Rethinking Global Value Chains and Corporate Social Responsibility

This innovative book sets out to rethink corporate social responsibility (CSR) in global value chains. Peter Lund-Thomsen considers how CSR is often framed and promoted by key actors in the Global North, the home of many large retailers and brands, in ways that overlook the unique challenges and broader circumstances faced by suppliers and countries in the Global South. He instead proposes that CSR must be understood as an evolving, context-dependent, and contested term that can best be viewed through multiple perspectives. Developing an integrated analytical model of buyer, supplier, and worker perspectives on CSR in global value chains, the book draws out future research and policy implications of this analysis in the areas of governance, human rights, the circular economy, and climate change. This book will be a critical resource for scholars and students with an interest in corporate social responsibility, critical management studies, management and sustainability, and responsible consumption and production. Practitioners and policy makers in business, government, international organizations, and NGOs will also benefit from the book’s re-evaluation of CSR in global value chains.