| Summary: | Although Corporate Social Responsibility has been one of the most important concepts to emerge within the managerial enquiry, only recently has it gained ground within the supply chain management field. Despite notable contributions from the current literature, there is lack of understanding of how an advantageous position and beneficial outcomes from socially responsible initiatives are accrued to the supply chain and the firm. To address this gap, an integrative conceptual model is built and tested in this study, focusing on a SC competence, that of Socially Responsible Supply Chain (SRSC)- based absorptive capacity, driving SRSC-based advantage and consequently, firm performance growth. The conceptual model is grounded on the Resource-Based View and its derivations, the Natural Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Perspective, complemented by contingency theory. A cross-sectional survey design was employed and primary data were collected from 209 manufacturing companies in the US. The sample was selected from a list of managers, members of the Institute for Supply Management. The unit of analysis is the SC (i.e., supplier-manufacturer-distributor). Following measure validation procedures using confirmatory factor analysis and assessment of common method bias, the direct and moderating effects specified in the research hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis. Findings confmn that SRSC- based absorptive capacity leads to the creation of a SRSC-based advantage, positively moderated by competitive intensity and social public concern, and negatively moderated by regulatory forces. SRSC-based advantage as the mediating variable, leads to firm performance growth, a relationship negatively moderated by the manufacturer's socially responsible sourcing strategy, in contrast to the initial hypothesis. Results indicate a significant effect of supply chain scope and years of implementing SRSC practices (control variables), on SRSC-based advantage and firm performance growth, respectively. The study findings have important implications for theory development, management practice, academic scholarship and public-policy.
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