voluntary governance mechanisms in global supply chains beyond csr to a stakeholder utility perspective poor working conditions remain a serious problem in supplier facilities in developing countries while previous research has explored this from the developed buyers side we examine this phenomenon from the perspective of developing countries suppliers and subcontractors utilizing qualitative data from a major knitwear exporting cluster in india and a stakeholder management lens we develop a framework that shows how the assumptions of conventional buyer driven voluntary governance break down in the dilution of buyer power and in the web of factors rooted in suppliers traditions beliefs local demands and resource dependency we reveal out how success in governing collaborative global supply chains often falls short within the subcontracting stage where a stakeholder management mindset is elusive to most participants we suggest that success in governing collaborative global supply chains is dependent on concepts of stakeholder utility and the presence of shared value that is often at odds with the realities of power information asymmetry and compliance reward systems inherent in the non market coordination of global supply chains our findings offer important insights for delineating the concepts of value creation from csr concepts and practices and for modifying the basic assumptions of conventional supply chain governance

valuation of landmass degradation using fuzzy hedonic method a case study of national capital region a hedonic model to determine the revealed willingness to pay for landmass of different suitability classes based on landmass functional characteristics obtained through subjective assessments is developed for the national capital region in india the inherent non specificity involved in subjective evaluation is minimized using fuzzy logic based regression technique the proposed fuzzy regression involves regression using central values of triangular fuzzy number and minimization of non specificity using linear programming the revealed willingness to pay for landmass of different suitability classes is used for valuation of disbenefits due to urban expansion on landmass of different agricultural suitability classes in national capital territory of delhi appropriate pricing policies to prevent the future inappropriate landuse practices are developed using the landmass valuation

the potential impact of social accountability certification on marketing a short note social responsibility sa 8000 registration certification is a response by the business community to address consumer and investor perceptions of the importance of emerging global social issues such as child labor worker rights discrimination compensation etc as more u s and european firms outsource production to less developed nations social environmental and reputational issues have become more important sa8000 is a series of behavioral standards that represents a comprehensive and potentially global corporate social responsibility registration system that provides a standard of socially responsible treatment of workers this paper explores how sa8000 adoption may impact a firm s marketing activities

industry self regulation without sanctions the chemical industry s responsible care program industry self regulation the voluntary association of firms to control their collective action has been proposed as a complement to government regulation proponents argue that the establishment of

cointegration relationships and hedonic pricing of differentiated commodities an application to price dynamics in the us dairy sector this study investigates the implications of hedonic pricing for price dynamics of differentiated commodities a conceptual model of hedonic pricing is developed under a leontief technology showing how commodity prices reflect the underlying value of their components implications for the existence of cointegration relationships among commodity prices are derived an application to the pricing and dynamics of selected us dairy commodities is presented it provides evidence on the role of component valuation in the dynamics of dairy commodity prices in the short run as well as in the long run distinguishing between market regime and government regime when the government price support is active the analysis finds significant differences in dairy price dynamics between the two regimes

average derivative estimation of hedonic price models conventional parametric techniques for estimatinghedonic price models require a correct functionalform in this paper we side step this parametricshortcoming by estimating a hedonic price model usingaverage derivative estimation ade thissemiparametric approach produces robust estimates ofthe marginal effects without assuming a specificfunctional form a priori in our application ofthe model to a unique data set on korean home prices ade produced estimates consistent with priorexpectations providing initial evidence that themodel may represent a viable alternative when usingthe hedonic approach

on characterizing optimal competitive programs in terms of decentralizable conditions the paper considers a multisector model of intertemporal allocation with a primary factor of production and the overtaking criterion of optimality the optimal program is characterized in terms of i period by period conditions on intertemporal profit and utility maximization relative to a system of competitive prices and ii non positivity of appropriately computed values of differences of stocks from the golden rule stock the last condition replaces the usual transversality condition of malinvaud and throws new light on the possibility of dencentralization in an infinite horizon economy

making corporate self regulation effective in developing countries summary self regulation by multinational corporations of social environmental impacts has been advocated as a solution to the regulatory capacity problems faced by developing states market pressures can provide incentives for firms to implement codes and standards and also rely on widely available information about corporate behavior voluntary schemes attempt to provide reliable standardized reporting of information but government action in the north and south remains vital to effective regulation by setting social goals and upholding the freedom of civil society actors to organize and mobilize international organizations and legal instruments may be able to assist developing country governments in fulfilling these roles

