Social sustainability is concerned with the human side of sustainability. The literature indicates a growing movement towards adopting social practices in the supply chain, and despite the diffusion of the topic, it appears that social sustainability is relatively new in the service sector in general and in the healthcare sector in particular. This study explored this issue and identified the motivators, barriers, and enablers of social sustainability in a healthcare supply chain with the lens of “stakeholder theory” and a focus on four stakeholder groups: suppliers, employees, patients/community and owners/government. These aspects were further explored using a structured research method and specific research objectives. The SIPOC chart was used to list the healthcare suppliers, the inputs (such as employees) supplied and used by main processes in healthcare, the outputs (products and services) of these processes, and their customers (patients and community). This facilitates linkages of different supply chain stakeholders. This is exploratory research; data were collected from various departments of 10 hospitals of United Arab Emirates (UAE), and a comprehensive depiction of what drives, inhibits, and facilitates social sustainability practices in healthcare as perceived by all stakeholders’ groups was formulated. Study results confirmed that, while separate attention to each stakeholder group is important, a comprehensive analysis of all stakeholders’ perceptions of what constitutes a socially sustainable supply chain would offer more benefits and help hospital managers balance the expectations of all involved parties.

Introduction

Today’s business environment has become more competitive than ever. While such competition lies in practices incorporated within supply chain, the issue of sustainability has emerged as a prominent topic over the past decade (Pagell & Wu, 2009; Tate et al., 2010). Sustainability is defined as the strategic, transparent integration and achievement of social, environmental, and economic goals in the systemic coordination of key inter-organizational business processes for improving the long-term economic performance of the individual company and its supply chains (Carter & Rogers, 2008). Arguably, this means that true sustainability occurs at the intersection of three interdependent pillars: economic, environmental, and social (Laguna, 2014). However, these pillars are not given the same level of attention (Smith, 1995). An intensive focus on economic and environmental pillars has resulted in a dearth of research in social sustainability (Pfeffer, 2010; Pullman & Dillard, 2010; Ehrgott et al., 2011). Social sustainability is concerned with the human side of sustainability (Huq et al., 2014). It addresses issues related to quality of life and drives decision makers to consider the potential social consequences of their decisions (Laguna, 2014). Such decisions are to take into consideration that everyone has the opportunity to experience a full existence in terms of intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical health (Silvis, 2012).