Modern slavery: A literature review using bibliometric analysis and the nexus of governance

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Waqas Mehmood,Adura Ahmad,Attia Aman‐Ullah,Rasidah Mohd‐Rashid
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2832

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Modern slavery: A literature review using bibliometric analysis

and the nexus of governance

Waqas Mehmood

1

| Adura Ahmad

2

| Attia Aman-Ullah

3

|

Rasidah Mohd-Rashid

1

1

School of Economics, Finance and Banking,

Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah,

Malaysia

2

Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, School of

Accountancy, Universiti Utara Malaysia,

Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

3

School of Business Management, Universiti

Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

Correspondence

Waqas Mehmood, School of Economics,

Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara

Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia.

Email: waqas.mehmood61@gmail.com

Funding information

Universiti Utara Malaysia; Universiti Islam

Bandung; Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz School of

Accountancy; Yayasan Muhibah Tan Sri Fng Ah

Seng, Grant/Award Number: 14497

This article reviews and analyses the empirical and theoretical literature on modern

slavery, a topic that has received substantial attention in recent years. A qualitative

and quantitative meta-literature review was carried out on modern slavery literature

published between 1999 and 2021. A total of 280 works on the topic were analysed

using citation analysis (Harzing's Publish or Perish and VOSviewer software) and con-

tent analysis. Several noteworthy aspects in the literature were identified, specifically

the topics, articles, authors, journals, institutions, countries, co-authorship networks,

and research streams. The research streams fall into three categories: 1) an overview

and growth of modern slavery, 2) modern slavery and theories, and 3) modern slavery

and country behaviour. The review and analyses led to the development of

15 research questions for future research. In addition, two views about current

research on modern slavery were established: 1) the assertion that modern slavery is

not exclusive to specific nations, jurisdictions, or periods, and 2) despite the numer-

ous areas of accounting research on modern slavery, there is still a lack of studies on

the topic. This study is the first to use inclusive mapping to empirically evaluate

modern slavery.

KEYWORDS

bibliometric analysis, governance, literature review, modern slavery

1|INTRODUCTION

The popular view of slavery is that it is a historical aberration. How-

ever, there is a real possibility of the weaker group being enslaved in

any country (USA Department of State, 2018; Walk Free Foundation,

2018). Massive population growth and interruptions to traditional

economies have led to the creation of millions of “disposable people”

considered “unfree”by the “final authority of violence”(Bales, 2012).

In modern terms, slaves no longer refer to individuals who are treated

as personal property but rather to workers who are under the full con-

trol of their employers (Cooke, 2003; Mende & Drubel, 2020). These

workers are pressed to work until they were no longer capable of

doing so, which is when they are disposed (Stringer et al., 2014;

Stringer et al., 2016). In high per-capita income countries, the act of

slavery is obscured by employing the workers in traditional or

unskilled vocations at distant locations, cultures, or low socioeco-

nomic status.

Regardless of its lengthy history, slavery is not a reversion to pre-

capitalist productions. With the maximization of labour-demanding

production, vulnerable individuals are often enslaved in various global

industries. “Modern slavery”refers to bonded and forced labour,

human trafficking, slavery, and various forms of labour exploitation

(Anti-Slavery International, 2018; Walk Free Foundation, 2018). Such

open delineation broadens the definition of exploitation, whereby

social life is dictated by the needs and wants of the market. Ironically,

the process of globalization, which is fundamentally driven by the

spirit of liberalization, has paved the way for parochial working states.

