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Supply Chains in the Apparel Industry: Do Transnational Initiatives for Social Sustainability Improve Workers’ Situation?

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Stakeholder Engagement: Clinical Research Cases

Part of the book series: Issues in Business Ethics ((IBET,volume 46))

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Abstract

Non-state driven Transnational Initiatives for Social Sustainability (TISSs) have increasingly attempted to approach social issues like labour laws in global supply chains. The reason is that state-laws are territorially confined and thus cannot approach such issues. Attempting to fill this regulatory gap, TISSs have become more and more important to provide systems of rules for coping with transboundary issues. But can TISSs, which by definition provide rules to be followed exclusively on a voluntary basis, contribute to effective solutions of issues on which they are focused? This examination presents a theoretical framework explaining the effectiveness of TISSs. For the empirical case study, the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) and the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) were selected. Data was collected from expert interviews and documents as audit reports and regulatory documents of BSCI and FWF. The results lead to the conclusion that stakeholder-involving approaches are adequate to support social sustainability in the future.

This chapter is a reprint of “Supply Chains in the Apparel Industry: Do Transnational Initiatives for Social Sustainability Improve Workers’ Situation?”, published in International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning (IJMKL; 2015 Vol. 4, Issue 1, p. 27-40).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, Lagerstrasse 5, 8021, Zurich, Switzerland

    Claude Meier

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  1. Claude Meier
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Correspondence to Claude Meier .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

    R. Edward Freeman

  2. Faculty of Management, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Johanna Kujala

  3. Institute for Strategic Management: Stakeholder View, HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Sybille Sachs

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Meier, C. (2017). Supply Chains in the Apparel Industry: Do Transnational Initiatives for Social Sustainability Improve Workers’ Situation?. In: Freeman, R., Kujala, J., Sachs, S. (eds) Stakeholder Engagement: Clinical Research Cases. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62785-4_10

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