EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Addressing Governance Gaps in Global Value Chains: Introducing a Systematic Typology

Stephanie Schrage () and Dirk Ulrich Gilbert ()
Additional contact information
Stephanie Schrage: Universität Hamburg
Dirk Ulrich Gilbert: Universität Hamburg

Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, vol. 170, issue 4, No 2, 657-672

Abstract: Abstract Multinational enterprises (MNEs) dominate the governance of global value chains (GVCs), such that according to the concept of political corporate social responsibility (PCSR), they are responsible to address governance gaps throughout the chains, even at the level of their independent suppliers. In practice, MNEs often struggle to cope with the complexity of these governance gaps, and PCSR does not provide a clear definition nor offer guidance for how to analyze and address them. By adopting the notion of governance mechanisms from GVC literature, this study proposes a more nuanced view, in which governance gaps result from inactive, ineffective, or inequitable governance mechanisms adopted by relevant actors, rather than a complete absence of governance. MNEs, through their governance mechanisms, commonly create governance gaps. This study distinguishes different types of governance mechanisms to create a typology of governance gaps, such that it contributes to the literature on PCSR by offering a more refined understanding of governance gaps, along with a means to identify mechanisms to address them. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature on GVCs by defining governance-related terms and adding an ethical perspective on MNEs’ global business conduct. To illustrate the typology, this article presents the case of low wages (below a living wage) for workers in the textile industry and efforts by H&M to deal with this governance gap.

Keywords: Political CSR; Global value chains; Governance gaps; Living wage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-019-04388-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:170:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04388-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04388-1

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:170:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04388-1