Corporate Codes of Conduct: Self-Regulation in a Global Economy

Abstract

Summary iii ROsumO v Resumen vii 1. Introduction 1 2. Changes in the Regulation of Corporate Activity 1 3. The International Context of the Growth of Corporate Codes of Conduct 6 4. Stakeholders and Their Attitudes toward Codes of Conduct 8 (a) Large corporations 8 (b) Smaller producers 10 (c) Northern NGOs 10 (d) Trade unions 12 (e) Shareholders and investors 12 (f) Consumers 14 (g) Consultancy firms and verifiers 15 (h) Southern exporters 16 (i) Workers in the South 17 (j) Southern NGOs 18 (k) Southern governments 18 (l) Local communities 18 5. The Morphology of Codes of Conduct 19 (a) Sectors 19 (b) Types of codes of conduct 20 (c) Scope 21 (d) Coverage 23 (e) Substance 25 (f) Implementation 25 6. An Evaluation of Corporate Codes of Conduct 26 (a) Limitations 26 (b) Benefits 28 (c) Dangers 29 Bibliography 31 UNRISD Programme Papers on Technology, Business and Society 35 Tables Table 1: Liberalization of foreign investment (1991Œ1998) 4 Table 2: Sectoral composition of firms issuing codes 19 Table 3: The labour content of the codes 22 Table 4: Coverage of labour issues in multi-firm codes 24