what drives corporate social performance the role of nation level institutions based on whitley s national business systems nbs institutional framework we theorize about and empirically investigate the impact of nation level institutions on firms corporate social performance csp using a sample of firms from 42 countries spanning seven years we construct an annual composite csp index for each firm based on social and environmental metrics we find that the political system followed by the labor and education system and the cultural system are the most important nbs categories of institutions that impact csp interestingly the financial system appears to have a relatively less significant impact we discuss implications for research practice and policymaking

management of social issues in supply chains a literature review exploring social issues actions and performance outcomes the social dimension of sustainable development and its impact on supply chains have so far received less attention than the environmental dimension the aim of the research is to explore the intersection between social issues corporate social responsibility csr actions and performance outcomes a structured literature review of social issues in supply chains is presented analysing the research published so far in peer reviewed publications linking csr and supply chain management allows the exploration of strategies and performance outcomes with a focus on social issues the corresponding responsible supply chain actions adopted by firms to address these issues are grouped into communication compliance and supplier development strategies social and economic as well as buyer and supplier performance are identified as the key outcomes but the interactions among these constructs would require further research this paper contributes to the understanding of managing social issues in supply chains by linking social issues responsible supply chain actions and performance outcomes the paper consolidates related research by offering an overarching conceptual framework and points to future research directions and simultaneously provides insights into the management of social issues in supply chains

the formation of cross sector development partnerships how bridging agents shape project agendas and longer term alliances cross sector development partnerships csdps are project based collaborative arrangements between business government and civil society organizations in support of international development goals such as sustainability health education and economic development focusing on public private partnerships in development cooperation we examine different constellations of bridging agents and their effects in the formation of single csdp projects and longer term alliances we conceptualize bridging agency as a collective process involving both internal partner representatives and external intermediaries in initiating and or supporting roles we find that the involvement of external intermediaries eases the formation of single projects and longer term alliances however when projects are initiated by external intermediaries they tend to be repetitive and narrow in scope whereas projects initiated by internal partner representatives often explore novel agendas and embody a greater potential for social innovation yet the longer term pursuit of these agendas beyond single projects may require external intermediaries in supporting roles findings help better understand micro processes and collective practices of brokerage and alliance formation in transnational governance contexts and beyond

a comparison of oil supply risks in eu us japan china and india under different climate scenarios for many countries the inflow of energy is essential to keep economies running oil is typically considered to be the most critical fuel as an input for the petro chemical and transportation sector and due to limited and less spread reserves in this study external oil supply risks are assessed for the period up to 2035 for the european union united states china japan and india being the five largest importers of oil in the world based on their current supplier portfolio scenarios are constructed for several climate policy and oil supply projections it is found that risks increase strongly when stringent climate policies are prevented from being implemented especially when a peak in oil supply is taken into account resulting in major oil supply disruptions china faces the lowest oil supply risks in most scenarios but the trends of india china and us converge over time due to increasing import dependency of china and india japan faces high risks since the country has the highest oil import dependency combined with a low oil import diversification for the eu all figures are strongly influenced by russia accounting for 32 of total imports and to a lesser extent norway 11 with high overall risks

social accountability 8000 standard certification analysis of worldwide diffusion abstract this study analyzes the worldwide diffusion of the social accountability 8000 standard certification in sixty five countries and sixty six activity sectors from 1999 to 2011 the logistic curve model is used to assess the current situation on both a global scale and a local scale additionally instability and concentration indices are used to analyze whether the diffusion process developed in a homogeneous manner across countries and economic sectors the results i increase the understanding of sa8000 s diffusion ii provide an exploratory descriptive analysis of the current sa8000 diffusion worldwide in both macro and microanalyses compared with other standards and iii identify future trends in sa8000 diffusion concluding that currently sa8000 follows a similar pattern than other standards and in consequence a growing trend is expected in next years these findings suggest some challenges and opportunities the standard must be more flexible to accommodate the differing perspectives of cultures increase the dialogue with stakeholders and include more small companies from developing countries

quantifying the supplier portfolio diversity of embodied energy strategic implications for strengthening energy resilience this paper investigates energy resilience of countries by quantifying the supplier diversification of both direct and embodied energy import in particular we quantify two approaches to diversify a country s supplier portfolio by lowering the dependency on each supplier portfolio diversification and by having embodied energy suppliers that are different from its direct energy suppliers portfolio differentiation we examine possibilities for strategic utilization of embodied energy trade to compensate for low diversity of direct energy trade for three types of fossil resources coal oil and gas we find that the diversity of embodied energy import is much greater than that of direct energy import of the three energy resources coal enables countries to adopt portfolio diversification and portfolio differentiation more than gas and oil our results suggest embodied energy can be considered as a transfer of energy resources across national borders that can directly benefit from the diversity of the world energy production by skipping the limited diversity of the world energy export

assessing participation in voluntary environmental programmes in the developing world the role of fdi and export orientation on iso14001 adoption in thailand empirical assessments of the determinants of firm participation in voluntary environmental programmes veps in the developing world are largely absent from the environmental regulation literature leaving a number of important factors unique to such countries unexplored this article examines these factors namely the roles played by foreign direct investment fdi and export orientation in addition to factors deemed important in the industrialized world context to the problem of iso14001 adoption in one developing nation thailand we make use of unique primary data from 494 firms and focus on three important industries the resource based food and beverages industry the labour intensive textiles and wearing apparel industry and the more high technology electronics and electrical appliances industry we find that fdi plays a role in iso14001 adoption especially fdi from organization for economic co operation and development oecd and iso14001 rich countries other important determinants include fi

focus on fairtrade propositions for integrating fairtrade and supply chain management research driven by increased consumer interest and stakeholder pressure the number of fairtrade ft products has been steadily increasing the mainstreaming of ft means that the products are now facing stiff competition within the generic product categories in which they operate while consumers may pressure organizations for ethical conduct they are less willing to pay premium prices for fairly traded products for ft to continue to grow more efficient operating models are required to offset the premium prices paid to producers to ensure competitiveness in the market one such improvement approach may be the management of ft supply chains to investigate the feasibility of this approach this article systematically combines literature on ft with key supply chain management scm constructs and theories we discuss existing scm paradigms in the context of ft and demonstrate aspects where the efficiency of ft chains needs to be improved to ensure their viability we present propositions that demonstrate the key limitations of the ft model from the point of view of scm theory and practice and suggest the potential changes needed in the management of ft supply chains the article provides a timely first attempt to systematically combine ft with scm constructs thus establishing a basis for the further development of ft chains and for the improvement of the operating efficiency within them

the politics of code enforcement and implementation in vietnam s apparel and footwear factories summary what happens when transnational private regulation of labor standards is put into practice on the factory floor this article addresses this question with field research data on vietnam s apparel and footwear industries the vietnamese case shows that code enforcement and implementation are highly political processes fraught with conflicts and attempts at evasion the consequences moreover contradict the conventional wisdom of low regulatory effectiveness heightened legal awareness and strengthened labor law enforcement may result from these processes this study illustrates two mechanisms conflict and ritualistic compliance that can raise the effectiveness of private regulation

comparison of china s oil import risk results based on portfolio theory and a diversification index approach in recent years the international oil price has fluctuated violently bringing about huge risk for the international oil trade in fact the risk of crude oil and petroleum product imports is different because of the different import origins and prices which import risk is lower for china from the perspective of oil supply security how should china portfolio crude oil and petroleum product imports to minimize its oil import risk using portfolio theory and a diversification index approach this paper compares and analyzes the supply price and transport risks of crude oil and petroleum product imports our results show that the following 1 specific risk diversification risk and marine transport risk of china s petroleum product imports are lower than that of crude oil imports 2 the average rate of return of china s petroleum product imports is higher than that of crude oil imports moreover the average import price variance of petroleum product imports is lower than that of crude oil imports thus the systematic risk price risk of petroleum products is lower too therefore from the perspective of oil supply security china should increase petroleum product imports to decrease its oil import risk

