Social enterprises in supply chains: driving systematic change through social impact

Purpose – 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.

Design/methodology/approach – 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.

Findings – 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.

Originality/value – 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.