Complements or Substitutes? Private Codes, State Regulation and the Enforcement of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains

TLDR

Recent research indicates that a mix of public and private interventions is needed to improve working conditions and environmental standards in global supply chains, yet little is known about how these forms interact in practice. This study investigates how public and private regulations interact by comparing Hewlett‑Packard suppliers. The authors analyze Hewlett‑Packard’s audit data over time and conduct qualitative fieldwork at matched suppliers in Mexico and the Czech Republic to examine regulatory interactions. The analysis shows that private interventions are shaped by state and non‑governmental actors, acting as complements or substitutes depending on national context and issue.

Abstract

Abstract Recent research on regulation and governance suggests that a mixture of public and private interventions is necessary to improve working conditions and environmental standards within global supply chains. Yet less attention has been directed to how these different forms of regulation interact in practice. The form of these interactions is investigated through a contextualized comparison of suppliers producing for H ewlett‐ P ackard, one of the world's leading global electronics firms. Using a unique dataset describing H ewlett‐ P ackard's supplier audits over time, coupled with qualitative fieldwork at a matched pair of suppliers in M exico and the C zech R epublic, this study shows how private and public regulation can interact in different ways — sometimes as complements; other times as substitutes — depending upon both the national contexts and the specific issues being addressed. Results from our analysis show that private interventions do not exist within a vacuum, but rather these efforts to enforce labour and environmental standards are affected by state and non‐governmental actors.