Contesting corporate responsibility in the Bangladesh garment industry: the local factory owner perspective

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorFontana, Enrico
dc.contributor.authorDawkins, Cedric
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-15T09:32:57Z
dc.date.available2024-04-15T09:32:57Z
dc.date.issued2024-12-29
dc.description.abstractIn the developing economy of Bangladesh, local factory owners in the garment industry have felt great pressure to improve factory safety, but the costs for those improvements are not shared by the global apparel firms that wield immense influence over them. Consequently, we examine whether multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), as vehicles of corporate social responsibility (CSR), offer platforms for democratic oversight or merely serve as new arenas to exercise corporate power. Given their role in connecting global and local contexts and their history of safety incidents, local factory owners possess a unique perspective on the impact and contested nature of CSR in global supply chains. This article presents a qualitative study of MSIs in the Bangladesh garment industry, particularly after the Rana Plaza collapse. Through interviews with local factory owners and executive managers, we explore the reasons behind their opposition to CSR as exercised by global apparel firms, and the contestation of those practices by their local business association. Our findings lead us to conclude that garment industry MSIs are unlikely to be effective without labor procurement practices that harmonize global and local interests to mitigate the competitive pressures on local factory owners.en_UK
dc.description.sponsorshipThe authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationFontana E, Dawkins C. (2024) Contesting corporate responsibility in the Bangladesh garment industry: the local factory owner perspective. Human Relations, Available online 29 December 2023en_UK
dc.identifier.issn0018-7267
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1177/00187267231218430
dc.identifier.urihttps://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/21191
dc.language.isoen_UKen_UK
dc.publisherSAGEen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectBangladesh garment industryen_UK
dc.subjectcontested governanceen_UK
dc.subjectcorporate social responsibility (CSR)en_UK
dc.subjectlocal suppliersen_UK
dc.subjectmulti-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs)en_UK
dc.subjectsupply chain governanceen_UK
dc.titleContesting corporate responsibility in the Bangladesh garment industry: the local factory owner perspectiveen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Contesting_corporate_responsibility-Bangladesh_garment_industry-2023.pdf
Size:
560.96 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.63 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Staff publications (SoM)