MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How Auditor Working Conditions Limit Supply Chain Transparency

Companies are under increasing pressure to improve supply chain transparency, particularly around working conditions in remote factories. Government regulations, the best practices of peers, and attention from outside stakeholders all make it increasingly critical that leaders ensure that partners producing goods for the company operate fair, safe, and equitable workplaces.

A key tactic in fostering such supply chain transparency is to implement on-the-ground, in-person reviews of factories and other workplaces. These social compliance audits are part of a huge global industry, valued at as much as $80 billion and conducted by both international auditing firms and smaller local auditing and certification firms and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

About the Author

Cory Searcy is a professor of industrial engineering and the assistant vice president, international, at Toronto Metropolitan University. Grant Michelson is a professor of management at Macquarie University in Sydney. Pavel Castka is a professor of operations management and sustainability and associate dean of research at UC Business School at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Xiaoli Zhao is a lecturer in business management at Lincoln University in New Zealand.

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