White Hats or Don Quixotes?  Human Rights Vigilantes in the Global Economy

Elliott, Kimberly Ann; Freeman, Richard B.

doi:10.3386/w8102

Cited by 111 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…Eighty-six percent of respondents in one U.S. survey asserted that they would pay an extra dollar on a $20 garment if it were guaranteed to be made in a "sweat-free" factory (Marymount University 1999). Other surveys report even higher "willingness to pay" for "sweat-free" garments, with 76% of respondents in one survey asserting they would pay 25% more for a $20 garment if it were certified not to be made in a sweatshop (PIPA 1999), and respondents in another survey claiming they would pay 28% more on a $10 item and 15% more on a $100 item (Elliott and Freeman 2000). Researchers surmise that these responses indicate that "consumers are prepared to alter their shopping behavior in order to help deter the practice of sweatshop labor" (Marymount University 1999).…”

Section: Consumer Preferences and Actionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Market Movements: Nongovernmental Organization Strategies to Influence Global Production and Consumption

O’Rourke

2005

J of Industrial Ecology

161

102

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SummaryThis article analyzes nongovernmental organization (NGO) ''market campaigns'' that seek to motivate changes in global consumption and production patterns. Through campaigns targeting products as diverse as paper, shoes, and computers, advocacy groups seek to use existing concerns of consumers to influence producers, and simultaneously, to expand and deepen consumer demand for more sustainable products and services. NGOs deploy both negative information to critique leading brands, and positive information to help build new markets for improved products. Successful market campaigns construct networks of actors that identify points of leverage within global production and trading regimes; coordinate research, exposure, direct action, and negotiations with brands; identify solutions; advance new multi-stakeholder standards and monitoring and certification schemes; build new nongovernmental regulatory institutions; and occasionally attempt to strengthen state regulation. Through an assessment of three market campaigns focused on Staples, Nike, and Dell, this article describes the nature of these campaigns, discusses how they function, assesses their central strategies and tactics, and analyzes whether they are actually having an impact. The article concludes by discussing the relevance and implications of these campaigns for the field of industrial ecology, and how industrial ecology might support future efforts to advance more sustainable production and consumption.

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Section: Consumer Preferences and Actionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Market Movements: Nongovernmental Organization Strategies to Influence Global Production and Consumption

O’Rourke

2005

J of Industrial Ecology

161

102

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“…In the early 1990s, several campaigns conducted by NGOs and consumer groups revealed that the treatment of workers within globally fragmented supply chains of western textile and apparel companies strongly violated principal beliefs concerning human rights held within western societies (Elliot and Freeman 2001). Harmful working conditions, child labor, and low wages are just a fraction of accusations companies were facing.…”

Section: Results: Codes Of Conduct In the German Textile And Apparel mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Harmful working conditions, child labor, and low wages are just a fraction of accusations companies were facing. Large, image-conscious US-based firms like Levi's, Wal-Mart, or Nike were among the first to adopt so-called codes of conduct in order to repair reputation in the eyes of their consumers and the wider public (Braun and Gearhart 2004;Elliot and Freeman 2001;Bartley 2007). Although with a certain time lag, similar campaigns also emerged in the German textile and apparel industry, especially led by the 1996-founded German division of the CCC (Hiss 2009;Wick 2005).…”

Section: Results: Codes Of Conduct In the German Textile And Apparel mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dressing up for Diffusion: Codes of Conduct in the German Textile and Apparel Industry, 1997–2010

Scheiber

2013

J Bus Ethics

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I study the diffusion of codes of conduct in the German textile and apparel industry between 1997 and 2010. Using a longitudinal case study design, I aim to understand how the diffusion of this practice was affected by the way important ''infomediaries''-a trade journal and a professional association-shaped its understanding within the industry. My results show that time-consuming processes of meaning reconstruction by these infomediaries temporarily hampered but finally facilitated the broader material diffusion of codes of conduct within the industry. These findings detail existing conceptualizations of code diffusion as they demonstrate how infomediaries-through creation, use, and reconstruction of explanatory accounts as well as frames of reference-participate in defining the relevance and meaning of CSR practices. I move beyond prior empirical work as I explicitly assess not only processes of meaning construction evolving around a CSR practice but also how these processes over time coincide with quantitative patterns of its material diffusion. Implications of my findings for existing research on the diffusion of codes of conduct specifically and CSR practices in general as well as for conceptualizations of diffusion from institutional theory are discussed.

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“…Aspects such as using child labor in developing countries or the impact of production and consumption upon the environment seem to affect the buying decisions process of consumers throughout the world (Auger et. al., 2003;Creyer & Ross, 1997;Elliott & Freeman, 2001). This change in the behavior of consumers has profound implications for the managers and may influence their decisions as regards the choice of a location for their production facilities, the human resources policies within the company and the role of ethical corporate business practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethics of Students’ Behavior: Between Intentions, Judgment and Action

Coman¹,

Rusu²,

Leoveanu³

2017

JMRCS

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Consumption behavior -not long ago a neglected and marginalized domain -has shifted its focus towards exploring questionable ethical behaviors. While in the past consumers were questioned especially with regard to their opinions as to business ethics, today they are questioned as to the ethics of their consumption behavior. This study focuses upon the possible explanations of ethically questionable consumer behavior, namely the ethics of students' behavior from a comparative perspective: the students from the Faculties of Business and Faculties of Medicine from Romania and Bulgaria. Our results indicate the fact that there are no significant differences as to the ethical buying behavior between the two groups of students from the two countries. Moreover, there are no significant differences between the students of the two approached majors in Romania and Bulgaria in terms of knowledge and information related to ethical/non-ethical conduct. Despite all this, our research proves that when faced with real shopping situations, most students have the tendency of acting unethically, using different types of pretexts ("super-stories") in order to justify their "sideslip" from the declared behavior. This mismatch between the declared behavior (intention to buy ethically) and the real behavior (action) can be explained by means of social factors (situational conditions). In our case, theoretical education, information and the students' efforts to behave ethically as consumers seem to be highly undermined by the realities of the standard of living, expressed through their families' level of income. In other words, behavioral intentions are affected by ethical judgments: when given the opportunity, students make judgments: perceived unfairness, though context specific, show signs of significant influence on the practice of unethical behavior.

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White Hats or Don Quixotes? Human Rights Vigilantes in the Global Economy

Cited by 111 publications

References 12 publications

Market Movements: Nongovernmental Organization Strategies to Influence Global Production and Consumption

Market Movements: Nongovernmental Organization Strategies to Influence Global Production and Consumption

Dressing up for Diffusion: Codes of Conduct in the German Textile and Apparel Industry, 1997–2010

The Ethics of Students’ Behavior: Between Intentions, Judgment and Action

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