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Item Post-Partnership Strategies for Defining Corporate Responsibility: The Business Social Compliance Initiative(Springer, 2007) Egels-Zandén, Niklas; Wahlqvist, Evelina; Department of Human and Economic Geography, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg; Wahlqvist, E. Dep of Human and Economic Geography, Gothenburg universityWhile cross-sectoral partnerships are frequently presented as a way to achieve sustainable development, some corporations that first tried using the strategy are now changing direction. Growing tired of what are, in their eyes, inefficient and unproductive cross-sectoral partnerships, firms are starting to form post-cross-sectoral partnerships (‘post-partnerships’) open exclusively to corporations. This paper examines one such post-partnership project, the Business Social Compliance Initiative, to analyse the possibility of post-partnerships establishing stable definitions of ‘corporate responsibility’. We do this by creating a theoretical framework based on actor–network theory and institutional theory. Using this framework, we show that post-partnerships suffer from the paradox of striving to marginalise those stakeholders whose support they need for establishing stable definitions of ‘corporate responsibility’. We conclude by discussing whether or not post-partnership strategies, despite this paradox, can be expected to establish stable definitions of ‘corporate responsibility’.Item Evaluating Strategies for Negotiating Workers' Rights in Transnational Corporations: The Effects of Codes of Conduct and Global Agreements on Workplace Democracy(Springer, 2007) Egels-Zandén, Niklas; Hyllman, Peter; Hyllman, P. Centre for People and Organization, Stockholm School of EconomicsFollowing the offshoring of production to developing countries by transnational corporations (TNCs), unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have criticised working conditions at TNCs’ offshore factories. This has led to the emergence of two different approaches to operationalising TNC responsibilities for workers’ rights in developing countries: codes of conduct and global agreements. Despite the importance of this development, few studies have systematically compared the effects of these two different ways of dealing with workers’ rights. This paper addresses this gap by analysing how codes of conduct and global agreements both independently and interactively affect workers’ rights. We do this based on a qualitative study of the Sri Lankan operations of a Swedish TNC in Sri Lanka, and on interviews with union and NGO representatives actively involved in codes of conduct and global agreements. Our results indicate that global agreements independently address all the aspects included in codes of conduct, while also addressing additional, more process-oriented aspects of workers’ rights. Hence, on their own, global agreements seem to comprise the superior approach to promoting workers’ rights. Furthermore, our results indicate that promoting codes of conduct has negative interactive effects on global agreements. Based on these results, we argue that the current focus on codes of conduct is counterproductive for the promotion of workers’ rights.Item Exploring the Effects of Union-NGO Relationships on Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign(Springer, 2006) Egels-Zandén, Niklas; Hyllman, PeterIn 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.Item TNC Motives for Signing International Framework Agreements: A Continuous Bargaining Model of Stakeholder Pressure(Springer, 2008) Egels-Zandén, NiklasOver the past decade, discussion has flourished among practitioners and academics regarding workers’ rights in developing countries. The lack of enforcement of national labour laws and the limited protection of workers’ rights in developing countries have led workers’ rights representatives to attempt to establish transnational industrial relations systems to complement existing national systems. In practice, these attempts have mainly been operationalised in unilateral codes of conduct; recently, however, negotiated international framework agreements (IFAs) have been proposed as an alternative. Despite their growing importance, few studies have empirically studied IFAs. This paper starts to fill this gap by studying why corporations adopt IFAs, based on a qualitative study of the process leading to the signing of a recent IFA. The study’s findings complement existing research into why corporations adopt IFAs, codes of conduct, and CSR policies by demonstrating that corporate motives can be linked to a desire to retain a trusting relationship with the labour union movement. In addition, the findings indicate that the discrete campaign model of stakeholder pressure dominant in previous research should be complemented by a continuous bargaining model of stakeholder pressure. The paper concludes by discussing differences between these conceptual models of stakeholder pressure and avenues for future research.Item Transnational Governance of Workers' Rights: Outlining a Research Agenda(Springer, 2008) Egels-Zandén, NiklasIn twentieth century Europe and the USA, industrial relations, labour, and workers’ rights issues have been handled through collective bargaining and industrial agreements between firms and unions, with varying degrees of government intervention from country to country. This industrial relations landscape is currently undergoing fundamental change with the emergence of transnational industrial relations systems that complement existing national industrial relations systems. Despite the significance of this ongoing change, existing research has only started to explore the implications of this change for how workers’ rights are governed around the globe. This paper addresses this gap by outlining an agenda for future research into the transnational governance of workers’ rights. Fulfilling such a research agenda would be both challenging, as it requires combining the so far divergent industrial relations and