Social aspects of sustainable supply chains: unveiling potential relationships in the Brazilian context

Abstract

Drawing on theoretical assumptions from equity theory applied to exchange situations between businesses, and justice concepts applied to supply chains, this work has the original objective of discussing the level of implementation of social aspects of operations management by focusing on inter-organizational justice in Brazilian’s supply chains. In this context, this research presents a quantitative survey study, in which managers of Brazilian companies answered a questionnaire on their perceptions of levels of adoption of practices/initiatives for justice in supply chains. The results indicate that: (a) most of the analyzed practices have potential to be adopted in a more intense way, revealing potential actions that managers should take in order to promote social justice over the supply chain; (b) there are many positive correlations among the analyzed practices, which may suggest potential relationships, revealing practices that could have a joint implementation. Other results, implications, and research limitations were equally presented by taking into account particularities of Brazilian national culture.