IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v193y2022ics0921800921003712.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Compliance and cooperation in global value chains: The effects of the better cotton initiative in Pakistan and India

Author

Listed:
  • Ghori, Shakil
  • Lund-Thomsen, Peter
  • Gallemore, Caleb
  • Singh, Sukhpal
  • Riisgaard, Lone

Abstract

The Better Cotton Imitative (BCI), the world's largest multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) for sustainable cotton production, is a prime example of a hybrid “cooperation-compliance” model used by some MSIs to engage farmers and on-farm workers in the global South. Using a mixed methods approach, we investigate the impacts of this hybrid model on economic, environmental, and labor conditions of farmers and on-farm workers on irrigated cotton farms in Pakistan and India. In one of few cross-national comparisons of BCI impacts, we find evidence that farmers participating in BCI's “cooperation-compliance” model report (a) higher gross incomes and (b) lower input costs than comparison farmers. However, (c) BCI had no positive impacts upon labor conditions on cotton farms, as compared to conventional peers. Finally, (d) BCI's impacts are mediated by institutional and geographic differences across the study sites. We conclude that effects of MSIs are hard to generalize but can most meaningfully be understood within particular institutional designs, value chains, specific time periods, and institutional contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghori, Shakil & Lund-Thomsen, Peter & Gallemore, Caleb & Singh, Sukhpal & Riisgaard, Lone, 2022. "Compliance and cooperation in global value chains: The effects of the better cotton initiative in Pakistan and India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:193:y:2022:i:c:s0921800921003712
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107312
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003712
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107312?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sun, Yixian & van der Ven, Hamish, 2020. "Swimming in their own direction: Explaining domestic variation in homegrown sustainability governance for aquaculture in Asia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Peter Lund‐Thomsen & Lone Riisgaard & Sukhpal Singh & Shakil Ghori & Neil M. Coe, 2021. "Global Value Chains and Intermediaries in Multi‐stakeholder Initiatives in Pakistan and India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(3), pages 504-532, May.
    3. Graeme Auld & Stefan Renckens & Benjamin Cashore, 2015. "Transnational private governance between the logics of empowerment and control," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(2), pages 108-124, June.
    4. Blackman, Allen & Naranjo, Maria A., 2012. "Does eco-certification have environmental benefits? Organic coffee in Costa Rica," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 58-66.
    5. Greg Distelhorst & Richard M. Locke & Timea Pal & Hiram Samel, 2015. "Production goes global, compliance stays local: Private regulation in the global electronics industry," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(3), pages 224-242, September.
    6. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    7. Peter Lund-Thomsen & Neil M. Coe, 2015. "Corporate social responsibility and labour agency: the case of Nike in Pakistan," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(2), pages 275-296.
    8. Chikako Oka & Niklas Egels‐zandén & Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond," Post-Print hal-02952114, HAL.
    9. Valerie Nelson & Ximena Rueda & Walter J.V. Vermeulen, 2018. "Challenges and Opportunities for the Sustainability Transition in Global Trade (Introduction)," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 173-178, February.
    10. Chikako Oka & Niklas Egels‐Zandén & Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1306-1330, September.
    11. Ximena Rueda & Andrea Paz & Theodora Gibbs‐Plessl & Ronald Leon & Byron Moyano & Eric F Lambin, 2018. "Smallholders at a Crossroad: Intensify or Fall behind? Exploring Alternative Livelihood Strategies in a Globalized World," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 215-229, February.
    12. Peter Lund-Thomsen & Adam Lindgreen, 2014. "Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Value Chains: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 11-22, August.
    13. Richard Locke & Matthew Amengual & Akshay Mangla, 2009. "Virtue out of Necessity? Compliance, Commitment, and the Improvement of Labor Conditions in Global Supply Chains," Politics & Society, , vol. 37(3), pages 319-351, September.
