Developing Sustainable and Responsible Business Practices through Purchasing Social Responsibility.

Interest in the field of Purchasing Social Responsibility (PSR) can be traced back as far as the late 1960’s however in recent years researchers have returned to the concept as a subdivision of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Today, PSR finds itself at a critical juncture regarding its development with many remaining questions as to the scope, definition and application in practice. We undertake a meta-analysis of studies focusing on PSR over the past 16 years as means to better understand its definition and scope, application in practice, terminology and major research clusters. The results show that despite increased interest in the topic, research on PSR fragmented an immature. We suggest that PSR can play an important role in assisting firms to develop sustainable and responsible business practices and as such there is a need to formalise the PSR research agenda and provide lessons for practitioners