Do codes of conduct really mean a change in corporate practices with regard to human rights? Evidence from the largest garment companies worldwide

Media coverage of abuse and human rights violations throughout global corporations' value chains has focused stakeholders' attention on these events leading global corporations to insert the human rights agenda into their social responsibility politics. Using media agenda setting theory and legitimacy theory, this paper focuses on the five largest garment companies worldwide (namely, Inditex, Primark, H&M, Gap Inc., and Fast Retailing) which between 2007 and 2018 were involved in scandals due to human rights violations in their supply factories in other countries and analyses how they have responded to the media coverage on these events to regain legitimacy. We examine the extent to which the selected companies' codes of conduct address human rights issues and whether their adoption really meant a change in corporate practices. The analysis shows that almost all codes address all adverse human rights impacts that have been the subject of attention by the media. However, they were not reflected in the analysed companies' actual behaviour. Therefore, the adoption of a code of conduct by such companies can be considered a legitimation strategy aimed at turning stakeholders' perception and counteracting adverse media coverage.