revisiting supplier compliance with mnc codes of conduct recoupling policy and practice at chinese toy suppliers does private regulation of workers rights in global value chains improve working conditions on the factory floor drawing on one of the first systematic longitudinal studies of supplier compliance with multinational corporation mnc codes of conduct this paper finds in contrast to previous research substantial improvements over time while in 2004 the four examined chinese toy suppliers violated most of the evaluated code of conduct criteria and consciously decoupled the code of conduct policy from actual practices by 2009 they had recoupled policy and practice and complied with nearly all examined criteria except working hours the paper contributes to the private regulation literature by challenging previous research claims identifying factors that could make private regulation effective and outlining a research method for empirically studying the effects of codes of conduct over time the paper also contributes to new institutional theory by discussing how recoupling could be influenced by two factors not identified in previous research i trusting relationships between the organization and the stakeholder exerting pressure and ii factors unrelated to main external pressures leading to accidental recoupling

aids is not a business a study in global corporate responsibility securing access to low cost hiv medications at the end of the 1990s brazil was faced with a potentially explosive hiv aids epidemic through an innovative and multifaceted campaign and despite initial resistance from multinational pharmaceutical companies the government of brazil was able to negotiate price reductions for hiv medications and develop local production capacity thereby averting a public health disaster using interview data and document analysis the authors show that the exercise of corporate social responsibility can be viewed in practice as a dynamic negotiation and an interaction between multiple actors action undertaken in terms of voluntary csr alone may be insufficient this finding highlights the importance of a strong role for national governments and international organizations to pressure companies to perform better

the sa8000 social certification standard literature review and theory based research agenda social accountability 8000 sa8000 was one of the first auditable social standards aimed at promoting labor rights for workers around the world this certification is currently considered the most important in the field of corporate social responsibility csr after approximately 15 years of research on sa8000 we provide the first literature review on this topic we analyze 56 scientific papers that address key issues concerning sa8000 including the advantages of the adoption of the ethical certification and the obstacles to adoption and management and provide a comparison with iso 9001 and iso 14001 standards and with other csr standards and codes of conduct papers are coded following a deductive inductive approach and classified by year of publication publication outlet research focus methodology underpinning theory if any unit of analysis sample size industry and country building on literature findings we identify various research gaps stemming from the scarcity of empirical research and the weakness of theoretical foundations in particular we highlight the lack of evidence on the impact of organizational level factors on the adoption of the standard on the extent of the trade off if any between positive and negative outcomes of sa8000 and the failure to identify moderators of the relation between antecedents and sa8000 adoption and or between adoption and outcomes finally we propose a theory based research agenda on sa8000 for om scholars based on transaction cost economics agency and neo institutional theories and focused on three classes of relevant problems governance structure under sa8000 risk sharing between buyers and suppliers and effects on operational performance

forecasting risks of natural gas consumption in slovenia abstract efficient operation of modern energy distribution systems often requires forecasting future energy demand this paper proposes a strategy to estimate forecasting risk the objective of the proposed method is to improve knowledge about expected forecasting risk and to estimate the expected cash flow in advance based on the risk model the strategy combines an energy demand forecasting model an economic incentive model and a risk model basic guidelines are given for the construction of a forecasting model that combines past energy consumption data weather data and weather forecast the forecasting model is required to estimate expected forecasting errors that are the basis for forecasting risk estimation the risk estimation strategy also requires an economic incentive model that describes the influence of forecasting accuracy on the energy distribution systems cash flow the economic model defines the critical forecasting error levels that most strongly influence cash flow based on the forecasting model and the economic model the development of a risk model is proposed the risk model is associated with critical forecasting error levels in the context of various influential parameters such as seasonal data month day of the week and temperature the risk model is applicable to estimating the daily forecasting risk based on the influential parameters the proposed approach is illustrated by a case study of a slovenian natural gas distribution company

an empirical analysis of the risk of crude oil imports in china using improved portfolio approach abstract this paper quantifies the diversification index of china s crude oil imports during the period 1996 2004 and explores the relationship between the monthly prices and brent crude oil cash prices accordingly we calculate the systematic and specific risks using portfolio theory of china s crude oil import over the period 1996 2004 because china s crude oil import increased rapidly since 1996 we improve upon the traditional portfolio theory and develop a risk index model of portfolio theory for crude oil imports in order to explore objectively the changes in china s crude oil import risks the results show that china s crude oil import risk is affected extensively by the fluctuation of international oil prices so the traditional portfolio theory is insufficient to measure china s crude oil import risk the improved portfolio theory risks index model reflects the effect of international oil prices diversification imports and geopolitics factors etc on crude oil import risk and changes in crude oil import risk therefore the risk index model of portfolio theory provides greater theoretical and methodological robustness as an indicator of china s crude oil import security than that offered from the application of traditional measures of dependence

development of biodiesel industry in china upon the terms of production and consumption abstract the prices of primary energy have been ineluctably raised up due to the enormous energy consumption in china and the economy suffers a lot from the severe energy shortage therefore the necessity of using renewable energy in china is particularly important biodiesel has become one of the major renewable fuels of biomass energy since china s biodiesel industry just starts at the primary stage improving the production capacity of biodiesel for meeting the soaring on energy demands is more necessary for the sustainable development in china the materials for biodiesel production are various and sufficient in china that indicates china could have a brilliant potentiality in the production capacity of biodiesel however whether such prediction could be true is still needed to be discussion in depth and further for well answering the query the development of biodiesel industry in china has been systematically reviewed upon the terms of production and consumption and three essential aspects how to sufficiently take advantage of such plentiful feedstock for obtaining a satisfied production capacity how to reasonably use such biodiesel in each region and how to scientifically encourage the development of chinese biodiesel industry have been discussed from the review and discussions it can be concluded that the rising china s biodiesel industry is still behind the actual demand asked by 12th five years plan and continuous introduction of capitals is the effective method to a further development meanwhile the development of china s biodiesel industry is highly depended on the raw materials whose sources and production capability are remarkably different in different regions and hence make standards on the quality of biodiesel is essential and crucial to the further development furthermore adjusting tax policies and forcing the application of biodiesel as addition to fossil diesel can effective establish and enlarge the market of biodiesel in china

a risk analysis for gas transport network planning expansion under regulatory uncertainty in western europe abstract the natural gas industry in western europe went through drastic changes induced by the unbundling of the national companies followed by the liberalization of gas trade and the regulation of gas transmission natural gas transmission is operated through a network of interconnected grids and is capacity constrained each of the grids is locally regulated in terms of price limits on transportation services local tariff differences may induce unnatural gas routing within a network creating congestion in some part of it this phenomena is referred to as the jepma effect following jepma 2001 gaslevering onder druk stichting jin available at www jiqweb org 52pp in dutch this may lead to misguided investment decisions in this paper a multi stage linear program is used to simulate the repartition of the natural gas flow in an interconnected grid system on a succession of contracting periods by this simulation the risk linked to infrastructure investment is assessed the risk measured can be seen as the probability of a negative present net value for the investment the model is applied on an example of two grids that are on alternative routes serving same destinations when applied to a specific situation of north west europe germany and the netherlands the model clearly demonstrates that the risks turn out to be too high to invest there are hardly any scenarios under which an acceptable roi will be realized given the current tariff policy and current publicly available forecasts of demand and supply it is unlikely that market forces will attract additional investments in transportation capacity this reluctance to invest can be prohibitive for further growth of supply if the demand would increase significantly

