Abstract
Modern slavery poses a challenge to many areas of international business and sometimes questions the legitimacy of underlying business models. All businesses are exposed to modern slavery in one way or another through their supply chains, but their actions to address the issue differ hugely. Some blame the complexity and anonymity of international supply chains or the limits of their market power to push for change. These are of course familiar experiences of international business practitioners, but no excuse to avoid action. This article hopes to offer routes and inspiration for international business scholars to contribute to ending modern slavery.
Highlights
Modern slavery challenges our traditional approaches to business and business research
It questions a puristic focus on financial profits and some of the commonly used mechanisms in global supply chains such as outsourcing and the creation of long – and often unmonitored – global supply chains in which the undercutting of social standards and active ignorance of human rights violations form part of the business model
We can learn from the more ethically oriented businesses already leading against modern slavery in global supply chains, such as cosmetics firm Lush or building materials supplier Marshalls, and from the business responses that were triggered predominantly by recent legislation such as the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act that came into effect in 2012, the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015, and by studying the mechanisms that have been established for longer such as the Brazilian Lista Suja
Summary
Modern slavery poses a challenge to many areas of international business and sometimes questions the legitimacy of underlying business models. All businesses are exposed to modern slavery in one way or another through their supply chains, but their actions to address the issue differ hugely. Some blame the complexity and anonymity of international supply chains or the limits of their market power to push for change. These are familiar experiences of international business practitioners, but no excuse to avoid action. This article hopes to offer routes and inspiration for international business scholars to contribute to ending modern slavery
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