Modern Slavery Disclosure Practices: A Systematic Literature Review Using Bibliometric and Thematic Content Analyses

Modern slavery is a serious social issue, and the International Labour Organization estimates 49.6 million modern slavery victims worldwide. Consequently, globally, numerous reporting legislations have been introduced to eradicate modern slavery enforcing organizations' modern slavery disclosure (MSD) practices. These enforcements require organizations to be transparent, and accountable for modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, making them crucial in the global fight against modern slavery. The purpose of this study is to review the research on the MSD practice that has gained substantial attention with growing interests of governments, industries, and policymakers. Using PRISMA protocol approach, this study reviews 48 MSD research published throughout 2016-2023 in Scopus and Web of Science databases. Furthermore, a bibliometric analysis strategy complemented with thematic content analysis was used to offer comprehensive future research agendas. The findings cover significant elements in the MSD literature, including countries, journals, authors, articles, and topics. Additionally, employing bibliographic coupling of the research articles derived 4 MSD knowledge clusters: (1) modern slavery reporting legislations: social washing through symbolic compliance, (2) modern slavery nature, perceptions, and dynamics on current regulations, (3) UK Modern Slavery Act effectiveness and determinants, (4) exploration of transparency and normativity of MSDs. This study contributes to the existing MSD literature by reflecting on the evolution of modern slavery reporting legislation and corresponding firms' responses in the form of highlighting the primary thrust areas of MSD research. This novel review of MSD research provides strong support for identifying emerging paradigms in the MSD literature who are new to the field. Further this study offers implications for policymakers highlighting the importance of establishing oversight bodies, auditing processes, and penalties for non-compliance to ensure effective MSD practice. The study sample was limited to the Scopus and WoS databases-listed journal articles omitting other grey literature, to ensure the reliability of the results.