How satellites strengthen socially sustainable supply chain governance

Despite growing interest in digital technologies for socially sustainable supply chain management, their contribution to social sustainability remains constrained by governance-relevant information failures. This conceptual development paper theorises satellite-enabled evidentiary governance: a bounded process through which satellite technologies and artificial intelligence may strengthen socially sustainable supply chain governance by altering the evidentiary basis for surfacing, prioritising, verifying, and accounting for weakly observable risks. Building on a socio-technical governance perspective, institutional theory, and contingency logic, I argue that satellites create value not by delivering universal transparency or directly revealing social harm, but by providing an independent, repeated, large-scale, and place-based observational layer that complements audits, supplier disclosures, traceability systems, and other digital tools. The framework identifies four governance translation mechanisms: risk surfacing, prioritisation, targeted verification, and evidentiary accountability. It also specifies boundary conditions. The paper contributes by shifting attention from visibility as disclosure to evidentiary governance in socially sustainable supply chains.