IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-04858090.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Impact pathways: "Follow the labour". the labour supply chain and its impact on decent work in product supply chains

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Marques

    (Audencia Business School)

  • Alice Erthal

    (FDC - Fundação Dom Cabral [Brasil] = Dom Cabral Foundation [Brazil])

  • Andrew Crane

    (University of Bath [Bath])

Abstract

To conceptualise the labour supply chain and its relationship with product supply chains. In doing so, we call for research that follows the flow of labour to advance the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) towards decent work in supply chains. A real-time case study of modern slavery in the wine, apple and poultry supply chains in Southern Brazil with interviews including workers, farmers, and a multitude of stakeholders. By following the flow of labour, we uncover how temporary workers are used to manage product seasonality, and the role of hidden actors such as labour providers and charities. We show that different product supply chains tend to mimic each other and share the same pool of temporary workers to ensure flexibility at low cost, while exploiting workers. For decades the OSCM field has used frameworks that follow the product to improve efficiency and traceability. Yet, labour flows across product supply chains remain untraceable. Our research calls for a dynamic perspective on labour to set the basis for an emerging research agenda on the interplay of product and labour flows in supply chains to advance decent work.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Marques & Alice Erthal & Andrew Crane, 2024. "Impact pathways: "Follow the labour". the labour supply chain and its impact on decent work in product supply chains," Post-Print hal-04858090, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04858090
    DOI: 10.1108/IJOPM-06-2024-0470
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://audencia.hal.science/hal-04858090v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://audencia.hal.science/hal-04858090v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/IJOPM-06-2024-0470?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonardo Marques & Tingting Yan & Lee Matthews, 2020. "Knowledge Diffusion in a Global Supply Network: A Network of Practice View," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 56(1), pages 33-53, January.
    2. Vivek Soundararajan & Miriam M. Wilhelm & Andrew Crane, 2021. "Humanizing Research on Working Conditions in Supply Chains: Building a Path to Decent Work," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 57(2), pages 3-13, April.
    3. Andrew Crane & Genevieve LeBaron & Jean Allain & Laya Behbahani, 2019. "Governance gaps in eradicating forced labor: From global to domestic supply chains," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 86-106, March.
    4. Genevieve LeBaron, 2021. "The Role of Supply Chains in the Global Business of Forced Labour," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 57(2), pages 29-42, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zahra Shirgholami & Rosanna Cole & James Aitken, 2024. "Shifting the perspective on labor exploitation: Non‐commercial organizations' contribution toward supply chain governance," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 60(3), pages 59-78, July.
    2. Seongtae Kim & Sangho Chae & Stephan M. Wagner & Jason W. Miller, 2022. "Buyer abusive behavior and supplier welfare: An empirical study of truck owner–operators," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 58(4), pages 90-111, October.
    3. L. Marques & D. Morais & A. Terra, 2025. "More than meets the eye: Misconduct and decoupling against blockchain for supply chain transparency," Post-Print hal-05100211, HAL.
    4. Maguire-Rajpaul, V.A. & Hirons, M. & Rajpaul, V.M. & Asare, R.A. & Boyd, E. & Malhi, Y. & Mason, J. & Morel, A.C. & Norris, K. & McDermott, C., 2025. "What resilience theory and praxis can learn from multi-dimensional approaches to understanding poverty: A study of Ghanaian cocoa forest landscapes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    5. Leonardo de Assis Santos & Leonardo Marques, 2022. "Big data analytics for supply chain risk management: research opportunities at process crossroads," Post-Print hal-03766121, HAL.
    6. Sarosh Kuruvilla & Chunyun Li, 2021. "Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining in Global Supply Chains: A Research Agenda," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 57(2), pages 43-57, April.
    7. Han, Qiujie & Wang, Fei & Wang, Yushi & Guo, Feng, 2025. "How supply chain and digitalization are significant contributors to international trade? The role of renewable and energy intensity in global trade powerhouses' economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. Tsolakis, Naoum & Zissis, Dimitris & Tjahjono, Benny, 2023. "Scrutinising the interplay between governance and resilience in supply chain management: A systems thinking framework," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 164-180.
    9. Geri L Dimas & Renata A Konrad & Kayse Lee Maass & Andrew C Trapp, 2022. "Operations research and analytics to combat human trafficking: A systematic review of academic literature," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(8), pages 1-24, August.
    10. Britta Holzberg, 2024. "Local Understandings of Decent Work and the Legitimacy of Global Labour Standards: Insights from Garment Suppliers in Egypt and Jordan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(4), pages 689-712, July.
    11. Bruce Pinnington & Joanne Meehan, 2023. "Learning to see modern slavery in supply chains through paradoxical sensemaking," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 59(4), pages 22-41, October.
    12. Ioannis Kougkoulos & M. Selim Cakir & Nathan Kunz & Doreen S. Boyd & Alexander Trautrims & Kornilia Hatzinikolaou & Stefan Gold, 2021. "A Multi‐Method Approach to Prioritize Locations of Labor Exploitation for Ground‐Based Interventions," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(12), pages 4396-4411, December.
    13. Mateusz Kurowski & Katarzyna Huk, 2021. "Selected Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Industry Related to the Production and Supply of Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, November.
    14. Chunyan Li & Mohsin Shafait, 2025. "Assessing the impact of network embeddedness on SMEs innovation performance through resource bricolage: a mediated-moderated model," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 72-88, March.
    15. Alin Kadfak & Miriam Wilhelm & Patrik Oskarsson, 2023. "Thai Labour NGOs during the ‘Modern Slavery’ Reforms: NGO Transitions in a Post‐aid World," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(3), pages 570-600, May.
    16. Nagurney, Anna, 2022. "Attracting international migrant labor: Investment optimization to alleviate supply chain labor shortages," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 9(C).
    17. Janina Grabs & Rachael D. Garrett, 2023. "Goal-Based Private Sustainability Governance and Its Paradoxes in the Indonesian Palm Oil Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(3), pages 467-507, December.
    18. Anne Ratsimandresy & Joe Miemczyk, 2023. "Conceptualising Collaborations beyond Industrial Boundaries: A Literature Review and a Theoretical Proposition to Understand Cross-Industrial Collaborations in the Circular Supply Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, May.
    19. Stephen J. FRENKEL & Elke S. SCHUESSLER, 2021. "From Rana Plaza to COVID‐19: Deficiencies and opportunities for a new labour governance system in garment global supply chains," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 591-609, December.
    20. Christopher Pesterfield & Michael Rogerson, 2024. "Institutional Logics in the UK Construction Industry’s Response to Modern Slavery Risk: Complementarity and Conflict," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 59-75, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04858090. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.