Abstract
In late 2017, Zara, a major Spanish multinational retail clothing chain specializing in fast fashion, was the target of a negative campaign initiated by the workers of one of the company’s Turkish suppliers, Bravo Tekstil, who had been left without pay after their employer declared bankruptcy and disappeared overnight. Zara was in the media spotlight, and Clean Clothes Campaign, the garment industry’s largest alliance of labour unions, was pressuring the company to compensate for the workers’ losses and pay three months of wages and severance. Although not legally liable, Zara offered to pay about one-quarter of the Bravo Tekstil workers’ claims to limit its reputational damage. Bravo Tekstil’s workers remained largely dissatisfied with this offer and promised further actions against the Spanish multinational enterprise (MNE). In the short term, Zara had to decide how to respond effectively to these specific allegations, and over the longer term, it had to develop a more deliberate strategy for managing its suppliers’ potential irresponsibility.
Original language | English |
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Publication date | 29 Jul 2024 |
Place of Publication | London, ON |
Publisher | Ivey Publishing |
Number of pages | 8 |
Publication status | Published - 29 Jul 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Case-Reference no. W37071Keywords
- Fast fashion
- Zara
- Bravo Tekstil
- Supplier bankruptcy
- Worker compensation
- Reputational damage
- Business ethics
- international business
- Strategy
- Stakeholder theory
- Shareholder theory
- MNE-supplier relations
- Global value chains
- Competitive advantage
- Make or buy