Labor, Risk, and Uncertainty in Global Supply Networks—Exploratory Insights
研究了全球供应网络中劳动力如何成为风险与不确定性的来源及应对手段，基于对10家欧洲企业国际框架协议的调查，发现这些协议未能有效处理劳动力相关风险。
Arising from widespread outsourcing and, in particular, offshoring, goods and services are increasingly provided by supply networks that rely on global logistic systems. While the risks and uncertainties involved in this strategy have been widely acknowledged in the literature on interorganizational networks and supply chain management, labor conditions and labor relations—and related human resource management issues—have thus far been neglected. Starting from a perspective that takes into consideration that global supply networks are not only confronted with calculable risks but also genuine uncertainties, we explore the conditions under which labor may constitute a source as well as a means for dealing with risk and uncertainty. The study is based on a review of the relevant interorganizational network and supply chain management literature and is informed by an investigation of International Framework Agreements ( IFA s) in 10 European corporations and their supply networks. IFA s—in addition to unilateral codes of conduct—could be used to detect and cope with labor‐related risk and uncertainties. However, our findings reveal that this is not the case. This leads to some tentative theoretical conclusions and implications for dealing with risk and uncertainty in global supply networks.