Identifying modern slavery in global supply chains: Leveraging monitoring technologies through multi-actor collaboration

Monitoring technologies (e.g., worker voice technologies, remote sensors, satellite images) provide additional opportunities to improve the identification of modern slavery in supply chains. New collaborations among different actors are required to enable these technological capabilities. Yet little is understood about how collaboration between actors such as employers, certification and auditing bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other vested intermediaries leverage monitoring technologies to identify modern slavery in global supply chains. Based on a qualitative inquiry of 32 interviews with leading actors in identifying modern slavery, we build upon two domains in the literature: the contracts domain and the conditions domain. Drawing on resource dependence theory (RDT), we show that valued resources (finance, access, skills, technology, and legitimacy) are held by various interdependent collaborators. We further show that identifying modern slavery can be enhanced through leveraging monitoring technologies embedded in collaborations, yet key contingencies (modern slavery posture, collaboration scope, cross-boundary interactions, and contextual embeddedness) facilitate (or inhibit) such an outcome. The paper offers an empirically grounded understanding of collaboration mechanisms to detect modern slavery in global supply chains. • Organizations face increasing demand for modern slavery accountability in their supply chains. • Identifying modern slavery can facilitate supply chain operations, reduce uncertainties, and ensure firm survival. • Organizations pursue collaborations to address gaps in their capabilities and/or capacity to address modern slavery. • Multi-actor collaborations can leverage technologies to increase the effectiveness of identifying modern slavery. • Leveraging technologies depends on key contingencies (i.e., modern slavery posture, scope of collaboration, cross boundary interactions, and contextual embeddedness) that facilitate (or inhibit) identifying modern slavery.