The liberal ideology has tremendously helped abolish the “old”notion

of slavery. Abolitionists in the United Kingdom and the United States

used liberal and moral reasoning, reinforced by economic reasoning,

Received: 13 September 2021 Revised: 19 June 2022 Accepted: 22 June 2022

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2832

J Public Affairs. 2023;23:e2832. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of22

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2832

to abolish slavery in the nineteenth century (Temperley, 1977). The

impression drawn from this is that modern international businesses

are fundamentally against slavery. Yet, as asserted by Bales (2012), a

prominent figure in modern slavery studies, giant international corpo-

rations are somewhat involved in slavery due to their non-transparent

value chains. This scenario complicates the assignment of accountabil-

ity for rights violation toward the participants in the value chains

Stringer and Michailova (2018). The conception of multinational

enterprises being unwitting recipients of modern slavery is in line with

the assertions put forward by numerous corporations, but that does

not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the practice of slavery in

supply chains is unknown, inexplicable, or unwanted.

Historical associations exacerbate the seriousness of the issue of

slavery today. Based on multilateral treaties, numerous lawyers, labour

activists, journalists, and governmental and inter-governmental agen-

cies worldwide endeavour to safeguard the rights of susceptible

workers. They are facilitated by empirical and theoretical studies in

fields related to business sciences. The nominal salaries paid to mod-

ern slaves are a general illustration of their actual status: employers

find it more convenient to pay a certain wage to enforced workers

than spending time and energy securing goods and services that fulfil

their fundamental human needs as previously done by slave-owners.

Although slaves may use their wages to buy consumer goods that are

detrimental to their productivity (Barzel, 1977), cash payments instead

of payments in-kind are more sensible for slaves who are non-

confineable when they are not working. Modern slaves typically regu-

late themselves when they are not under supervision due to their

inability to converse in local languages, unfamiliarity with their loca-

tion, illegal entry into the country where they work, or not being in

possession of legal work and residency documentation. Regardless,

wages are most likely merely an accounting front with no significant

economic value, with deductions automatically made to pay off debts

to the employer or money retrieved to conceal inflated expenditures.

Institutions and academics are now looking to the issue of slavery

in international or local production systems, deeming the situation as

a non-issue as long as companies quote labour-cost minimization as a

persistent strategic objective. International business studies are

mostly tight-lipped on the issue of slavery (Stringer & Michailova,

2018). A change must be made in view of the worsening status of

modern slavery that has tarnished international business practices.

According to Freedom House (2018), 71 countries demonstrated a gen-

eral decay in political rights and civil liberties in 2017, marking the 12th

successive year of debility in global freedom. This is exacerbated by the

rising trend of global informalization, urbanization, and labour mobiliza-

tion (Slavnic, 2010) to the extent that it has become impractical to antici-

pate the end of human rights violations in global production systems.

Without thorough investigations on modern slavery by the international

business research community, there will be allegations of indifference

and even irreverence to the issue. Scholars have a professional obligation

to use their know-how to alleviate social ills, including slavery, which is

now a modern global issue. Therefore, a firm regulatory framework to

control modern slavery must be established. This global phenomenon

has gained the attention of policymakers and researchers. Along with the

increasing number of modern slaveries, a substantial body of literature

on the subject matter has now been developed (see Figure 1). This

current study, therefore, aims to examine such literature works and

contribute valuable insights for future research.

A thorough investigation can catapult existing endeavours into a

new developmental stage. The current study exemplifies the current

state of modern slavery research, providing additional evidence and

guidelines for future research. In order to capture the wealth of modern

slavery literature, bibliometric citation analysis (Helbing, 2019; Zhang

et al., 2019) and content analysis (Garner et al., 2016; Vigne et al., 2017).

The following research questions have been raised: (1) What are the

major research streams in the literature on modern slavery? (2) What are

the key elements of the modern slavery literature (e.g., journals, institu-

tions, countries, authors, articles, and networks)? and (3) What are the

topic's future research questions? This study concludes the data sources,

methods, and contents of the key papers. There are also key journals,

countries, institutions, authors, main research areas, articles/topics, and

224

1

534

8

5

9

45

11 11

17 17

25

36

40

62

9

Number of Papers

Years

FIGURE 1 Modern slavery publication trend from 1999 to 2021.

2of22 MEHMOOD ET AL.