the impact of corporate social performance on a firm s multinationality using panel data of 4 244 company years we examine whether and how corporate social performance csp affects a firm s capacity to achieve profitable sales in foreign markets based on our extension of instrumental stakeholder theory into the international arena we hypothesized a u shaped relationship between csp and multinationality results supported our contention that multinational enterprises mnes need to be substantially committed to social performance objectives if they are to recoup the cost of their csp investments and improve their capacity to compete in foreign markets mnes engaged in intermediate levels of csp achieve lower levels of multinationality than firms operating at either anchor of the social performance continuum in addition this study demonstrates that csp moderates a well established relationship in international business literature the relationship between r d investment and a firm s multinationality implications for research and practice are discussed

oil development in china current status and future trends the future of oil has become an important topic of the discussion of energy policy in china this paper attempts to present a full picture of the current status and future trends of china s oil development through system analysis first we map a sankey diagram of china s oil flow to reveal the physical pattern of china s oil supply and consumption then we present the historical and ongoing trends of china s oil flow from key aspects such as oil demand oil resource availability technology improvement and policy adjustment based on these understandings we design three scenarios of china s oil demand in 2030 and analyze policy implications for oil saving automotive energy development and energy security from the analysis we draw some conclusions for policy decisions such as to control the total oil consumption to avoid energy security risks to enhance oil saving in all sectors with road transportation as the emphasis and to increase the investment on oil production and refining to secure oil supply and reduce emissions

energy geopolitics and iran pakistan india gas pipeline abstract with the growing energy demands in india and its neighboring countries iran pakistan india ipi gas pipeline assumes special significance energy deficient countries such as india china and pakistan are vying to acquire gas fields in different parts of the world this has led to two conspicuous developments first they are competing against each other and secondly a situation is emerging where they might have to confront the us and the western countries in the near future in their attempt to control energy bases the proposed ipi pipeline is an attempt to acquire such base however pakistan is playing its own game to maximize its leverages pakistan which refuses to establish even normal trading ties with india craves to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees and other annual royalties from a gas pipeline which runs from iran s south pars fields to barmer in western india pakistan promises to subsidize its gas imports from iran and thus also become a major forex earner it is willing to give pipeline related international guarantees notwithstanding its record of covert actions in breach of international law such as the export of terrorism and its reluctance to reciprocally provide india what world trade organization wto rules obligate it to do most favored nation mfn status india is looking at the possibility of using some set of norms for securing gas supply through pipeline as the european union has already initiated a discussion on the issue the key point that is relevant to india s plan to build a pipeline to source gas from iran relates to national treatment for pipeline under the principle of national treatment which also figures in relation to foreign direct investment fdi the country through which a pipeline transits should provide some level of security to the transiting pipeline as it would have provided to its domestic pipelines this paper will endeavor to analyze first the significance of this pipeline for india and then the geopolitics involved in it

energy policy and cooperation in southeast asia the history challenges and implications of the trans asean gas pipeline tagp network this article explores the proposed multibillion dollar trans asean gas pipeline tagp network in southeast asia focusing on the interests that have promoted the tagp and why based on extensive field research textual analysis of government reports and more than 100 research interviews at government institutions multilateral development banks universities consulting firms energy companies and nongovernmental organizations this article assesses the challenges facing the tagp in terms of promotion implementation and operation it explores the genesis of the tagp project and the drivers pushing southeast asian investment in natural gas with a special emphasis on the development needs of the region it also investigates the numerous technical economic legal political social and environmental impediments to the tagp project the article concludes that the rhetoric of regional energy cooperation touted by the association of southeast asian nations asean does not match its actual practice and that in many cases discussions of regionalism and energy security are intended to obscure opportunistic thinking within individual countries

education employment and earnings of secondary school and university leavers in tanzania evidence from a tracer study this study uses a tracer survey of secondary school completers in tanzania to analyse the impact of educational qualifications on labour market earnings we show that the rates of return to the highest educational qualifications for wage employees are not negligible and at the margin provide an investment incentive however we find little evidence of human capital effects in the earnings determination process for the self employment sector introducing controls for father s educational background and a set of school fixed effects designed to proxy for school quality and potential labour market network effects reduces the estimated rates of return to educational qualifications a comparison of our results with the available evidence from other countries in the region suggest that despite an extremely small secondary and university education system the private rates of return to education in the tanzanian wage employment sector are comparatively low

labour leverage in global value chains the role of interdependencies and multi level dynamics the global segmentation of production and distribution has resulted in highly complex global value chains gvcs where vertical and horizontal dynamics are equally important in determining working conditions and providing points of leverage for labour borrowing notions of multi level governance we propose an analytical framework for describing and explaining success and failure of labour agency when attempting to improve working conditions along gvcs our starting point is that the high complexity of gvcs and the absence of a global overarching authority have been balanced by the emergence of governance mechanisms of different forms and at different levels an assessment of these mechanisms which emphasize process over institutions reveals how different types of interactions and interdependencies along gvcs impact on labour s use of power we argue that in order to fully situate labour agency within governance debates any future research agenda needs to be driven by micro level bottom up approaches

ethical sourcing codes of large uk based corporations prevalence content limitations codes of conduct have become the perhaps most often used tool to manage corporate social responsibility csr researchers have primarily analysed such documents at company wide or trans company levels whereas there is a dearth of studies into the use of codes for particular corporate functions hence this article will examine one particular group of sub company level codes namely codes of conduct that stipulate csr criteria for suppliers examining such ethical sourcing policies adopted by the ftse100 corporations the article draws out what environmental social and economic issues large corporations perceive to be important in the management of their supply chains at an aggregate level the coverage of csr issues is rather extensive yet at the level of the individual corporation a degree of selectivity in the issues that are addressed becomes noticeable the code content analysis furthermore confirms the business case and public pressure to be the most important drivers of csr finally the study highlights the role of isomorphic processes in the adoption of csr tools

the emergence of southern standards in agricultural value chains a new trend in sustainability governance abstract the objective of this paper is to understand and trace the emergence of southern standards in global agricultural value chains while the trend towards private standards established by developed country or northern actors has received significant attention in the literature recently an emergent counter trend can be observed which manifests in the development of standards by southern producer country actors this may be attributed to the perceived lack of legitimacy of global standards especially from a southern perspective the paper therefore applies a legitimacy perspective to analyse the emergence of new southern standards in indonesian and malaysian palm oil brazilian soy and south african fruit production the analysis reveals that southern standards both target different audiences to obtain legitimacy and rely on different sources of legitimacy as compared to established northern standards this is done explicitly in order to create cognitive and moral distance to northern standards and ultimately to reclaim the issue areas occupied by northern standards the paper discusses and reflects on the implications of the emergence of southern standards for sustainability governance and concludes with the identification of future research opportunities on southern standards

from chain liability to chain responsibility this article examines whether the involvement of stakeholders in the design of corporate codes of conduct leads to a higher implementation likelihood of the code the empirical focus is on occupational safety and health osh the article compares the inclusion of osh issues in the codes of conduct of 30 companies involved in international framework agreements ifas agreed upon by trade unions and multinational enterprises with those of a benchmark sample of 38 leading multinational enterprises in comparable industries it is found that codes of the ifa group have a higher implementation likelihood in osh than the codes of the benchmark group further european firms culturally more used to stakeholder involvement score higher than their us and japanese competitors and hence are more capable of addressing the safety and health issues in international supply chains the implementation likelihood of codes seems closely related to the type of corporate csr approach

cultural values and international differences in business ethics we analyze ethical policies of firms in industrialized countries and try to find out whether culture is a factor that plays a significant role in explaining country differences we look into the firm s human rights policy its governance of bribery and corruption and the comprehensiveness implementation and communication of its codes of ethics we use a dataset on ethical policies of almost 2 700 firms in 24 countries we find that there are significant differences among ethical policies of firms headquartered in different countries when we associate these ethical policies with hofstede s cultural indicators we find that individualism and uncertainty avoidance are positively associated with a firm s ethical policies whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to these policies

