Voluntary governance in clothing production networks: Management perspectives on multi-stakeholder initiatives in Dhaka

Multi-stakeholder initiatives aim to promote better working conditions in the supply chains of global retailers and brands. These initiatives promote closer relationships, or relational governance' between lead firms and their suppliers, in order to increase social compliance to a multi-stakeholder' code of conduct. However, industrial disasters in clothing export factories have exposed gaps and disconnections in this model. Adopting a Global Production Networks approach, this article explores how multi-stakeholder initiatives connect and interact with local industry actors in the Bangladesh garment industry. This article explores how intra- and inter-firm dynamics influences how factory managers engage and interact with multi-stakeholder initiatives, highlighting the unevenness through which multi-stakeholder initiatives undertake their activities on the ground, and the extent to which these initiatives promote better working conditions inside factories. The findings presented here indicate how local and global productive relations and strategic economic interests frame the ways the codes of conduct are implemented, and negotiated, giving weight to individual elements within the codes. These dynamics should be taken into account when considering relational governance as a mechanism to improve working conditions.