Modern Slavery in Business: The Sad and Sorry State of a Non-Field

Open Access

Abstract

'Modern slavery', a term used to describe severe forms of labour exploitation, is beginning to spark growing interest within business and society research. As a novel phenomenon it offers potential for innovative theoretical and empirical pathways to a range of business and management research questions. And yet, development into what we might call a 'field' of modern slavery research in business and management remains significantly, and disappointingly, underdeveloped. To explore this, we elaborate on the developments to date, the potential drawbacks, and the possible future deviations that might evolve within six sub-disciplinary areas of business and management. We also examine the value that non-management disciplines can bring to research on modern slavery and business, examining the connections, critiques, and catalysts evident in research from political science, law, and history. These, we suggest, offer significant potential for building towards a more substantial sub-field of research.