Below is a sample of research, mostly published in the last decade, which critically discusses and analyzes social auditing models and practices in general, specifically in the garment industry and other industries. If you are aware of any other materials on this issue, relating to any sector, please send them to Saskia Wilks at wilks [at] business-humanrights.org and Johannes Blankenbach at blankenbach [at] business-humanrights.org.

This summary of a workshop organised by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and Clean Clothes Campaign in December 2018 in Brussels provides further insights: 'From social auditing to human rights due diligence'.

The summary and below list are part of our portal on 'Beyond Social Auditing'.

I. GENERAL

2023

Smit, Lise, Claire Bright and Stuart Neely, Business and Human Rights Journal: "Muddying the Waters: The Concept of a ‘Safe Harbour’ in Understanding Human Rights Due Diligence"

2021

Kuruvilla, Sarosh, Cornell University Press: "Private Regulation of Labor in Global Supply Chains: Problems, Progress and Prospects" (Book)

Tan, Celine: "Audit as accountability : technical authority and expertise in the governance of private financing for development, social and legal studies"

2020

Kuruvilla, Sarosh, Mingwei Lu, Chunyun Li and Wansi Chen, Industrial and Labor Relations Review: "Field opacity and practice-outcome decoupling: Private regulation of labor standards in global supply chains"

2019

Van Ho, Tara and Carolijn Terwindt, European Review of Private Law: "Assessing the duty of care for social auditors" [restricted access]

2018

Manschot, Anne: "Can a picture say more than a thousand words? Examining the effectiveness of social compliance auditing"

2017

Brown, Garrett: "The corporate responsibility mirage: Research shows minimal impact for the billions spent in the past 25 years"

Hobbes, Michael: "Saving the world, one meaningless buzzword at a time. How corporations, activists and politicians turned the language of human rights into meaningless babble"

LeBaron, Genevieve, Jane Lister and Peter Dauvergne: "Governing global supply chain sustainability through the ethical audit regime"

2016

Brown, Garrett: "Global supply chains still full of sweatshops"

Brown, Garrett: "Hansae Vietnam: Case study of hazardous working conditions and the failure of corporate social responsibility audits to fix the hazards"

Connor, Tim, Annie Delaney and Sarah Rennie: "The Ethical Trading Initiative: Negotiated solutions to human rights violations in global supply chains"

LeBaron, Genevieve and Jane Lister: "Ethical audits and the supply chains of global corporations"

Sethi, S. Prakash and Janet L. Rovenpor, Business and Society Review: "The Role of NGOs in Ameliorating Sweatshop-like Conditions in the Global Supply Chain: The Case of Fair Labor Association (FLA) and Social Accountability International (SAI)" [restricted access]

2015

Blair, Jennifer and Florence Palpacuer, Cambridge University Press: "The institutionalization of supply chain corporate social responsibility: field formation in comparative context", [restricted access] 

2014

Smith, Alison, Financial Times: "Fortune 500 companies spend more than $15bn on corporate responsibility"

2013

AFL-CIO: "Responsibility outsourced: Social audits, workplace certification and twenty years of failure to protect worker rights"

Albin-Lackey, Chris, Human Rights Watch: "'Without rules' A failed approach to corporate accountability"

Brown, Garrett:"Factory certification schemes pose danger to safety & health profession"

Brown, Garrett: "Fatal flaws of foreign factory audits: 'A spectacular failure' to improve conditions"

Brown, Garrett: "The Record of Failure and Fatal Flaws of CSR Factory Monitoring" (newspaper)

Clifford, Stephanie and Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times: "Fast and flawed inspections of factories abroad"

He, Guojun and Jeffrey M. Perloff: "Does customer auditing help chinese workers?" [restricted access]

2012

Asia Monitor Resource Centre: "The Reality of Corporate Social Responsibility: Case Studies on the Impact of CSR on Workers in China, South Korea, India and Indonesia"

Fransen, Luc, Socio-Economic Review: "Multi-stakeholder governance and voluntary programme interactions: legitimation politics in the institutional design of Corporate Social Responsibility"[restricted access]

2008

Frank, T.A., Monthly: "Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector"

Harney, Alexandra, Penguin Press: "The China Price" (Book)

2007

Barrientos, Stephanie and Sally Smith, Third World Quarterly: "Do workers benefit from ethical trade? Assessing codes of labour practice in global production systems", [restricted access]

ETI: "Secrets and lies: Uncovering ethical trade audit fraud" (DVD)

Wells, Don: "Too weak for the job: Corporate code of conduct, non-governmental organisations and the regulation of international labour standards", [restricted access]

II. GARMENT INDUSTRY

2019

Crane, Andrew, Vivek Soundararajan, Michael Bloomfield, Laura J. Spence and Genevieve LeBaron: "Decent Work and Economic Growth in the Southern Indian Garment Industry"

2018

Terwindt, Carolijn and Amy Armstrong: "Oversight and Accountability in the Social Auditing Industry – the Role of Social Compliance Initiatives" [restricted access]

2017

Brown, Garrett: "Worker revolt in Myanmar smashes garment factory and apparel brands' false promises of a better life"

2016

Clean Clothes Campaign: "Labour on a shoestring"

SACOM: "Reality behind brands’ CSR hypocrisy: An investigative report on China suppliers of Zara, H&M and GAP"

Terwindt, Carolijn and Miriam Saage-Maaß: "Liability of Social Auditors In The Textile Industry"

Transparency International Bangladesh: "Undress corruption - How to prevent corruption in the readymade garment sector: Scenarios in Bangladesh"

2015

Claeson, Bjorn, International Labor Rights Forum: "Emerging from the Tragedies in Bangladesh: A Challenge to Voluntarism in the Global Economy"

Clean Clothes Campaign: "Evaluation of H&M compliance with Safety Action Plans for strategic suppliers In Bangladesh"

Egels-Zandén, Niklas and Henrik Lindholm, Journal of Cleaner Production: "Do codes of conduct improve workers rights in supply chains? A study of Fair Wear Foundation" [restricted access]

2013

Arnold, Dennis : "Better Work or 'ethical fix'? Lessons from Cambodia's apparel industry"

Clean Clothes Campaign and SOMO: "Fatal fashion - Analysis of recent factory fires in Pakistan and Bangladesh: A call to protect and respect garment workers' lives"

2012

Anner, Mark, Politics & Society: "Corporate Social Responsibility and Freedom of Association Rights: The Precarious Quest for Legitimacy and Control in Global Supply Chains" [restricted access]

International Labor Rights Forum: "Deadly secrets: How apparel brands cover up safety hazards"

2010

Starmanns, Mark : "The Grand Illusion? Corporate Responsibility in Global Garment Production Networks"

2007

Egels-Zandén, Niklas and Evelina Wahlqvist, Journal of Business Ethics: "Post-Partnership Strategies for Defining Corporate Responsibility: The Business Social Compliance Initiative" [restricted access]

2006

Locke, Richard, Fei Qin and Alberto Brause: "Does monitoring improve labor standards? Lessons from Nike"

2005

Clean Clothes Campaign: "Looking for a quick fix: How weak social auditing is keeping workers in sweatshops"

2000

O'Rourke, Dara : "Monitoring the monitors: A critique of PWC Labor Monitoring"

OTHER INDUSTRIES

III. PRIVATE SECURITY INDUSTRY

2019

MacLeod, Sorcha and Rebecca DeWinter-Schmitt: "Certifying Private Security Companies: Effectively Ensuring the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights?" [restriced access, read-only version available here]