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Management of social issues in supply chain is increasingly becoming challenging and complex. The major challenges for a firm to counter social issues come from both internal and external stakeholders. Thus, firms adopt strategies which, while meeting the stakeholder demands also ensure performance improvements. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is adopted by the firms to address social and societal issues while achieving performance in their supply chains. Supplier development (SD) by the virtue of bringing performance improvement is a core element in implementing CSR. However, research at the intersection of CSR, Supply Chain Management (SCM) and supplier development rarely give insights into the interactions between economic and social performance in supply chains.

The main aim of this dissertation is to bring three different streams of literature (CSR, SCM and SD) and provide conceptual and empirical insights while investigating the role of SD as CSR in achieving performance improvements. Firstly, a conceptual framework based on the literature review is proposed providing more in-depth comprehension of CSR in supply chain. Secondly, based on the previous framework, a conceptual framework focusing on supplier development is proposed adding to the understanding of buyer-supplier relationships and its impact on performance outcomes. Finally empirical investigations into the Dairy supply chain in India using the constructs from these two frameworks, provide insights into the role of SD as CSR. Thus, this dissertation provides insights into the management of social issues in supply chains and makes valuable contributions at the intersection of CSR, SCM and SD.

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