Abstract

Within the international political economy (IPE) literature on global supply chains, there is growing debate about the effectiveness of private global supply chain solutions to address social and environmental problems. Most scholarship takes supply chain solutions at face value, investigating the circumstances under which they are effective, lacking, and how effectiveness could be incrementally improved. These studies have helpfully investigated operational and procedural issues associated with private governance and relationships between stakeholders in standard-setting processes. But the literature often loses sight of broader and more fundamental questions about whether or not private governance initiatives are actually working to solve the problems they’ve been established to address, like pollution, modern slavery, and global North and South inequalities. In this introduction to the Review of International Political Economy special issue on the hidden costs of global supply chains, we analyse key trends in the effectiveness of private governance solutions, drawing on our literature review of 290 academic journal articles and contributions within this collection. We argue that not only are global supply chain solutions falling short when it comes to many of the indicators that matter most, but they come with hidden costs – including unintended consequences, perverse effects, and unacknowledged impacts.

摘要

在关于全球供应链的国际政治经济 (IPE) 文献中，关于私营全球供应链解决方案在解决社会和环境问题方面的有效性的争论越来越多。大多数学者都从表面上看待供应链解决方案，调查它们在哪些情况下有效、缺乏，以及如何逐步提高有效性。这些研究有助于调查与私人治理相关的操作和程序问题以及标准制定过程中利益相关者之间的关系。但是文献常常忽视更广泛和更基本的问题，即私人治理举措是否真的在努力解决它们已经建立起来要解决的问题，比如污染、现代奴隶制、以及全球南北不平等。在这篇关于全球供应链隐性成本的国际政治经济评论特刊的介绍中，我们分析了私人治理解决方案有效性的主要趋势，利用了我们对该集合中 290 篇学术期刊文章和贡献的文献回顾。我们认为，全球供应链解决方案不仅在许多最重要的指标方面存在不足，而且还伴随着隐性成本——包括意想不到的后果、不良影响和未被承认的影响。借鉴我们对该集合中 290 篇学术期刊文章和贡献的文献回顾。我们认为，全球供应链解决方案不仅在许多最重要的指标方面存在不足，而且还伴随着隐性成本——包括意想不到的后果、不良影响和未被承认的影响。借鉴我们对该集合中 290 篇学术期刊文章和贡献的文献回顾。我们认为，全球供应链解决方案不仅在许多最重要的指标方面存在不足，而且还伴随着隐性成本——包括意想不到的后果、不良影响和未被承认的影响。