A Review of the Leading Information Technology Companies’ Modern Slavery Statements

Abstract

Modern slavery is an insidious problem in many sectors of the global economy, and it poses a challenge for the information technology industry. However, the issue of modern slavery in the information technology industry has received little or no attention in the business and management literature and this paper looks to provide an exploratory review of one of the ways in which the leading information and communication technology companies have addressed this issue, by reviewing their modern slavery statements. The findings reveal that five interlinked themes, namely, corporate commitment; risk assessments and due diligence in supply chains: codes of conduct; awareness, capability building, and training; and future plans and key performance indicators illustrated the spirit of the selected companies’ modern slavery statements. Identifying and tackling the risk of modern slavery within supply chains presents the major challenges for the information technology companies, and the paper concludes that the leading technology companies’ modern slavery statements can be best seen as a work in progress. Keywords modern slavery, modern slavery statements, leading information technology companies, supply chains, auditing