Labour Rights Movements and Modern Slavery Audit Disclosures within Global Supply Chains: A Political Mediation Perspective

Widespread stakeholder concerns over corporate opacity in relation to modern slavery, along with recent regulations, provide a unique research setting to investigate whether and how concerned global retailers utilize a particular transparency tool, the modern slavery audit (a form of social audit), within their global supply chains. Using the concept of political mediation from social movement theory, we investigate the influence of protests by labor rights organizations and the political context within which this takes place on modern slavery audit-related disclosures by global retailers. The political mediation concept recognizes the importance of the political tactics of social movement organizations, as well as the political contexts within which the tactics can be utilized effectively. Based on a sample of global retail companies that published their initial modern slavery statements, we find that both labor rights activism, and the political context within which this takes place, resulted in companies being more transparent about their use of modern slavery audits within their supply chains by disclosing information about the outcome of modern slavery audits. We argue that more explicit disclosures on modern slavery audits may lead to improved corporate social transparency. This study is relevant for regulators, policymakers, corporate managers, and civil society groups if they want to understand what kind of transparency calls, stakeholder pressures and social movement tactics improve corporate disclosures in relation to a particular social audit, i.e., the modern slavery audit. The study contributes to the accounting literature by providing new insights into social movement contexts and activities to influence evolving forms of corporate social disclosure and transparency.