["Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nSocial sustainability is increasingly critical in manufacturer‐centered supply chains, where social risks originate upstream but materialize at the manufacturer level. These risks are intensified by manufacturer–supplier CSR incongruence, information asymmetries, cost pressures, fragmented governance, and power imbalances, which hinder the translation of CSR commitments into performance. Drawing on goal congruence and socio‐technical systems theories, this study argues that manufacturer–supplier CSR congruence enhances supply chain social sustainability by promoting shared CSR priorities and coordinated implementation. This happens through social production climate and social control practices, and is further strengthened by causality‐aware explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). Using survey data from 451 respondents globally embedded and 479 respondents in domestic manufacturer‐centered supply chains contexts in China, and testing the model via PLS‐SEM with multi‐group analysis, we find CSR congruence supports social sustainability in both settings, with XAI exerting stronger effects in global supply chains. The findings advance CSR research by emphasizing congruence‐driven, mechanism‐based implementation.\n"]