In the context of a globalised economy, many companies have adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies in their vertical relationships with suppliers whom they have asked to comply with their own codes of conduct. Thus, suppliers that enter into contractual relationships with such large companies may be confronted with multiple codes of conduct that incorporate different standards that they are expected to meet. This entails additional costs with consequential limited benefits. This paper focuses on large companies in specific sectors that operate in supply chains where they do not exert control over their suppliers and that are already promoting several collaborative initiatives among competitors to facilitate the identification of common standards across their supply chains. The descriptive and exploratory research includes a qualitative analysis of four cases, each of which explains an intra-sector collaborative approach to implementing CSR in international supply chains.