Work

Calling multinational enterprises to account: CSOs, supranational institutions and business practices in the global south

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: How do civil society organizations (CSOs) use state‐backed supranational institutions to call multinational enterprises (MNEs) to account? There are few studies of precisely how CSOs—union and other—use institutional power in global value chain (GVC) governance or the impact of institutional change on actor behaviour. To address this gap, we assess the impact of changes in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on CSO engagement with MNEs, comparing complaints lodged by CSOs before and after the Guidelines were revised in June 2011 to accommodate the rise in global prominence of the human rights and business frame. In our analysis, we focus on how constitutive and institutional power plays out in GVC governance, with special attention to the impact of institutional change on actor behaviour. Our analysis reveals that this state‐backed mechanism provides CSOs with a structure through which to address human rights violations in some MNEs’ supply chains but also that, despite its high degree of reflexivity, ongoing design flaws limit its capacity to address the uneven distribution of power not only between CSOs and MNEs, but among CSOs themselves. In doing so, we draw attention to the need for further research on the dynamic multilevel interactions between the configuration and adjustment of supranational institutions and how these mediate CSO and MNE interactions.

Source: Global Networks

DOI: 10.1111/glob.12438

Authors: Michele Ford, Michael Gillan, Htwe Htwe Thein

Institutions: The University of Sydney, The University of Western Australia, Curtin University

Language: English

Topic: Corporate Law and Human Rights

Subfield: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Partnerships for the goals

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,860