oil vulnerability index of oil importing countries abstract this paper assesses the relative oil vulnerability of 26 net oil importing countries for the year 2004 on the basis of various indicators the ratio of value of oil imports to gross domestic product gdp oil consumption per unit of gdp gdp per capita and oil share in total energy supply ratio of domestic reserves to oil consumption exposure to geopolitical oil market concentration risks as measured by net oil import dependence diversification of supply sources political risk in oil supplying countries and market liquidity the approach using the principal component technique has been adopted to combine these individual indicators into a composite index of oil vulnerability such an index captures the relative sensitivity of various economies towards developments of the international oil market with a higher index indicating higher vulnerability the results show that there are considerable differences in the values of individual indicators of oil vulnerability and overall oil vulnerability index among the countries both inter and intraregional

quantifying china s oil import risks and the impact on the national economy abstract with an increase in china s oil imports china s oil supply will also continue to be effected by the socio economic stability of oil exporting countries and the safety of oil transport routes this paper introduces a systematic and quantitative method to evaluate the influence of china s oil import risks oir on the national economy and industrial sectors from a perspective of apply chain process for this analysis china s oir is quantified by integrating oil exporting country risk and the risks from oil transportation routes country risk is defined as the oil exporting country s political risk caused by political changes or internal conflicts transport risk is defined as the risk of shipping routes affected by pirate attacks and geopolitics second the relationship between china s oir and oil import costs is analyzed using a multiple linear approach third an input output analysis method is used to research the effect of the cost of china s oil imports on the cost of investment within china s domestic sectors this research finds that the corresponding impact on gdp is 3494 5 million dollars given an increasing by 10 of china s oir and the impact on domestic sectors differs from sector to sector finally this paper puts forth recommendations to improve long term oil supply security in china

poverty alleviation as business strategy evaluating commitments of frontrunner multinational corporations summary in the debate on how to combat poverty the positive role of mncs is frequently mentioned nowadays although doubts and criticism remain facing this societal debate mncs feel the pressure to formulate a position this paper analyzes mncs policies on their poverty alleviating potential frontrunner mncs turn out not to be very outspoken especially not on those issues that have the largest potential to help alleviate poverty placed in the context of other mncs behavior a sector coordinated morality seems important which means that a meso approach to poverty alleviation needs to complement the current global macro and individual company micro focus

understanding the motivations behind the myanmar china energy pipeline multiple streams and energy politics in china abstract why exactly did china decide to construct the myanmar china energy pipeline while important for china s long term energy strategy very few studies have yet analyzed the project from the standpoint of china s domestic policy process this paper fills the gap by illuminating the broader historical context and presenting how this pipeline fits into energy politics in china the policy making process is fleshed out by using the multiple streams framework msf analysis of this case using msf shows that first local governments and scholars played a key role in facilitating the project especially in raising the proposal to the government agenda second a policy window remains an important element in china s energy policy decisions in light of the china myanmar pipeline idea was not taken seriously in the 1990s when it was first proposed third although this cross border energy project is part of a national strategy of energy security domestic political considerations such as promoting investment in china s underdeveloped southwest were also at work these conclusions are useful for understanding not only the motivations behind such transboundary pipeline projects but also china s energy decisions at large

impact of corporate environmental responsibility on operating income moderating role of regional disparities in china although the same environmental regulations apply to all regions in china legal enforcement can be different due to local economic development priorities there is still a lack of knowledge about how regional disparities affect the operating performance results of the implementation of corporate environmental management practices thus providing little information for foreign companies when they invest and develop their production base in china to fill this research gap this paper collects data from the fortune 500 chinese firms to investigate the moderating role of regional disparities in affecting the performance results of corporate environmental management efforts based on the institutional theory the disclosed corporate environmental responsibility cer practices serve as proxy to represent corporate environmental management practices content analysis approach was applied to collect and analyze cer practices published in the corporate reports of chinese manufacturers the results show that cer has a positive impact on operating income while regional disparities influence the relationship between cer and corporate operating income specifically cer and operating income are positively related in eastern china on the contrary they are negatively related in western china this paper adds to the body of knowledge about environmental discrepancies in the same emerging economy and provides insights for systematic consideration in terms of the issues of government environmental regulations and corporate environmental strategies

exploring the effects of union ngo relationships on corporate responsibility the case of the swedish clean clothes campaign in the current era governments are playing smaller roles in regulating workers rights internationally and transnational corporations tncs non governmental organisations ngos involved in the struggle for workers rights and labour trade unions have started to fill this governance gap this paper focuses on the least researched of the relationships among these three actors the union ngo relationship by analysing the ways in which it affects definitions of tnc responsibility for workers rights at their suppliers factories based on a qualitative study of the union ngo relationship in the swedish garment industry between 1996 and 2005 we propose that there are six main configurations of union ngo relationships by linking these configurations to their effects on tnc responsibility we propose that co ordination relationships between unions and ngos particularly high commitment co ordination relationships are likely to result in a broadening of the definition of tnc responsibility while conflictual relationships both high and low commitment result in a narrowing of the definition of tnc responsibility the study indicates that co operation is generally more beneficial for both unions and ngos than is any form of conflictual relationship in terms of broadening the definition of tnc responsibility

the importance of nongovernmental organizations ngos in global governance and value creation an international business research agenda the emergence of organized civil society and of nongovernmental organizations ngos as organizational manifestations of broader social movements has dramatically altered the global political economic landscape the increasing global reach of ngos challenges established international business ib research and highlights opportunities for broadening and adapting extant paradigms in the field in this article we introduce the concept of ngos and contrast them with their private sector firm and public sector government counterparts within the context of ib we discuss factors giving rise to ngos as important organizational entities that participate in global value creation and governance and identify limits to their efficacy and viability we identify important questions raised by incorporating ngos into our conceptualization of global context and we challenge three basic tenets of ib theory the definition and dynamics of an institutional field the relevance centrality of a firm government i e two sector bargaining model and the pre eminence of the firm as the global organization of interest within the field we conclude by offering suggested research directions that should serve as catalysts for this new and potentially rich area of future ib research

stakeholder forces of socially responsible supply chain management orientation this project investigates salient stakeholder forces of socially responsible supply chain orientation srsco in the apparel and footwear sector focusing on fair labor management issues srsco was conceptualized as a composite of internal organizational direction and external partnership for a creation and continuation of fair labor conditions throughout the supply chain primary stakeholders identified were consumers regulation industry and media a total of 209 mail survey responses from sourcing managers of u s apparel and footwear companies were analyzed two dimensions of srsco were confirmed internal direction and external partnership consumer and industry peer pressures were found significantly related to internal direction while industry peers and media were significantly related to the external partnership regulation was not significantly related to either internal direction or external partnerships lack of regulation forces to govern labor issues and roles of consumers industry peers and media in promoting fair labor management are discussed in this article

an evolutionary approach to understanding international business activity the co evolution of mnes and the institutional environment this paper examines the co evolution of mne activities and institutions external and internal to the firm we develop a theoretical framework for this analysis that draws on the more recent writings of douglass north on institutions as a response to complex forms of uncertainty associated with the rise in global economic interconnectedness and of richard nelson on the co evolution of technology and institutions we link historical changes in the character of mne activities to changes in the institutional environment and highlight the scope for firm level creativity and institutional entrepreneurship that may lead to co evolution with the environment we argue that the main drivers for institutional entrepreneurship are now found in the increasing autonomy of mne subsidiaries thus mne agency derives from more decentralized forms of experimentation in international corporate networks which competence creating nodes of new initiatives can co evolve with local institutions unlike most other streams of related literature our approach connects patterns of institutional change in wider business systems with more micro processes of variety generation and experimentation within and across individual firms this form of co evolutionary analysis is increasingly important to understanding the interrelationships between mne activities and public policy

