Chapter 2
Case Study 1. Corporate Social Responsibility challenges that companies in the apparel industry face in its supply chains around the world:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a subject of increasing significance. Companies are usually faced with the benefits versus harm created by their operations around the world. In spite of the benefits a company may enjoy in their business venture, there are several social downfalls that they need to take responsibility for. Such downfalls include but are not limited to, lack of equality, employee safety & welfare, both of the home countries and the host countries. The opening profile highlighted the subcontracting of child labor by Primark. The case study highlighted the issue of work treatment & conditions by Nike. In addition, workers were underpaid & punished for refusing overtime. At this level, the ethicality of the companies are being challenged, with varying legal and cultural limits across borders. The main question a company should answer is how should their ethical standard be based? Should it based on the home country or the host country or can it be reconciled? If the company ignores its ethical responsibility to workers, how will that affect production and sales? Association in unethical business operations can be quite disastrous to companies. Another ethically challenging aspect is that companies are also limited by jurisdiction. In the instance of the host country, legislations may not usually provide sufficient protection on labor, such as minimum wage or guidelines on health and safety in the workplace. Another challenge faced is auditing hitches. In order to comply with higher standard of CSR, some firms have undergone active research and auditing on the firms they hired in their supply chain. Discrepancies between reality and audit results do exist. But as stated in