Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry: An Exploration of Indian Manufacturers’ Perceptions

Abstract

<p>In last few decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has marked its importance in scholarly research as evidenced by an increasing number of articles and journals dedicated to the topic (Dirnbach, 2008). This increase in popularity is in part the result of globalization and international trade (Jamali & Mirshak, 2006), as the era of globalization has meant that many apparel retailers do not own production factories, but have divested their manufacturing in favor of outsourced production. Availability of inexpensive labor and low production costs make developing countries attractive outsourcing locations. For this reason, India is emerging as one of the major players in the global apparel supply chain (Krishnamoorthy, 2006). The Indian textile and apparel manufacturing sector employs roughly 45 million people, making it the second largest provider of jobs in India after agriculture, and accounts for nearly 11% of the country’s total exports (Ministry of Textiles, 2012).</p>