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Prof Rob Caruana, Prof Andreas Wieland (Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, Copenhagen Business School and Co-Editor of Journal of Supply Chain Management), Prof Andrew Crane and Dr Mike Rogerson

Prof Rob Caruana addresses conference participants

Prof Rob Caruana and Dr Mike Rogerson address conference participants

Dr Lara Bianchi delivers the keynote speech

Modern Slavery is a huge challenge to overcome, with global estimates of up to 50 million people falling victim to it. With landmark legislation such as the UK Modern Slavery Act and the growing ubiquity of corporate modern slavery statements, a niche but growing field of research has its finger on the pulse of an increasingly salient agenda in business and society. Last month, this global community of researchers gathered at the University for a two-day conference to discuss the latest insights of their burgeoning field.

Co-organised by the Business School’s Dr Mike Rogerson and Prof Rob Caruana, with colleagues from Hult International Business School, ‘Alternative Paths’ underlined our School’s emerging prominence in this still understudied area of research.

Speaking to a room of over 50 researchers from 13 countries, Prof Caruana, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research, clarified the titular “alternative path being taken”. “This captures changes in industry,” he explained “with major corporations and organisations increasingly focused on the challenge that modern slavery represents. Second, our fellow researchers have almost all begun their research journeys in more ‘mainstream’ areas”. Dr Rogerson, Lecturer in Operations Management, shared his own journey from several years’ work at a construction firm in Africa and the Middle East to wanting to “find out more and seek solutions” to the myriad workers’ rights issues that he encountered.

The keynote speech by Nottingham Business School’s Dr Lara Bianchi powerfully contrasted the concept of utopia with the realities of modern slavery in UK agriculture. Reflecting on her experience of directly engaging with those affected by modern slavery, Dr Bianchi emphasised the need for all researchers and practitioners to ground their approaches in the shared humanity with the people impacted by modern slavery.

With 11 sessions comprising presentations of 32 research papers in business and modern slavery, the conference wrapped up with the presentation of the Journal of Supply Chain Management’s Best Paper Award 2024. This was awarded to the University of Bath’s Prof Andrew Crane for his research around “ethical blindness” and failures to prevent modern slavery in supply chains.