How do supply companies perceive customer company’s Ethical Trading practice?: A study on the case of IKEA's code of conduct in Vietnam

摘要

This study explores ethical trading practices in Vietnam. Ethical trading is considered tobe a major part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and emerged partly as a response to antiglobalization and anti corporate sentiment especially for multinational companies. Ethicaltrading means that a company at one part of the supply chain (normally a brand, retailer or othercompanies with a public profile) takes responsibility for the social and environmentalperformance at the other stages of the chain, often located in developing countries. This studyspecifically explores how different actors perceive purposes and implementation of ethicaltrading practices in supply companies in Vietnam. The case study was conducted on IKEA’sCode of Conduct implementation in its Vietnamese supply companies. One study result was thatwithin IKEA’s Vietnamese supply companies, people made sense of ethical trading(IWAY Codeof Conduct) in terms of both normative values(worker’s right and benefit) and strategic andinstrumental values.(long term benefit for the company, customers demand) Different variablesinfluenced individual perceptions on what it meant to implement IWAY. Normative values werelearnt mainly through IWAY trainings and having contact with IKEA staff. Strategic andinstrumental values were gained mostly through benefits they observed and experienced as wellas trainings. In everyday conduct of IWAY, especially, managers were striving to achieve highcompliance by translating each code to a language that is more socially rooted and agreeable toworkers. One notable result in the present study was how people talk about IWAY governingpractice (Trainings, Auditing). Trainings and auditing were considered as useful in practicalterms. Especially, managers in supply companies were legitimizing having trainings and auditingusing only economic reasoning. Moral reasons for improvement of social and environmentalconditions were notably absent, known as ‘moral muteness’.