the politics of code enforcement and implementation in vietnam s apparel and footwear factories summary what happens when transnational private regulation of labor standards is put into practice on the factory floor this article addresses this question with field research data on vietnam s apparel and footwear industries the vietnamese case shows that code enforcement and implementation are highly political processes fraught with conflicts and attempts at evasion the consequences moreover contradict the conventional wisdom of low regulatory effectiveness heightened legal awareness and strengthened labor law enforcement may result from these processes this study illustrates two mechanisms conflict and ritualistic compliance that can raise the effectiveness of private regulation

encouraging whistle blowing to improve corporate governance a malaysian initiative this article reviews if the introduction of new laws to encourage and protect whistleblowers is sufficient to improve corporate governance in malaysian public listed companies it provides suggestions to formulate internal whistle blowing policies for companies it concludes that due to the culture of the people and the taxonomy of malaysian public listed companies and companies in other countries in the asia pacific region having laws to encourage and protect whistleblowers to get rid of corporate wrong doings is not necessarily the only solution the article defines whistle blowing and the benefits of encouraging whistleblowers it proceeds to highlight the issues of concern on whistle blowing it also deliberates particular issues of whistleblowing in malaysia by discussing the taxonomy of malaysian public listed companies the strength of the regulators in enforcement the malaysian culture and the malaysian corporate scandals the article elaborates on the whistle blowing laws in malaysia and concludes by providing alternate ways to encourage whistle blowing in malaysian companies having in mind the taxonomy of malaysian companies enforcement by regulators and the malaysian culture

exploring the effects of union ngo relationships on corporate responsibility the case of the swedish clean clothes campaign in the current era governments are playing smaller roles in regulating workers rights internationally and transnational corporations tncs non governmental organisations ngos involved in the struggle for workers rights and labour trade unions have started to fill this governance gap this paper focuses on the least researched of the relationships among these three actors the union ngo relationship by analysing the ways in which it affects definitions of tnc responsibility for workers rights at their suppliers factories based on a qualitative study of the union ngo relationship in the swedish garment industry between 1996 and 2005 we propose that there are six main configurations of union ngo relationships by linking these configurations to their effects on tnc responsibility we propose that co ordination relationships between unions and ngos particularly high commitment co ordination relationships are likely to result in a broadening of the definition of tnc responsibility while conflictual relationships both high and low commitment result in a narrowing of the definition of tnc responsibility the study indicates that co operation is generally more beneficial for both unions and ngos than is any form of conflictual relationship in terms of broadening the definition of tnc responsibility

supply chain specific understanding the patchy success of ethical sourcing initiatives as a number of high profile companies have found to their cost corporate reputations can be significantly affected by firms management of sustainability issue including those that are outside their direct control such as the environmental and social impacts of their supply networks this paper begins by examining the relationship between corporate social responsibility reputation and supply network conditions it then looks at the effectiveness of one tool for managing supply network sustainability issues ethical sourcing codes of conduct by examining how the characteristics of three supply networks branded clothes diy wood products and branded confectionary affects the implementation ethical sourcing codes of conduct it ends by setting out conclusions on why implementation of such codes has been so much more successful in some sectors than others and recommendations on effective approaches to managing sustainability issues in supply networks

improving social responsibility in rmg industries through a new governance approach in laws developing countries need to reform legislation to ensure the global supply firms in ready made garment rmg industry is adequately addressing obligations of social responsibility literature typically focuses on strategies for raising responsible standards in global buying firms within the rmg industry but fails to focus on implementing strategies for suppliers in developing countries this article addresses this gap by specifically focusing on the rmg industry in bangladesh the home of the third largest rmg supplier in the world it concentrates on analysing how and to what extent the law can assist in developing social responsibility performance of the rmg manufacturing firms in developing countries it ultimately concludes that a new governance approach in laws can effectively increase the social responsibility practice standards of an industry where global buying firms are profit driven and governmental agencies are either inadequate or corrupt

retail level hedonics and the valuation of milk components a retail level hedonic model for analyzing the value of milk components contained in aggregate dairy product commodities is developed and applied to household food consumption survey data the findings support perrin s conjecture that a hedonic approach applied at the retail level can be used to value milk components milk component values are found to be a function of household sociodemographic variables the sample weighted average implicit fat value estimate was very similar to values published in two of three previous component value analyses in the journal but protein values were significantly different

