Social Sustainability and Supply Chain Management in Tourism: The Case of Iceland

• Main Authors: Helgadóttir, G, Effah-Kesse, D, Bjarnadóttir, EJ, Burns, GL, Gunnarsdóttir, GÞ
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2023
• Subjects: Supply chains; Arctic; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10072/427848; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003218043-5

The social aspect of sustainability in supply chain management (SCM) has been relegated to a remote second place in previous research. Our chapter seeks to address this gap by exploring resident perceptions of the tourism supply chain in Iceland, where rapid pre-COVID growth led to discussions on overtourism. Using data from a longitudinal study based on surveys and interviews, we highlight how and why it is valuable in SCM to consider understanding residents and social sustainability. The findings reveal that perceptions of residents may differ from those held by other stakeholders and from expectations others hold of the residents’ perceptions. Residents have in-depth knowledge of specific parts of the supply chain and are concerned about these, such as local infrastructure and destination safety. For these reasons, inclusion of them and consideration of social sustainability in SCM is critical. No Full Text