bringing institutions into performance persistence research exploring the impact of product financial and labor market institutions this study challenges the implicit assumption of homogeneity in national institutional environments made in past studies of firm performance persistence we propose that home country institutions matter we focus on the impact of formal institutions in the product financial and labor markets arguing that they affect the size of pools of exchange partners and the types of exchanges allowed and condoned ultimately these restrictions affect competitive intensity among firms and firm performance persistence using data for over 10 000 firms from 33 countries over a 10 year time frame we show that antitrust law strength a product market institution designed to prevent collusion among firms is associated with decreases in performance persistence unskilled labor market flexibility a labor market institution that reduces legal constraints imposed on residual claimants managers and owners to take necessary actions to maintain or enhance profitability is associated with increases in performance persistence product liability law effectiveness another product market institution and corporate control market development a financial market institution are positively associated with performance persistence only in the case of mnes the two remaining financial and labor market institutions public equity market development respectively skilled labor market availability have a positive respectively negative impact for domestic firms only

private regulation and trade union rights why codes of conduct have limited impact on trade union rights codes of conduct are the main tools to privately regulate worker rights in global value chains scholars have shown that while codes may improve outcome standards such as occupational health and safety they have had limited impact on process rights such as freedom of association and collective bargaining scholars have though only provided vague or general explanations for this empirical finding we address this shortcoming by providing a holistic and detailed explanation and argue that codes in their current form have limited impact on trade union rights due to i buyers paying lip service to trade union rights ii workers being treated as passive objects of regulation in codes of conduct iii auditing being unable to detect and remediate violations of trade union rights iv codes emphasizing parallel means of organizing v suppliers having limited incentives for compliance and vi codes being unable to open up space for union organizing when leveraged in grassroots struggles our arguments suggest that there is no quick fix for codes limited impact on trade union rights and that codes in their current form have limited potential to improve trade union rights we conclude by discussing ways in which codes of conduct and private regulation of worker rights more generally could be transformed to more effectively address trade union rights

quest for middle east oil the us versus the asia pacific region abstract two very powerful geopolitical factors will decisively determine whether the quest for middle east oil mainly gulf oil could enhance the global oil security or could lead to oil supply disruptions and also instability and conflict in the asia pacific region the two factors are the united states growing dependence on oil imports from the middle east and the asia pacific region s thirst for oil and the increasingly likely chinese dependence on oil from the region the asia pacific countries are increasingly growing concerned about their ability to supply enough oil to fuel future economic growth the region s phenomenal economic growth up to july 1997 and its economic recovery since then and its steadily rising energy needs lend urgency to the question of how the region would meet its considerable energy challenges this paper will endeavour to analyze the impact of this growing dependence on middle east oil on global oil supplies the price of oil and global oil security it will argue that such dependence on a volatile region like the middle east and the perception of scarcer energy resources in the asia pacific region have the potential to lead to conflict in both regions unless these issues are dealt with in geoeconomic rather than geostrategic terms the paper will strongly express the view that potential conflicts can be resolved not by force but through markets and investment and also through the diversification of energy sources and the promotion of alternative energy development and use across the region

the politics of technological upgrading international transfer to and adaptation of gm cotton in argentina summary we describe patterns of international transfer to and adaptation of genetically modified gm cotton in argentina and ask whether political bargaining between the technology owner a multinational enterprise mne and host country actors may have influenced upgrading we suggest that the mne was able to use its exclusive capacity to upgrade gm cotton technologies as a negotiation tool to persuade host actors to change the rules that affected its multi lines of business in the country this implies wider policy scope to encourage technology upgrading host actors could negotiate over a wider range of aspects of interest to mnes

overt employment discrimination in mnc affiliates home country cultural and institutional effects using job announcements posted by mnc subsidiaries in taiwan and thailand we investigated the effects of mnc home country cultural and institutional forces on the use of employment gender and age discriminatory criteria in host countries where anti discrimination legislation was absent we examined the cultural effects with composite measures taken from the work of hofstede and schwartz the effects of the existence of anti age and anti gender discrimination employment legislation in an mnc home country were also assessed to control for institutional factors logit analysis shows that mnc home country culture and institutional environment can have a strong impact on the use of discriminatory criteria by mncs in host countries at least those lacking protective legislation specifically mncs based in countries that have existing and effective age and gender discrimination laws and have more individualist and less masculine cultures are less likely to engage in at least overt gender based and age based discrimination

multi stakeholder regulation privatizing or socializing global labor standards summary this paper evaluates leading non governmental labor regulation initiatives in the united states and europe it comparatively assesses the codes of conduct and monitoring systems within these initiatives discusses their different models of regulation and proposes criteria for evaluating their effectiveness it identifies critical factors which appear to support more effective non governmental regulation such as substantive participation of local stakeholders public transparency of methods and findings and mechanisms that bring market pressures to bear on multi national corporations and simultaneously support processes of multi stakeholder problem solving within factories and global supply chains

the nature of international integration and human resource policies in multinational companies in this article we demonstrate that the literature concerning multinational companies mncs and employment relations has failed to develop a convincing explanation of variation in the extent to which mncs develop a global element to the management of their international workforces we argue that whether mncs have an incentive to develop international human resource policies is shaped by the extent and nature of international integration which we define as the commonalities and inter dependencies in the production process across borders in particular we identify three aspects of the integration of mncs that are crucial in this respect whether the firm pursues financial economies or synergistic linkages from its international operations whether it segments or replicates its operations across countries and whether it standardises or differentiates its product internationally copyright the author 2010 published by oxford university press on behalf of the cambridge political economy society all rights reserved oxford university press

voluntary governance mechanisms in global supply chains beyond csr to a stakeholder utility perspective poor working conditions remain a serious problem in supplier facilities in developing countries while previous research has explored this from the developed buyers side we examine this phenomenon from the perspective of developing countries suppliers and subcontractors utilizing qualitative data from a major knitwear exporting cluster in india and a stakeholder management lens we develop a framework that shows how the assumptions of conventional buyer driven voluntary governance break down in the dilution of buyer power and in the web of factors rooted in suppliers traditions beliefs local demands and resource dependency we reveal out how success in governing collaborative global supply chains often falls short within the subcontracting stage where a stakeholder management mindset is elusive to most participants we suggest that success in governing collaborative global supply chains is dependent on concepts of stakeholder utility and the presence of shared value that is often at odds with the realities of power information asymmetry and compliance reward systems inherent in the non market coordination of global supply chains our findings offer important insights for delineating the concepts of value creation from csr concepts and practices and for modifying the basic assumptions of conventional supply chain governance

the political economy of trans pakistan gas pipeline project assessing the political and economic risks for india there is a growing realisation among indian policy makers to consider the import of natural gas to address india s growing energy demand among many policy options to import natural gas indo iran overland pipeline option is considered to be effective and economical in addressing india s long term energy demands such a pipeline would have to traverse pakistani territory thereby necessitating a role for pakistan in the pipeline project though security guarantees have been offered india refuses to entertain the role of pakistan in the project for a fear of its energy supply being disrupted in case of a military conflict with pakistan this paper argues that gas pipeline project is not only aimed at addressing india s energy concerns but also to further its strategic objectives this paper contends that india iran and pakistan do not have shared objective to make the overland project a political and commercial reality india s stakes in the overland pipeline project are high as india s economic interests in the pipeline project are not in congruence with the politico economic and strategic objectives of iran and pakistan

