TY - JOUR
T1 - Involving, countering, and overlooking stakeholder networks in soft regulation
T2 - Case study of a small-to-medium-sized enterprise’s implementation of SA8000
AU - Abboubi, Manal El
AU - Pinnington, Ashly H.
AU - Clegg, Stewart
AU - Nicolopoulou, Katerina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/7/1
Y1 - 2022/7/1
N2 - To achieve effective stakeholder governance in the context of international social accountability certification (SA8000) requires constructing a network of agreement. In a case study of a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME), we examine managers’ attempts at enrolling participants in the supply chain to investigate how they strive to engage these stakeholders. We adopt actor-network theory (ANT) and sensemaking theory to develop a novel approach to understanding social accountability (SA) standards’ certification in stakeholder networks. We argue that the design and operation of any SA standard across a network requires not only attempts at enrolling other participants in the supply chain but management contextualizing and problematizing the terms of their involvement.
AB - To achieve effective stakeholder governance in the context of international social accountability certification (SA8000) requires constructing a network of agreement. In a case study of a small-to-medium-sized enterprise (SME), we examine managers’ attempts at enrolling participants in the supply chain to investigate how they strive to engage these stakeholders. We adopt actor-network theory (ANT) and sensemaking theory to develop a novel approach to understanding social accountability (SA) standards’ certification in stakeholder networks. We argue that the design and operation of any SA standard across a network requires not only attempts at enrolling other participants in the supply chain but management contextualizing and problematizing the terms of their involvement.
KW - actor network theory
KW - sensemaking
KW - small business
KW - social accountability standards
KW - stakeholder management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107311532&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00076503211017508
DO - 10.1177/00076503211017508
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85107311532
SN - 0007-6503
VL - 61
SP - 1594
EP - 1630
JO - Business and Society
JF - Business and Society
IS - 6
ER -