business ethics research streams, and rewarding, as it provides ample scope for promising future research.Item Suppliers' Compliance with MNCs' Codes of Conduct: Behind the Scenes at Chinese Toy Suppliers(Springer, 2007) Egels-Zandén, NiklasDespite increased academic and practitioner interest in codes of conduct, there has been little research into the actual compliance of suppliers in developing countries with the codes of conduct of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper addresses this lack by analysing Chinese suppliers’ level of compliance with Swedish toy retailers’ codes of conduct. Based on unannounced and unofficial interviews with employees of Chinese suppliers, the study shows that all of the nine studied suppliers breached some of the standards in the toy retailers’ codes, with over two thirds of the suppliers not complying with the majority of the studied standards. While there are different explanations of this lack of compliance, the main explanation seems to be that Chinese suppliers successfully deceive toy retailers’ monitoring organisations by decoupling the formal monitored part of their organisation from the actual operational part of their organisation. The paper concludes with a discussion of how to increase compliance with MNCs’ codes of conduct.Item From empathy to autism – how ignorance became the norm(2008-08-27T14:16:02Z) Töllborg, DennisItem Intressentmodellen – En värld full av missförstånd och tolkningar(2003) Egels, NiklasItem Imperialist javisst? – Etik på outnyttjad marknad(2003) Egels, NiklasItem The Corporate Social Performance Dilemma: Organising for Goal Duality in Low-Income African Markets(Greenleaf Publishing: Sheffield, 2006) Egels-Zandén, Niklas; Kallifatides, MarkusItem Förtroendefulla kläder: Omdefinitionen av svenska klädföretags leverantörsansvar (1995-2005)(Studentlitteratur, 2006) Egels-Zandén, NiklasItem Yunus Janusansikte: En kritisk granskning av försäljning till världens fattiga(SparbanksAkademin: Stockholm, 2007) Egels-Zandén, NiklasItem The Processes of Defining Corporate Responsibility: A Study of Swedish Garment Retailers' Responsibility(Wiley InterScience, 2008) Ählström, Jenny; Egels-Zandén, NiklasDespite extensive research on corporate responsibility, little research exists on how the inter-organisational processes of defining corporate responsibility develop. In this paper, we present a framework based on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) for analysing these processes. The developed framework is illustrated in a study of the redefinition of Swedish garment retailers’ responsibilities for workers’ rights at suppliers’ factories between 1996 and 2004. We show that definition processes can be characterised as battles for the right to interpretation, and that traditionally non-dominant actors can, at least temporarily, win these battles and dictate the development of the processes for defining corporate responsibility. We also show that definition processes can take an exclusionary form prohibiting certain actors from participating.Item Politics Is Not the Business of Business: Corporate Social Responibility in Leading Firms in China(2007) Egels-Zandén, NiklasItem Accounting and gender across times and places: An excursion into fiction(2007-11-26T10:18:42Z) Czarniawska, BarbaraItem Virtual Servants: Stereotyping Female Front-Office Employees on the Internet(2005) Gustavsson, Eva; Gothenburg Research InstituteThis article focuses on the service providers of the future: virtual assistants on the Internet. Recent technological developments, supported by intensive research on artificial intelligence, have enabled corporations to construct ‘virtual employees’ who can interact with their online customers. The number of virtual assistants on the Internet continues to grow and most of these new service providers are human-like and female. In this article I profile virtual employees on the Internet — who they are, what they do and how they present themselves. I demonstrate that the Internet suffers from the same gender stereotyping characteristic of customer services in general and that the unreflective choice of female images is, at the minimum, a symbolic reinforcement of the real circumstances of gender divisions in customer service.Item CSR in Electrification of Rural Africa(2005) Egels, Niklas; Gothenburg Research InstituteMultinational corporations (MNCs) are beginning to explore low-income markets in Africa in search of legitimacy and growth opportunities. This paper examines the CSR (corporate social responsibility) aspects of this trend by analysing: (a) how the processes of defining CSR develop when MNCs enter low-income markets in Africa; and (b) what the outcomes of these processes are in terms of local definitions of CSR. A framework for analysing these two research questions is developed by linking descriptive stakeholder theory to actor-network theory. Doing this contributes to stakeholder research by showing how firms actively shape their stakeholder environment, the similarities of firm–stakeholder interactions and the role of artefacts in firm–stakeholder interactions. The developed framework is illustrated in a study of an Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) rural electrification project in Tanzania.Item Web Woman: The On-line Construction of Corporate and Gender Images(2004) Czarniawska, Barbara; Gustavsson, Eva; Gothenburg Research InstituteOne of the many interesting applications of information technology is 'business on the net' and, within this trend, the appearance of virtual females whose job it is to assist customers by giving advice and delivering information. These creatures raise a host of interesting questions about corporate image, but also about humanness and femininity. Who or what do they represent: the companies that produced them? their designers? society's dreams - both open and forbidden? Although we cannot aspire to provide final answers to these questions, we do try to formulate the questions in this paper and frame them in contexts that seem to be promising.