Codes of Corporate Conduct: Expanded Review of their Contents

Based on a slight extension of the inventory of 233 codes of corporate conduct collected for an earlier study (TD/TC/WP(98)74/FINAL), this paper takes a more in-depth look at the contents of the codes with respect to issue coverage and code implementation procedures. The main findings of this investigation of 246 voluntary codes of conduct are: The codes examined differ considerably in terms of their content and degree of detail. This reflects the underlying diversity of the organisations issuing the codes, which differ in terms of size, sector and regional affiliation. All the firms subscribing to the codes covered in this study are based in the OECD (most of the 29 member OECD countries are covered in the inventory). The firms operate in a variety of sectors including high technology, mass retailing, heavy manufacturing, light manufacturing, primary production and financial services. Some codes in the inventory are issued by business associations and others by NGOs. The codes ...