Extending social responsibility to garment suppliers

The objective of this study is to identify and prioritise influential factors of extending (corporate) social responsibility (C/SR) from large retailers in developed countries to suppliers/ manufacturers in developing nations. Design/Methodology/Approach Based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach a two-part questionnaire was developed and employed for interview and data collection. A major Australian retailer importing readymade garments from Bangladesh is selected for interview. Expert choice® software was used to analyse data and determine relative weights of factors of extending social responsibility to garment suppliers/ manufacturers. Findings The results indicate that at the governance mechanism level supplier selection is by far the most critical element compared to the supplier development element. At the criteria level two most influential criteria are social and supplier assessment. The results show that the top five factors are child labour, environmental management systems, formal evaluation, lack of health and safety, and human rights abuse. The sensitivity analysis indicates that a slight decrease (from 0.750 to 0.735) in the relative weight of supplier selection element the ranking of the factors changes. Originality/Value This study advances the literature on implementation of social responsibility by including supplier selection along with supplier development.