clusters chains and compliance corporate social responsibility and governance in football manufacturing in south asia a recent concern in the debate on corporate social responsibility csr in developing countries relates to the tension between demands for csr compliance found in many global value chains gvcs and the search for locally appropriate responses to these pressures in this context an emerging and relatively understudied area of interest relates to small firm industrial clusters local clusters offer the potential for local joint action and thus a basis for improving local compliance on csr through collective monitoring and local governance this article explores the interrelationship between global governance exercised through gvc ties and local governance via cluster institutions in ensuring compliance with csr pressures it undertakes a comparative analysis of two leading export oriented football manufacturing clusters in south asia that have both faced common challenges on child labour the article shows that both forms vertical and horizontal governance have played a part in shaping the response of the two clusters on child labour moreover these two distinct forms of governance have also led to quite differentiated outcomes in terms of forms of work organization and child labour monitoring this raises broader questions on how global csr demands can locally be better embedded and the conditions under which football stitchers labour in these new work forms

child labor and multinational conduct a comparison of international business andstakeholder codes increasing attention to the issue of child labor has been reflected in codes of conduct that emerged in the past decade in particular this paper examines the way in which multinationals business associations governmental and non governmental organizations deal with child labor in their codes with a standardized framework it analyzes 55 codes drawn up by these different actors to influence firms external societal behavior the exploratory study helps to identify the main issues related to child labor and the use of voluntary instruments such as codes of conduct apart from a specific indication of the topics covered by the code especially minimum age requirements this also includes monitoring systems and monitoring parties most important to company codes are the sanctions imposed on business partners in case of non compliance severe measures may be counterproductive as they do not change the underlying causes of child labor and can worsen the situation of the child workers by driving them to more hazardous work in the informal sector this underlines the importance of a broad rather than a restrictive approach to child labor in codes of conduct the paper discusses the implications of this study offering suggestions for future research

evaluating china s natural gas supply security based on ecological network analysis abstract growing role of natural gas as an effective policy choice has kindled the discussions surrounding the security of its supplies in the policy circles of the chinese government this study tries to evaluate china s natural gas supply security and employs a system oriented modelling approach namely ecological network analysis ena to integrate all the critical compartments of china s natural gas supply system several ena indicators are constructed which disclose that domestic natural gas production contributes significantly to china s natural gas supply system in comparison with all the external natural gas suppliers in addition the variations in a system stability indicator suggest that diversification of external natural gas suppliers has a positive influence on china s natural gas supply security furthermore the results revealed that china s natural gas supply security policy is orchestrated on following features 1 to increase the investment in the upstream natural gas production sector to boost its domestic production in order to reduce its import requirements and 2 to diversify the external natural gas supplies by sources and routes to reduce the level of the economic and supply disruption related risks

do codes of conduct improve worker rights in supply chains a study of fair wear foundation the rise of private regulation of sustainability in global production networks has led to intensive debates about the impact of this regulation at the point of production yet few empirical studies have systematically examined this impact in practice based on multiple factory audits of 43 garment factories conducted by the multi stakeholder initiative fair wear foundation we show that codes of conduct improve although marginally worker rights on an overall level but that few significant results are found for specific worker rights our findings also lend support to the widespread argument that codes have uneven impact furthermore we show that even rigorous multi stakeholder factory audits seldom are able to identify process rights violations such as those affecting freedom of association and discrimination and that auditing is thus is more fundamentally flawed than assumed in previous research given companies extensive investments in private regulation of worker rights the findings have important implications for both scholars and managers

does china factor matter an econometric analysis of international crude oil prices abstract whether china s crude oil imports are the culprit of oil price volatility these years has not been quantitatively confirmed therefore this paper empirically investigates the role of china s crude oil net imports in brent price changes from october 2005 to november 2013 based on an econometric analysis the results indicate that during the sample period china s crude oil imports do not significantly affect brent price changes no matter in the long run or short run therefore the blame for china s crude oil imports to cause the dramatic fluctuations of international oil price has no solid evidence also there exists significant uni directional causality running from the brent price to china s crude oil imports at the 5 level besides the response of the brent price to china s crude oil imports is found positive but slight and the brent price responds more significantly to us dollar exchange rate and oecd commercial inventory than to china s crude oil imports in the short run finally the contribution of china s crude oil imports to brent price movement is about 10 which is less than that of us dollar exchange rate but larger than that of indian crude oil imports or oecd commercial inventory

tnc motives for signing international framework agreements a continuous bargaining model of stakeholder pressure over the past decade discussion has flourished among practitioners and academics regarding workers rights in developing countries the lack of enforcement of national labour laws and the limited protection of workers rights in developing countries have led workers rights representatives to attempt to establish transnational industrial relations systems to complement existing national systems in practice these attempts have mainly been operationalised in unilateral codes of conduct recently however negotiated international framework agreements ifas have been proposed as an alternative despite their growing importance few studies have empirically studied ifas this paper starts to fill this gap by studying why corporations adopt ifas based on a qualitative study of the process leading to the signing of a recent ifa the study s findings complement existing research into why corporations adopt ifas codes of conduct and csr policies by demonstrating that corporate motives can be linked to a desire to retain a trusting relationship with the labour union movement in addition the findings indicate that the discrete campaign model of stakeholder pressure dominant in previous research should be complemented by a continuous bargaining model of stakeholder pressure the paper concludes by discussing differences between these conceptual models of stakeholder pressure and avenues for future research

pipeline politics a study of india s proposed cross border gas projects abstract india s energy situation is characterized by increasing energy demand high fossil fuel dependency large import shares and significant portion of population deprived of modern energy services at this juncture natural gas being the cleanest fossil fuel with high efficiency and cost effectiveness is expected to play an important role india with only 0 6 of proven world reserves is not endowed with adequate natural gas domestically nevertheless there are gas reserves in neighbouring regions which gives rise to the prospects of three cross border gas pipeline projects namely iran pakistan india turkmenistan afghanistan pakistan india and myanmar bangladesh india this study is a political analysis of these pipeline projects first it provides justification on use of natural gas and promotion of cross border energy trade then it examines these three pipeline projects and analyses the security concerns role of different actors their positions shifting goals and strategies the study develops scenarios on the basis of changing circumstances and discusses some of the pertinent issues like technology options for underground underwater pipelines and role of private players it also explores impact of india s broader foreign relations and role of saarc on the future of pipelines and proposes energy induced mutually assured protection map as a concept for regional security

assessment of leading apparel specialty retailers csr practices as communicated on corporate websites problems and opportunities despite the increased attention to corporate social responsibility csr and regulatory changes in recent years little is known about how apparel companies are implementing and communicating csr practices to their stakeholders to fill the gap this study investigated the range and strategies of leading apparel specialty retailers csr practices as communicated on their websites over a longitudinal period of 1 year in total 17 apparel specialty retailers were included in the analysis the companies websites were content analyzed in depth using the coding criteria focusing on labor and environmental issues developed for this study the initial data were collected in november 2011 and the study was replicated in december 2012 to examine any changes in the csr practices as of 2011 only nine companies addressed csr issues on their websites at different degrees despite their leadership positions in the industry environmental issues were addressed by only five companies with different ranges of practices in 2012 all 17 companies addressed labor issues on their websites with varying degrees of specificity in terms of environmental issues six companies an increase of one company from 2011 addressed environmental initiatives on their websites with wider ranges of practices discussed are problems and opportunities as well as the role of the government and stakeholders for the effective communications of csr policies and initiatives for the apparel industry

suppliers compliance with mncs codes of conduct behind the scenes at chinese toy suppliers despite increased academic and practitioner interest in codes of conduct there has been little research into the actual compliance of suppliers in developing countries with the codes of conduct of multinational corporations mncs this paper addresses this lack by analysing chinese suppliers level of compliance with swedish toy retailers codes of conduct based on unannounced and unofficial interviews with employees of chinese suppliers the study shows that all of the nine studied suppliers breached some of the standards in the toy retailers codes with over two thirds of the suppliers not complying with the majority of the studied standards while there are different explanations of this lack of compliance the main explanation seems to be that chinese suppliers successfully deceive toy retailers monitoring organisations by decoupling the formal monitored part of their organisation from the actual operational part of their organisation the paper concludes with a discussion of how to increase compliance with mncs codes of conduct

