Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since the 1990s, movements for improved labor standards in the global apparel industry pressured large, brand-name firms to adopt better protections for workers in outsourced production. By mapping adoption of such self-regulation, I show that this practice has become institutionalized in the industry. Self-regulation is no longer coerced through activist campaigns against brands; instead it is adopted by untargeted, unbranded challenger firms imitating the behavior of branded incumbents in search of legitimacy. In spite of evidence of institutionalization, self-regulation is not taken for granted by all firms in the industry. Firms adopt self-regulation when it fits with home country political cultures; firms from countries that lack strong labor legislation or activist groups do not self-regulate. Transnational connections to brands that require factories to respect workers rights do not supercede existing cultural frameworks and fail to produce lasting commitments. When thinking about isomorphic pressures in a global context, we thus have to take into account the unique national institutional frameworks within which events and practices are interpreted. Even in an organizational field characterized by extensive transnational production, consumption, and activist networks, coercive and mimetic pressures are underpinned by the historically constructed logics of national political cultures.