Unpacking Modern Slavery in Business Research: Conceptualization and Operationalization

Despite the tragic humanitarian impact of modern slavery, modern slavery research is underdeveloped and advancing slowly. Theoretical studies abound, while there are few quantitative studies with large‐scale empirical evidence to test theory. We review the literature to better understand how modern slavery has been defined and measured. We find a wide discrepancy among conceptual definitions of modern slavery. Only a few studies operationalize (measure) modern slavery. To aid conceptual clarity, we develop a tentative business‐related definition of modern slavery based on our review. We also identify six data sources and several opportunities for quantitative research to benefit researchers and practitioners.