lessons learned from brazilian natural gas industry reform over the past decades many countries have reformed their infrastructure industries although these reforms have been broadly similar for the most part aiming at introducing competition in potentially competitive segments the contexts in which they have been carried out differ this is due to the past regulatory experience in each country the maturity of the industry and or the number of agents when the reform process started the brazilian natural gas reform stands out due to the country s singular conditions the development of the natural gas industry in brazil was grounded on stepping up supplies through integration with neighboring nations particularly bolivia and establishing a competitive environment by lowering the barriers hampering the arrival of new investors however natural gas is located at the crossroads of two main energy chains oil and hydroelectricity this article analyzes the brazilian natural gas reform and extracts lessons from this process the low capillarity of transportation and distribution systems continues to be the main bottleneck of the country s natural gas industry the challenges of the new legal framework are to encourage investments in networks and guarantee supply to allow the industry to consolidate and mature against a backdrop of rapid changes in the world market

impacts of corporate code of conduct on labor standards a case study of reebok s athletic footwear supplier factory in china this study examines the social impacts of labor related corporate social responsibility csr policies or corporate codes of conduct on upholding labor standards through a case study of csr discourses and codes implementation of reebok a leading branded company enjoying a high profiled image for its human rights achievement in a large taiwanese invested athletic footwear factory located in south china i find although implementation of reebok labor related codes has resulted in a race to ethical and legal minimum labor standards when notoriously inhumane and seriously illegal labor rights abuses were curbed chinese workers were forced to work harder and faster but earned less payment and the employee elected trade union installed through codes implementation operated more like a company union rather than an autonomous workers organization representing worker interests in order to explain the paradoxical effects of reebok labor related codes on labor standards i argue the result is determined by both structural forces and agency related factors embedded in industrial national and local contexts to put it shortly i find the effectiveness of reebok labor related codes is constrained not only by unsolved tension between reebok s impetus for profit maximization and commitment to workers human rights but also by hard nosed competition realities at marketplace and chinese government s insufficient protection of labor rights despite drawing merely from a single case study these findings illuminate key determinants inhibiting the effectiveness of labor related csr policies or codes in upholding labor standards and hence two possible way outs of the deadlock 1 sharing cost for improving labor standards among key players in global supply chain and 2 combining regulatory power of voluntary codes and compulsory state legislations

organisational capabilities and learning in complex product systems towards repeatable solutions this paper suggests that chandler s chandler a d 1990 scale and scope the dynamics of industrial capitalism belknap press of harvard univ press cambridge ma organisational capabilities framework can be modified to explain how suppliers of complex product systems cops build the capabilities necessary to expand successfully into new lines of business in addition to chandler s functional and strategic capabilities we propose the concept of project capabilities to refer to important cops activities of bid preparation and project execution an organisational learning cycle model is presented to show cops firms can move from the first bid or project of its kind in a new domain of business to achieve what we call economies of repetition by putting in place organisational changes routines and learning processes to provide a growing number of similar bids and projects more efficiently and effectively

global private regulation and value chain restructuring in indonesian smallholder coffee systems summary consumer concerns over the environmental and social conditions of coffee production have led to the proliferation of sustainability codes certification schemes and labeling claims in the sector this paper addresses how the global private regulation of ethical and environmental standards is having several implications for value chain structures and institutions in the smallholder coffee systems of indonesia global private regulation is driving structural changes in modes of farmer organization trader farmer relationships and is resulting in the increased upstream penetration of multinational trading companies into coffee producing areas across indonesia an unintended consequence of these changes in the future may be to increase transaction costs along the value chain and to exert an overall downward pressure on farm gate prices

where has all the education gone in sub saharan africa employment and other outcomes among secondary school and university leavers abstract anecdotal evidence and generalisations abound concerning the employment outcomes of secondary school and university leavers but there is very little solid accurate information on what these groups in african countries do after they have completed their education using tracer surveys this paper presents comprehensive time series information on the activity profiles of representative samples of secondary school leavers and university graduates in malawi tanzania uganda and zimbabwe the paper shows that much of the anecdotal evidence surrounding the labour market outcomes of these groups is spurious while employment outcomes are generally much better than expected the tracer surveys highlight the enormous challenges of educating and subsequently utilising secondary school leavers and university graduates in an efficient and effective manner in low income african countries in particular given the paucity of new employment opportunities in the formal sector much more needs to be done in o

who governs socially oriented voluntary sustainability standards not the producers of certified products summary voluntary sustainability standards setting organizations vsssos create standards to improve the social and or environmental impacts of globalized production networks vsssos are often assumed to have multi stakeholder governance structures that include the producers of certified products e g farmers artisans and workers this article argues that including producers in governance is desirable however analysis of 33 vsssos constitutions shows two thirds do not even imply intention to include producers at most 25 ensure producers have votes seats and 18 give producers veto power the discussion examines what is lost when vsssos do not bring traditionally marginalized voices to global economic governance

do corporate codes of ethics reflect national character evidence from europe and the united states this paper analyses the usage and contents of corporate codes of ethics the results from a sample of 600 large european companies are contrasted with findings reported for similar u s firms the comparison reveals that significantly fewer european than u s firms adopted codes of ethics in europe the large majority of codes have been introduced only very recently and there are indications that codes made their way into europe via subsidiaries of u s firms however there are striking differences in content between u s and european codes of ethics pointing to the existence of a distinctly european approach to codifying ethics

the roles of countries in the international fossil fuel trade an emergy and network analysis abstract a better understanding of the roles of countries in the international fossil fuel trade is crucial for trade security and policy optimization this study aims to provide a new way to quantitatively analyze the roles of countries in the international fossil fuel trade by complex network analysis and emergy theory we transform the trade quantity of coal crude oil and natural gas into emergy and the sum of the three emergies is the emergy of fossil fuel we build up network models of fossil fuel based on the value of fossil fuel emergy then the top relationships the central position the intermediary ability of the countries and the roles of countries in the trade groups were used to analyze the roles of countries in the international fossil fuel trade network we choose four countries the usa china russia and saudi arabia as examples to show the analysis of roles and policy implications we suggest that the usa and russia should try to improve their intermediary abilities by diversifying their trade orientations and pay more attention to building up relationships with countries in different communities china should seek for more tight relationships with other countries to improve its central position and more pipelines connecting china russia and other middle asia countries are needed as for saudi arabia expanding its industrial chain of crude oil is a better way to deal with the more fierce competition in the market

the development of a natural gas transportation logistics management system abstract efficient management of the natural gas business chain based on pipeline transmission networks and taking into consideration the interaction among the main players e g shippers suppliers transmission companies and local distribution companies requires the use of decision making support systems these support systems maximise resources and mitigate contingencies due to gas supply shortfalls operational contingencies from scheduled and non scheduled equipment outages and market demand shortfalls this study presents a practical use for technologies such as a thermohydraulic simulation of gas flow through pipelines a monte carlo simulation for compressor station availability studies an economic risk evaluation related to potential revenue losses and contractual penalties and linear programming for the maximisation of income and the minimisation of contractual penalties the proposed system allows the optimum availability level to be defined and maintained by the transporter by installing reserve capacity to mitigate losses related to revenue and contractual penalties it also economically identifies quantifies and justifies the installation of stand by compressor units that can mitigate the transporter s exposure to losses caused by capacity shortfalls as a consequence of scheduled and non scheduled outages