corporate social responsibility in garment sourcing networks factory management perspectives on ethical trade in sri lanka with complex buyer driven global production networks and a labour intensive manufacturing process the fashion industry has become a focal point for debates on the social responsibility of business utilising an interview methodology with influential actors from seven export garment manufacturers in sri lanka we explore the situated knowledge at one nodal point of the production network we conceptualise factory management perspectives on the implementation of corporate social responsibility csr in terms of the strategic balancing of ethical considerations against the commercial pressures of cost and lead time factory managers framed csr in terms of compliance rather than going above and beyond regulatory requirements seeing it as a strategic competitive imperative and less a developmental mechanism sri lankan manufacturers maintain that they have benefitted from a unique combination of factors including strict national labour laws an educated workforce the characteristics of the garments produced industrial upgrading and long term non adversarial buyer supplier relationships which they argue has supported the establishment and maintenance of csr practices the paper thus provides managerial implications that relate csr activities to csr outcomes which include both reputational and production benefits such insights will be of strategic relevance for lead retail buyers as well as apparel producers keen to invest in csr to partly mitigate against increasing price based competition

opportunities and problems of standardized ethics initiatives a stakeholder theory perspective this article explains problems and opportunities created by standardized ethics initiatives e g the un global compact the global reporting initiative and sa 8000 from the perspective of stakeholder theory first we outline differences and commonalities among currently existing initiatives and thus generate a common ground for our discussion second based on these remarks we critically evaluate standardized ethics initiatives by drawing on descriptive instrumental and normative stakeholder theory in doing so we explain why these standards are helpful tools when it comes to managing stakeholder relations but also face considerable limitations that can eventually hamper their successful expansion we suspect that this discussion is necessary to conduct meaningful empirical research in the future and also to provide managers with a more clear cut picture about a successful application of such initiatives third we outline possible ways to cope with the identified problems and thus demonstrate how standard setting institutions can improve the initiatives they offer

revisiting supplier compliance with mnc codes of conduct recoupling policy and practice at chinese toy suppliers does private regulation of workers rights in global value chains improve working conditions on the factory floor drawing on one of the first systematic longitudinal studies of supplier compliance with multinational corporation mnc codes of conduct this paper finds in contrast to previous research substantial improvements over time while in 2004 the four examined chinese toy suppliers violated most of the evaluated code of conduct criteria and consciously decoupled the code of conduct policy from actual practices by 2009 they had recoupled policy and practice and complied with nearly all examined criteria except working hours the paper contributes to the private regulation literature by challenging previous research claims identifying factors that could make private regulation effective and outlining a research method for empirically studying the effects of codes of conduct over time the paper also contributes to new institutional theory by discussing how recoupling could be influenced by two factors not identified in previous research i trusting relationships between the organization and the stakeholder exerting pressure and ii factors unrelated to main external pressures leading to accidental recoupling

impacts of corporate code of conduct on labor standards a case study of reebok s athletic footwear supplier factory in china this study examines the social impacts of labor related corporate social responsibility csr policies or corporate codes of conduct on upholding labor standards through a case study of csr discourses and codes implementation of reebok a leading branded company enjoying a high profiled image for its human rights achievement in a large taiwanese invested athletic footwear factory located in south china i find although implementation of reebok labor related codes has resulted in a race to ethical and legal minimum labor standards when notoriously inhumane and seriously illegal labor rights abuses were curbed chinese workers were forced to work harder and faster but earned less payment and the employee elected trade union installed through codes implementation operated more like a company union rather than an autonomous workers organization representing worker interests in order to explain the paradoxical effects of reebok labor related codes on labor standards i argue the result is determined by both structural forces and agency related factors embedded in industrial national and local contexts to put it shortly i find the effectiveness of reebok labor related codes is constrained not only by unsolved tension between reebok s impetus for profit maximization and commitment to workers human rights but also by hard nosed competition realities at marketplace and chinese government s insufficient protection of labor rights despite drawing merely from a single case study these findings illuminate key determinants inhibiting the effectiveness of labor related csr policies or codes in upholding labor standards and hence two possible way outs of the deadlock 1 sharing cost for improving labor standards among key players in global supply chain and 2 combining regulatory power of voluntary codes and compulsory state legislations

