The role of fashion corporations in ethical and sustainable global governance: A comparative assessment of Corporate Social Responsibility practices in Prada and SHEIN

Abstract

The fast-paced nature of global consumption trends, interdependencies and interconnectedness all characterize the sudden yet rapid escalation of globalization in today’s international affairs scenery. Additionally, this has allowed the rise of the fashion industry’s influence and has opened the path to a new cultural and economic actor. Like any shift in societal coexistence, this has crafted an urgent need for professionals and academics in the governmental domain to broaden their analytical frameworks, giving a new dimension to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Amongst many other interpretations, CSR can be broadly defined as a framework established for the guidance and alignment of companies’ social and environmental commitments stressing the importance of accountability and transparency through the entirety of global value supply chains. In doing so, it becomes possible to more accurately assess new and emerging challenges to effective global governance. This imperative serves as the foundational motivation for the present assessment. Through the application of a mixed methodology of a literature review, a comparative case study of both content and empirical data from responsibility reports, and the performance of two semi-structured interviews, the research advocates for a critical statal and legal regulatory mechanism to address the corporate power dynamics that international relations fosters today.