title: Reshoring and modern slavery in the supply chain
title: case study evidence and action research in the textiles and fashion industry
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Benstead, Amy
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2019

description: Manufacturing and sourcing location decisions in the textiles and fashion
      industry are complex, e.g. involving the trade-off between cost and lead
      time considerations. With this in mind, firms are looking to reshore and
      move manufacturing back to their domestic location. The sustainability
      agenda is adding to this complexity, with different locations having
      different implications for transparency and the risk of social problems.
      Modern slavery is an important global social issue, which is affecting the
      industry given that the growing demand for cheap, fast fashion can lead to
      worker exploitation. This thesis focuses on these two current issues,
      reshoring and modern slavery and presents three papers. The first paper
      focusses on reshoring and the remaining two papers investigate the
      phenomenon of modern slavery.
      
      The reshoring paper presents a single case study and extends the
      literature on reshoring that has largely focused on why firms reshore to
      provide greater understanding of how they can go about implementing the
      decision to reshore. The paper uses a two-stage approach (systematic
      literature review and case study evidence) and presents a conceptual
      framework that provides a structure to consider not only the factors
      influencing the decision to reshore but also some of the considerations
      needed to implement the reshoring decision. Further, a contingency
      perspective is adopted as several of the factors that affect the reshoring
      process, both in terms of whether a decision to reshore is taken and how
      implementation is approached, are context specific.
      
      The two modern slavery papers are based on an action research project. The
      primary engagement is with Fashion and Sports Co. (a multi £billion
      turnover company), to understand how brands and retailers are tackling
      modern slavery within the textiles and fashion industry. Research into
      modern slavery from a supply chain perspective is however limited and this
      thesis contributes to filling the gap.
      
      Paper 2 uses relational theory to investigate how brands and retailers are
      responding to modern slavery legislation. Empirical evidence is used to
      understand how competing buyers collaborate with one another as previous
      research has focused on vertical collaboration between buyers and their
      suppliers, particularly in a socially sustainable supply chain context.
      The research focusses on five collaborative initiatives taken to tackle
      modern slavery (e.g. joint training) used by Fashion and Sports Co, along
      with its horizontal collaboration with 35 other brands/retailers. The
      study advances knowledge on the creation of socially sustainable
      competitive advantage (e.g. cost savings, knowledge sharing and enhanced
      reputation) through horizontal collaboration. Successful horizontal
      collaboration is dependent on both relational capital (e.g. trust and
      commitment) and effective (formal and informal) governance mechanisms
      (e.g. legislation and the involvement of non-governmental organisations
      (NGOs) and trade bodies). Further, working with non-business actors can
      facilitate collaboration and provide knowledge and resources important for
      overcoming uncertainty when responding to new legislation.
      
      Paper 3 focusses on modern slavery detection and remediation. Prior
      literature has highlighted the shortcomings of supply chain auditing and
      questioned the suitability of this approach for detecting modern slavery.
      This paper uses action research with Fashion and Sports Co. to investigate
      how they are detecting modern slavery at a high-risk supplier in South
      East Asia, in collaboration with a large multinational NGO and another of
      the supplier’s key customers. The study suggests that a more targeted
      audit can identify key indicators of modern slavery. This type of audit
      includes investigating the end-to–end recruitment process by using a
      parallel structure of management and worker interviews and documentation
      review. The research also investigates the ongoing remediation process
      involving a local NGO.