Niklas Egels-Zandén

The digitalization of retailing: an exploratory framework

AbstractPurpose – Digitalization denotes an on-going transformation of great importance for the retail sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the phenomenon of the digitalization of retailing by developing a conceptual framework that can be used to further delineate current transformations of the retailerconsumer interface.Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a framework for digitalization in the retail-consumer interface that consists of four elements: exchanges, actors, offerings, and settings. Drawing on the previous literature, it describes and exemplifies how digitalization transforms each of these elements and identifies implications and proposals for future research.Findings – Digitalization transforms the following: retailing exchanges (in a number of ways and in various facets of exchange, including communications, transactions, and distribution); the nature of retail offerings (blurred distinctions between products and services, what constitutes the actual offering and how it is priced); retail settings (i.e. where and when retailing takes place); and the actors who participate in retailing (i.e. retailers and consumers, among other parties).Research limitations/implications – The framework developed can be used to further delineate current transformations of retailing due to digitalization. The current transformation has created challenges for research, as it demands sensitivity to development over time and insists that categories that have been taken for granted are becoming increasingly blurred due to greater hybridity.Originality/value – This paper addresses a significant and on-going transformation in retailing and develops a framework that can both guide future research and aid retail practitioners in analysing retailing’s current transformation due to digitalization.

The Role of SMEs in Global Production Networks: A Swedish SME’s Payment of Living Wages at its Indian Supplier

Anti-sweatshop activists have turned global production networks (GPNs) into contested organizational fields. Although this contest has triggered the growth of an extensive literature on contested GPNs, the scholarly conversation is still limited in two important ways: First, it ignores or dismisses the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in GPNs and, second, it assumes that firms are driven solely by rational profit-maximizing motives. Based on a study of a Swedish SME’s payment of living wages at its Indian supplier, this article addresses these limitations by demonstrating how SMEs’ peculiarities allow them to assume a distinct role in contested GPNs. Furthermore, this article contributes to the scholarly conversation about living wages by providing a much-needed move beyond conceptual discussions into empirical studies of the underlying trade-offs of paying living wages.

Multiple institutional logics in union–NGO relations: private labor regulation in the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign

Conflicts between labor unions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) often impede private labor regulatory attempts to protect worker rights at supplier factories. Based on a study of a failed private regulatory attempt for Swedish garment retailers, we contribute to existing research into union–NGO relations by demonstrating how conflict arises because unions and NGOs act upon different institutional logics. We also contribute to the institutional logics perspective by challenging the current emphasis on either coexistence or conflict among multiple logics, and showing the heterogeneity in how multiple logics manifest on a local level, how this could shift over time, and suggesting an empirically derived typology of manifestations of multiple logics.

Do code of conduct audits improve chemical safety in garment factories? Lessons on corporate social responsibility in the supply chain from Fair Wear Foundation

Background: In managing chemical risks to the environment and human health in supply chains, voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures, such as auditing code of conduct compliance, play an important role. Objectives: To examine how well suppliers’ chemical health and safety performance complies with buyers’ CSR policies and whether audited factories improve their performance. Methods: CSR audits (n = 288) of garment factories conducted by Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), an independent non-profit organization, were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical modeling. Results: Forty-three per cent of factories did not comply with the FWF code of conduct, i.e. received remarks on chemical safety. Only among factories audited 10 or more times was there a significant increase in the number of factories receiving no remarks. Conclusions: Compliance with chemical safety requirements in garment supply chains is low and auditing is statistically correlated with improvements only at factories that have undergone numerous audits.

From Global Consumer Power to Local Worker Power

In June 2011, a proud email circulates around the world. It reports that Indonesian trade unions have signed a contract regarding Freedom of Association, with both a number of retail chains selling sporting goods, apparel, and footwear—such as Nike, Adidas, and so on—and the largest Indonesian producers of garments and footwear. The signing of the contract was preceded by two years of negotiations leading to the local unions succeeding in establishing the contract. Seen from the outside, it was surprising that the Indonesian trade unions, fragmented and with limited resources, and which normally would find it difficult to initiate collective bargaining with the Indonesian factory executives, had now succeeded in negotiating a contract with both these factory executives and a number of large, multinational corporations. This chapter analyzes this development, showing how the ability to leverage trust as a political tool to span organizational, institutional, and geographic boundaries was central for ensuring local trade unions’ place at the negotiating table and the signing of a contract.