addressing workers rights in the textile and apparel industries consequences for the bangladesh economy summary this paper applies a cge model to analyze the effects of better addressing worker s rights in bangladesh s textile and apparel industries results show that an increased minimum wage for unskilled low and medium skilled workers has negative impacts for these workers in aggregate and also for the economy in terms of export gdp and welfare this comes from the decrease in employment however labor productivity increasing improvements in factory conditions and services to workers not only increase incomes of workers but also welfare entrepreneurs also enjoy higher incomes enabling them to pay for improving the work environment

a nonlinear programming analysis of production response to multiple component milk pricing the problem of feeding holstein cows so as to maximize revenue over feed costs was analyzed under various scenarios concerning milk component prices results suggested that production response of milk components to component price incentives was inflexible when compared to baseline solutions generated under a standard federal order pricing system fat production was within 3 5 and solids nonfat and fluid carrier within 1 0 of baseline levels for a 100 cow herd component pricing scenarios having blend prices equal to the blend price in the baseline scenario were associated with reductions in revenue over feed costs of less than 4

the demand side of social protection lessons from cambodia s labour rights experience summary in fragile states recent efforts to advance the social protection agenda have focused primarily on loosening supply side constraints but the resulting kaleidoscope of donor driven projects has often overlooked the need to create a sense of ownership by beneficiaries in part this is because it is unclear what political and social structures effectively facilitate activism in situations where state society relations are contentious we use cambodia s unusual success creating and sustaining a labor rights regime to illustrate the dynamics behind one type of social regime change that has opened up governance over worker protections in a sustainable and potentially replicable way

responsive regulation and developing economies summary developing states with limited regulatory capacity might benefit from a responsive approach to regulation responsive regulation is a democratic ideal incorporating notions of deliberative democracy and restorative justice responsive regulation conducted by regulatory networks of governmental and non governmental actors allows for networking around capacity deficits ngos play a vital role in this kind of regulation by utilizing ngos and local social pressure developing countries might develop a regulatory society model bypassing the regulatory state where capacity remains limited private bounty hunting such as fees for successful private prosecutions may become an appealing tool for achieving certain regulatory objectives

decentralization in infinite horizon economies an introduction abstract the paper summarizes some issues involved in developing a theory of decentralized resource allocation mechanism in infinite horizon economies even in a classical environment a competitive mechanism may lead to an inefficient or nonoptimal allocation for an infinite horizon economy it remains however to explore whether the usual price quantity messages can be supplemented to design decentralized mechanisms generating optimal outcomes

the impact of international standards certification on the performance of firms in less developed countries this paper examines the effects of international standards certification isc on both productivity and sales performance for firms from a wide set of countries exhibiting different degrees of institutional development against a large dataset of manufacturing firms operating in 59 countries we find that isc raises productivity and sales performance of firms through efficiency gains and quality signaling with the effects being larger in countries where market supporting institutions are weak the largest gain in performance comes from direct productivity improvements helping firms to climb the technological ladder and closing the productivity gap with firms based in developed countries

affect or information labeling policy and consumer valuation of rbst free and organic characteristics of milk abstract using a labeling policy framework we answer the question of whether attitude has an impact on consumers valuation of rbst free and organic characteristics of milk we utilize 2 years of consumer survey data and a hedonic model to estimate marginal effects of attitude on consumer valuation of rbst free and organic milk findings indicate that in 2001 milk value was impacted by attitude regardless of whether attitude was measured using an opinion based or behavioral construct in 2004 the contribution of attitude to value was insignificant implications for labeling policy are discussed

sustained endogenous growth with decreasing returns and heterogeneous capital abstract the possibility of sustained long run growth is typically associated with the presence of some endogenous engine of growth it may allow the economy to grow without bound despite the use of some non reproducible resources such situations can lead to dynamic models combining the features of sustainable growth and decreasing returns one sector models of this kind have recently attracted much attention in macroeconomics applications their approximate linearity for the purposes of long run analysis has been noted this paper is aimed at establishing the general fact dynamic models one or multi sector which are characterized by sustained endogenous growth with non increasing returns display the patterns of optimal growth asymptotically equivalent to those generated by models with linear technology i consider a neoclassical growth model with heterogeneous capital develop its linear counterpart and prove their asymptotic equivalence in terms of long run optimal growth rates and cross sectoral profiles of consumption real interest rates and relative prices this result also implies the non substitution theorem for the neoclassical dynamic model of sustained growth optimal input profiles relative prices and interest rates are asymptotically independent of intertemporal preferences

