Supply Chain Social Sustainability & Economic Performance: A New Zealand SME Perspective

Purpose: There is limited research within the field of supply chain social sustainability research, in particular, there is little knowledge regarding its effect on economic performance. This study addresses this gap by exploring the relationship between supply chain social sustainability and economic performance from a New Zealand small and medium sized enterprise perspective.

Methodology: The researcher employed an electronic mail survey to quantitatively test hypotheses pertaining to supply chain social sustainability and economic performance within New Zealand small and medium sized enterprises. More specifically, the author hypothesised that social supply chain social sustainability dimensions (disclosure, labour rights, training and education, health and safety, organisational responsibility and employee wellbeing) are positively associated with economic performance, mediated by supplier performance, operational performance and customer performance and thus, improve supply chain performance. Subsequently, regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses.

Findings: The results of this study found that supply chain social sustainability does not positively affect economic performance within New Zealand small and medium sized enterprises. Furthermore, this study was unable to establish that economic performance mediates the relationship between supply chain social sustainability and supply chain performance. However, the results revealed that organisational performance has a positive and significant relationship with supply chain performance. Additionally, the researcher identified that customer performance mediates the relationship between supply chain social sustainability and economic performance.

Implications: Theoretically, this study was able to validate resource based view, stakeholder theory and stakeholder resources based view. From a managerial perspective, this study gives insights into how managers may adopt supply chain social sustainability initiatives for competitive advantage. Additionally, policy makers may utilise this study to guide them in supporting small and medium sized enterprises in adopting supply chain social sustainability practices.

Contributions: This study provides several contributions to the body of literature. Firstly, this study has provided a novel perspective through quantitatively testing the relationship between supply chain social sustainability and economic performance within New Zealand small and medium sized enterprises. Secondly, this study validates previously developed measures from Mani et al. (2018a) and Mani et al. (2020). Thirdly, this research considered the mediating effect of supplier operational and customer performance on economic performance, as well as the mediating effect of economic performance on supply chain performance. Finally, this study identifies organisation responsibility as a significant predictor of economic performance as well as reveals customer performance as a significant mediator.