Seminar: Global Value Chains, Local Clusters and Corporate Social Responsibility

Invites CBS students and other interested stakeholders to attend the seminar:

Global Value Chains, Local Clusters and Corporate Social Responsibility:

A Comparative Assessment of the Sports Goods Clusters in Sialkot, Pakistan and Jalandhar, India

The seminar will focus on the overall relationship between global value chains, industrial clusters, and corporate social responsibility. Khalid Nadvi, Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester and Peter Lund-Thomsen, Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School will present the findings from a recent study undertaken in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The UNIDO study investigates how the CSR profiles of the Pakistani and Indian soccer ball industries have evolved between 1997 and 2007. During the mid-1990s, international news reports revealed the presence of child labour in both industries, forcing them to find appropriate joint responses if they were to avoid an international boycott of their soccer ball exports. The response came in the form of the Atlanta Agreement – a multi-stakeholder initiative that was negotiated by the ILO, UNICEF, the global sports brands, Save the Children UK, local NGOs and the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The report compares how the Sialkot and Jalandhar industries implemented the Atlanta Agreement through the establishment of child labor monitoring mechanism involving approximately 100 soccer ball manufacturers in Sialkot and 30 exporters in Jalandhar, as well as the establishment of social development projects that were supposed to help former child workers getting access to education and their families find alternative income generation opportunities. Particular focus is on the comparative lessons learned over the last ten years about the effectiveness of the cluster responses to global value chain pressures, the Atlanta Agreement’s approach to combating child labour, and the ways in which local perceptions of child labor/CSR influence the long-term viability of such initiatives.

About the Speakers:

Khalid Nadvi’s research focuses on glocalization, international trade, industrial development, innovation, small enterprises, employment, labor standards and poverty reduction. His recent work focuses on small firm industrial clusters, global value chains and global CSR standards.

Peter Lund-Thomsen’s current research focuses on the linkages between global value chains, industrial clusters, and corporate social responsibility in the international leather tanning and sporting goods industries.