Several papers with first results from our joint research have been accepted for presentation at leading international conferences such as those of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) in Lyon, France, the European Groups of Organization Studies (EGOS) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in Nottingham, UK.

One paper, “Towards Transnational Collaborative Industrial Relations: Analyzing the Evolving Relationships among Lead Firms and Unions in the Global Garment Industry”, by Chikako Oka (Royal Holloway University of London), Elke Schüßler (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz), Rachel Alexander (London School of Economics), Sarah Ashwin (London School of Economics), and Nora Lohmeyer (Freie Universität Berlin) focuses on the emerging transnational collaborative industrial relations (IR) arrangements in the global garment industry.

Another paper on the “Intraorganizational tensions around being good: Structures and practices of organizing purchasing and CSR in garment retailers and brands” by Nora Lohmeyer (FU Berlin), Elke Schüßler (JKU Linz), Sarah Ashwin (LSE), Rachel Alexander (LSE), and Chika Oka (Royal Holloway) focuses on challenges that CSR- and procurement managers face when working towards more sustainable supply chain management.

At this years’ SASE conference we are going to have a session on “Regulating Labour in Global Supply Chains: Institutional and Organizational Influences”, presenting and discussing first findings from Bangladesh, Sweden, Germany, and the UK. Three papers focus on the largest garment lead firms in Western countries, seeking to understand the institutional and organizational factors shaping lead firms’ approaches to labour regulation among supplier firms. The fourth paper draws on a survey of Bangladeshi garment factory managers designed to investigate factory labour standards and the influence of lead firms and emerging local institutions and rules that have been implemented since Rana Plaza.