

This study contributes to the limited literature on supply chain social capital by unearthing the mechanisms through which supply chain social capital enhances firm performance. Specifically, the study demonstrates the intervening role of operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness in the supply chain social capital–firm performance link.