Do Factory Audits Improve International Labor Standards? An Examination of Voluntary Corporate Labor Regulations in Global Production Networks
Keywords
corporate social responsibility, auditing, global production networks, labor
Abstract
This research examined the effects of voluntary factory audits on labor conditions. Sometimes referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) codes of conduct, corporations impose voluntary labor standards coupled with regular auditing to help ensure the protection of workers throughout their global production networks (GPNs). While some believe that auditing factories ensures that CSR codes of conduct are followed and helps private corporations promote higher labor standards, others argue that factory audits have little effect on labor standards at the factory level. Using unique panel data of internal factory audit reports of factories in four Southeast Asian countries between 2003 and 2010, this paper sought to understand whether voluntary GPN audits improve labor standards at the factory level. The results showed that a factory’s number of audits between 2003 and 2010 did not improve factory working conditions significantly and that the local neighborhood in which a factory is located has a greater effect on changes in factory audit scores. These findings suggest that CSR codes of conduct and auditing alone are not sufficient to improve labor standards in GPNs. Rather, joint private-public collaboration is needed to improve labor conditions for workers in the global south.
Original Publication Citation
Sanders, Scott R., Michael R. Cope, and Elizabeth R. Pulsipher1. 2018. “Do Factory Audits Improve International Labor Standards? An examination of voluntary corporate labor regulations in global production networks.” Social Sciences, 7(6): 84
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Sanders, Scott R. and Cope, Michael James, "Do Factory Audits Improve International Labor Standards? An Examination of Voluntary Corporate Labor Regulations in Global Production Networks" (2018). Faculty Publications. 3267.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/3267
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2018-05-23
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6078
Publisher
MDPI
Language
English
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Department
Sociology
Copyright Status
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited