Relationship between Socially Sustainable Supply Chains and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: A Perspective from the Indian Auto Ancillary Industry

Abstract

This article aims to understand the level of awareness about the United Nations sustainable development goals among supply chain leaders. Further, it explores how organizations’ social sustainability policies can help achieve sustainable development goals. The multi-stage process involves a structured survey of supply chain management leaders from the auto ancillary industry of the National Capital Region of India, and data were analyzed using econometric tools for meaningful insights. The significant findings from the study highlight that there is a considerable lack of awareness among supply chain leaders about the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations. However, supply chain leaders make policies that influence social sustainability positively; they do not link it with sustainable development goals. The study reveals that leaders were unanimous on improving and adopting socially sustainable measures for creating efficient supply chains. This is one of the first studies that investigated the relationships between sustainable supply chain management and sustainable development goals laid down by the United Nations.