Addressing modern slavery in supply chains: an awareness-motivation-capability perspective
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 8 February 2022
Issue publication date: 10 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
There is still significant variation in firms' efforts to address modern slavery issues in supply chains despite the importance of this grand challenge. This research adopts the awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) framework to investigate AMC-related factors that help to explain this variation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors hypothesize how AMC-related factors, including media coverage of modern slavery issues, slavery risks in supply chains and corporate sustainability performance, are related to firms' efforts to address modern slavery in supply chains. The proposed hypotheses are tested based on 201 UK firms' modern slavery statements and additional secondary data collected from Factiva, Factset Revere, The Global Slavery Index, Worldscope and Sustainalytics.
Findings
Consistent with the AMC perspective, the test results show that firms put more effort into addressing supply chain modern slavery issues when there is greater media coverage of these issues, when firms source from countries with higher slavery risks, and when firms have better corporate sustainability performance. Additional analysis further suggests that firms' financial performance is not related to their efforts to address modern slavery issues.
Originality/value
This is the first study adopting the AMC framework to investigate firms' efforts to address modern slavery in supply chains. This investigation provides important implications for researchers studying firm behaviors related to modern slavery issues and for policymakers designing policies that enable firms to address these issues, in view of their awareness, motivation and capability.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editor, Professor Tobias Schoenherr, and four anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and useful suggestions, which help improve the quality of this paper. Lam acknowledges the Leverhulme Trust's support through the Leverhulme Research Fellowship (RF-2020-474).
Citation
Geng, R., Lam, H.K.S. and Stevenson, M. (2022), "Addressing modern slavery in supply chains: an awareness-motivation-capability perspective", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 331-356. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-07-2021-0425
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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