How to assess social aspects in supply chains?

Sustainable supply chains are nowadays a focus of both researchers and companies. However, apart from the well-known economic aspects, mainly environmental aspects have been studied, while social aspects are still not fully understood. From the literature it is possible to verify that several authors have attempted to establish a universally accepted framework to evaluate social sustainability in supply chains, however this goal has not yet been achieved and a high degree of mismatch of information and concepts is still present. The aim of this work is to present a generic framework that links the most studied social impact categories and the internal and external drivers that influence social responsibility across the supply chain design. The research findings suggest that stakeholders' dimensions should be incorporated in the decision-making design process. This will allow the identification of the critical aspects and associated measures that need to be considered when designing, planning and operating supply chains.