    14. Sippl, Kristin, 2020. "Southern Responses to Fair Trade Gold: Cooperation, Complaint, Competition, Supplementation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    15. Alexander, Rachel, 2018. "Sustainability in global production networks – introducing the notion of extended supplier networks," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87992, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Emmanuel Josserand & Sarah Kaine & Natalia Nikolova, 2018. "Delivering sustainability in supply networks: Achieving networked multi‐stakeholder collaborations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 605-611, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hamish van der Ven & David Barmes, 2023. "The uneasy marriage of private standards and public policies for sustainable commodity governance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5161-5173, December.
    2. Yossi Dahan & Hanna Lerner & Faina Milman-Sivan, 2023. "Shared Responsibility and Labor Rights in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1025-1040, February.
    3. Sarah Castaldi & Miriam M. Wilhelm & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Taco Vaart, 2023. "Extending Social Sustainability to Suppliers: The Role of GVC Governance Strategies and Supplier Country Institutions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(1), pages 123-146, February.
    4. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    5. Jenny COLLINS & Julian S. YATES, 2023. "Leveraging transparency to shift capital‐labour relations in garment sector production: A critical analysis of the design and structure of the Bangladesh Accord," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(4), pages 641-664, December.
    6. Jean-Christophe Graz & Nicole Helmerich & Cécile Prébandier, 2020. "Hybrid Production Regimes and Labor Agency in Transnational Private Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 307-321, March.
    7. Fu Jia & Yan Jiang, 2018. "Sustainable Global Sourcing: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, February.
    8. Stefan Gold & Thomas Chesney & Tim Gruchmann & Alexander Trautrims, 2020. "Diffusion of labor standards through supplier–subcontractor networks: An agent‐based model," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(6), pages 1274-1286, December.
    9. Hochachka, Gail, 2023. "Climate change and the transformative potential of value chains," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    10. Lohmeyer, Nora & Schüßler, Elke & Helfen, Markus, 2018. "Can solidarity be organized "from below" in global supply chains? The case of ExChains [Kann Solidarität „von unten“ in globalen Zuliefererketten organisiert werden? Der Fall ExChains]," Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management, Verlag Barbara Budrich, vol. 25(4), pages 400-424.
    11. Robert C. Bird & Vivek Soundararajan, 2020. "The Role of Precontractual Signals in Creating Sustainable Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 81-94, June.
    12. Daniel Berliner & Alex Ingrams & Suzanne J. Piotrowski, 2022. "Process effects of multistakeholder institutions: Theory and evidence from the Open Government Partnership," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 1343-1361, October.
    13. Thomas Dietz & Janina Grabs & Andrea Estrella Chong, 2021. "Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 333-355, April.
    14. Chikako Oka & Niklas Egels‐zandén & Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond," Post-Print hal-02952114, HAL.
    15. Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Emerging Roles of Lead Buyer Governance for Sustainability Across Global Production Networks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 269-290, March.
    16. Annelien Gansemans & Céline Louche & Marijke D'Haese, 2021. "Planting Seeds for Social Dialogue: An Institutional Work Perspective," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 84-113, March.
    17. Chikako Oka & Niklas Egels‐Zandén & Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1306-1330, September.
    18. Helen Packer & Wilf Swartz & Yoshitaka Ota & Megan Bailey, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Practices of the Largest Seafood Suppliers in the Wild Capture Fisheries Sector: From Vision to Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-24, April.
    19. Jean‐Christophe Graz & Jimena Sobrino Piazza & André Walter, 2022. "Labour Standards in Global Production Networks: Assessing Transnational Private Regulation and Workers’ Capacity to Act," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(4), pages 912-937, July.
    20. Stephen J. FRENKEL & Elke S. SCHUESSLER, 2021. "From Rana Plaza to COVID‐19: Deficiencies and opportunities for a new labour governance system in garment global supply chains," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 591-609, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:193:y:2022:i:c:s0921800921003712. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.