corporate social responsibility in global value chains where are we now and where are we going we outline the drivers main features and conceptual underpinnings of the compliance paradigm we then use a similar structure to investigate the drivers main features and conceptual underpinnings of the cooperative paradigm for working with csr in global value chains we argue that the measures proposed in the new cooperation paradigm are unlikely to alter power relationships in global value chains and bring about sustained improvements in workers conditions in developing country export industries after that we provide a critical appraisal of the potential and limits of the cooperative paradigm we summarize our findings and we outline avenues for research purchasing practices and labor standard noncompliance csr capacity building among local suppliers and improved csr monitoring by local resources in the developing world

business codes of multinational firms what do they say business codes are an oft cited management instrument but how common are codes among multinationals and what is their content in an unprecedented study the codes of the largest corporations in the world have been collected and thoroughly analyzed this paper presents the results of that study of the 200 largest companies in the world 52 5 have a code more than half f these codes describe company responsibilities regarding quality of products and services 67 adherence to local laws and regulations 57 and the protection of the natural environment 56 many codes make reference to principles governing stake holder relations e g transparency 55 honesty 50 and fairness 45 corporate core values e g teamwork 43 appropriate conduct among employees e g discrimination 44 and intimidation 43 and treatment of company property by employees e g conflict of interests 52 corruption 46 and fraud 45 monitoring compliance with the code is addressed in 52 of the codes based on this content study three types of codes are distinguished the stakeholder statute 72 the values statement 49 and the code of conduct 46 the results of this inquiry present a benchmark for the evaluation and development of both individual and international business codes

sustained growth in the model of overlapping generations abstract this paper analyzes endogenous economic growth in the model of overlapping generations there is no bequest motive nor are there any externalities if the technology is convex per capita growth can occur only if the economy has at least two sectors this paper shows that the limiting marginal efficiency of investment determines the potential for growth and that the rate of growth depends upon the share of the capital stock devoted to investment sustained consumption growth can occur only under a fairly restrictive set of assumptions there is an equilibrium with growth only if the marginal propensity to save is sufficiently high

combining global and local forces the case of labor rights in cambodia summary an innovative policy experiment in cambodia links improvement of workers rights with increased orders and market access for the products of the country s garment factories the policy originated with the us cambodia textile agreement which awarded cambodia higher garment export quotas into the us market in return for improved working conditions and labor regulations it has continued even after the expiration of the global garment quota system at the end of 2004 the agreement s effectiveness has depended on the international labor organization acting as a compliance monitor and government intervention preventing some apparel producers from free riding on others improvements

intertemporal optimality in a closed linear model of production abstract the paper presents the main results on intertemporal optimality with discounting in a closed linear model of production including the price characterization of optimal programs the existence of a steady state optimal program and a turnpike property of optimal programs from arbitrary initial stocks some of these results are used to provide a characterization of the optimality of competitive programs in terms of a decentralizable condition

assessment of leading apparel specialty retailers csr practices as communicated on corporate websites problems and opportunities despite the increased attention to corporate social responsibility csr and regulatory changes in recent years little is known about how apparel companies are implementing and communicating csr practices to their stakeholders to fill the gap this study investigated the range and strategies of leading apparel specialty retailers csr practices as communicated on their websites over a longitudinal period of 1 year in total 17 apparel specialty retailers were included in the analysis the companies websites were content analyzed in depth using the coding criteria focusing on labor and environmental issues developed for this study the initial data were collected in november 2011 and the study was replicated in december 2012 to examine any changes in the csr practices as of 2011 only nine companies addressed csr issues on their websites at different degrees despite their leadership positions in the industry environmental issues were addressed by only five companies with different ranges of practices in 2012 all 17 companies addressed labor issues on their websites with varying degrees of specificity in terms of environmental issues six companies an increase of one company from 2011 addressed environmental initiatives on their websites with wider ranges of practices discussed are problems and opportunities as well as the role of the government and stakeholders for the effective communications of csr policies and initiatives for the apparel industry