Examining anti-modern slavery practices in business relationships and networks: power consequences and social value creation perspectives

Purpose: This article aims to develop a conceptual framework linking exemplar anti-modern slavery practices and their anticipated desirable and undesirable power consequences for social value creation within business relationships and broader networks.
Design/methodology/approach: This article adopts a conceptual approach to develop a comprehensive framework that integrates the theoretical concepts of social value, relationship competence development, and power asymmetry. This framework serves as a foundation for examining anti-modern slavery practices within business relationships and identifying directions for future research.
Findings: This article outlines a five-phase process for developing resources and competencies within business relationships and networks by examining ten exemplar anti-modern slavery practices. The analysis places particular emphasis on the dynamics between power asymmetry and these practices, along with their implications for social value creation.
Originality/value: The originality of this paper lies in establishing how exemplar anti-modern slavery practices, aligned with human rights due diligence principles, intersect with expected power dynamics and social value creation within business relationships and networks. We argue that dyadic and multi-actor business relationships represent the primary level of analysis for
addressing modern slavery and promoting social value generation within business networks and broader society.