The Global Sourcing and Codes of Conduct Debate: Five Myths and Five Recommendations

ABSTRACT Much attention has been devoted to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recent years. Codes of conduct — or the ethical principles that companies use to guide their practices — have been at the heart of the debate about how global companies should manage their supply chains in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. What characterizes the debate today? Exaggerated claims are often made about the benefits that codes supposedly bring to workers and the environment in the developing world. The risk is that codes of conduct may do more harm than good, because much of the academic and policy‐oriented rhetoric on the topic is largely divorced from the realities faced by many developing country suppliers, workers and communities. Using insights from recent fieldwork in the Pakistani sporting goods industry, this contribution attempts to bust five myths that continue to characterize the codes of conduct debate and introduce five recommendations that could lead to a more fruitful engagement with future research, policy, and practice in this area.