responsible retailing the practice of csr in banana plantations in costa rica during the last 10 years or so a number of corporate social responsibility csr initiatives have been introduced in global supply chains which aim to improve the conditions of workers engaged in producing goods for export this article discusses the observations of csr in practice in the costa rican united kingdom uk banana chain the banana chain makes for an interesting case study because there are dominant corporate actors at each end who are in a position to influence the conditions experienced by workers on banana plantations at the top of the chain there are four major uk supermarket groups who control access to the retail market and as self appointed guardians of consumer interest are demanding that producers adopt more socially responsible practices at the other end banana production is highly integrated and controlled by three large north american agri businesses who have developed their own social and environmental certification programmes costa rica also makes for an interesting country to locate the study as it has a tradition of state led policies to protect worker rights yet in spite of csr commitments made by both supermarkets and producers that emphasise health and safety and the country s established labour law this article shows that there are problems for workers when they are forced to meet demanding production schedules furthermore it suggests that whilst supermarkets continue to drive down consumer prices and put pressure on producers to reduce costs a downward spiral of working conditions is created regardless of the csr policies in place however this article also identifies that changes to supermarket behaviour is possible when consumer trust is at stake

business policies on human rights an analysis of their content and prevalence among ftse 100 firms the new millennium has witnessed a growing concern over the impact of multinational enterprises mnes on human rights hence this article explores 1 how wide spread corporate policies on human rights are amongst large corporations specifically the ftse 100 constituent firms 2 whether any sectors are particularly active in designing human rights policies and 3 where corporations have adopted such policies what their content is in terms of adoption rates of human rights policies evidence of exemplary approaches in individual companies contrasts with a less satisfactory engagement pattern across the sample as 42 8 of firms do not seem to address human rights at all with regard to the content of corporate human rights policies the study found shallow commitments to dominate where companies focus on a narrow range of negative rights i e on respecting human rights rather than positive ones i e initiatives to protect or fulfil human rights

multinationality and corporate ethics codes of conduct in the sporting goods industry the international operations of firms have substantial impact on the formulation and implementation of business ethical principles such as codes of conduct the international sporting goods industry has been a pioneer in setting up codes and thus provides much relevant experience different sourcing strategies degrees of multinationality and national backgrounds affect the contents of codes moreover international non governmental organizations prove equally effective in triggering sophisticated codes

why and how might firms respond strategically to violent conflict the aim of this study is to investigate factors specifically stakeholder pressures that may affect the likelihood that firms will respond to violent conflict survey and archival data on respondents from 471 multinational and local firms operating in 80 countries were used to explore these issues key findings include 1 local stakeholder pressure is associated with the likelihood that firms will respond directly to violent conflict collaborating with other organizations or working alone when doing so and 2 international stakeholder pressure is associated with the likelihood that firms will respond indirectly to violent conflict collaborating with other organizations or working alone

institutionalizing sustainability a structural equation model of sustainable procurement in us public agencies abstract the rapidly growing interest in sustainable operations in practice has been mirrored by an equivalent expanding attention within the academic community yet as encouraging and significant as the recent growth in the area has been there is still much that needs to be done for instance there is surprisingly little empirical research on public sector management and on factors that might lead an organization to become more likely to adopt sustainable practices the scope of this research therefore is to explore the conditions under which a given organization is more likely to engage and prioritize sustainable procurement practices and to determine the extent to which the leadership style of the organization s top leader can explain the degree to which sustainability is promoted within a specific organization data collected with the help of a self administered survey from a random sample of us public agencies is analyzed using structural equation modeling among others the results of the empirical analysis confirm that the leadership style of an organization s top executive is positively associated with the probability that an agency will engage in sustainable procurement practices this research is among the first to attempt to provide an actionable model of adoption of sustainable procurement at an organizational level it contributes to the diffusion of research on sustainability by studying sustainable procurement practices adoption and by developing a model that draws simultaneously on systems theory stakeholder theory transformational leadership theory and institutional theory

reducing the size of the public sector workforce institutional constraints and human consequences in guinea public sector employment reduction programmes have become an important component of economic reform efforts in sub saharan africa this article examines the fiscal institutional and human consequences of an employment reduction programme in the west african state of guinea while fiscal benefits appear to have been marginal and compensation schemes well targeted the human costs of the programme were significant due to long spells of unemployment among retrenched workers

opportunities and problems of standardized ethics initiatives a stakeholder theory perspective this article explains problems and opportunities created by standardized ethics initiatives e g the un global compact the global reporting initiative and sa 8000 from the perspective of stakeholder theory first we outline differences and commonalities among currently existing initiatives and thus generate a common ground for our discussion second based on these remarks we critically evaluate standardized ethics initiatives by drawing on descriptive instrumental and normative stakeholder theory in doing so we explain why these standards are helpful tools when it comes to managing stakeholder relations but also face considerable limitations that can eventually hamper their successful expansion we suspect that this discussion is necessary to conduct meaningful empirical research in the future and also to provide managers with a more clear cut picture about a successful application of such initiatives third we outline possible ways to cope with the identified problems and thus demonstrate how standard setting institutions can improve the initiatives they offer

natural gas corridors between the eu and its main suppliers simulation results with the dynamic gastale model abstract growth in gas demand poses a challenge for european energy consumers and other gas importing countries in terms of an increasing dependency on gas imports and consequently also supply security this paper focuses on interactions among demand supply and investments in natural gas corridors namely pipeline transport lng and storage facilities affecting the european natural gas market over the period 2005 2030 a number of policy scenarios including a business as usual bau scenario are formulated to study the impact of demand uncertainty and delays in investment on the gas transport infrastructure required in the long run in europe the analyses indicate that substantial investments in gas transport corridors are needed to accommodate imports and seasonal demand variations analysis of scenarios of supply interruption in the form of suddenly reduced import capacity for particular pipeline routes indicates that portions of europe could experience price increases of up to 100 in the case of a year long interruption to accommodate import needs and to mitigate possible disruptions pipeline connections running from east to west need to be given special priority

social sustainability in selecting emerging economy suppliers despite the growing public awareness of social sustainability issues little is known about what drives firms to emphasize social criteria in their supplier management practices and what the precise benefits of such efforts are this is especially true for relationships with international suppliers from the world s emerging economies in asia latin america and eastern europe building on stakeholder theory we address the issue by examining how pressures from customers the government and employees as primary constituencies of the firm determine the extent to which firms consider social aspects in the selection of emerging economy suppliers further we analyze how such socially sustainable supplier selection relates to the capabilities of the firm s suppliers its market reputation and the learning in its supply management organization we test the developed research framework empirically using data from 244 u s and german corporations our findings consistent with our hypothesized model suggest that middle level supply managers as internal stakeholders play a major driving role for firms socially sustainable supplier selection and that strong positive links exist between that selection and the investigated outcomes

perspectives on multinational enterprises in emerging economies multinational enterprises mnes play a pivotal role in the development of many emerging economies in consequence they became the focus of scholarly research by economists and policy analysts in contrast international business scholars have been comparatively uninterested in analysing this role of mnes yet they could make important contributions to these debates first studies taking the individual firms as starting point would enhance understanding of the interaction between mnes and the local environment second theories and research methodologies developed in international business research could provide new insights into the dynamics of mnes in emerging economies the objective of this paper is to motivate more international business scholars to engage in research on positive and negative spillovers from foreign direct investment fdi in emerging economy societies to advance this research agenda scholars need to analyse the specific activities and capabilities of the firms involved and the impact of fdi on the broader social and environmental context for management this agenda raises the ethical question to what extent ought businesses to care about their local stakeholders

corporate social responsibility in global value chains where are we now and where are we going we outline the drivers main features and conceptual underpinnings of the compliance paradigm we then use a similar structure to investigate the drivers main features and conceptual underpinnings of the cooperative paradigm for working with csr in global value chains we argue that the measures proposed in the new cooperation paradigm are unlikely to alter power relationships in global value chains and bring about sustained improvements in workers conditions in developing country export industries after that we provide a critical appraisal of the potential and limits of the cooperative paradigm we summarize our findings and we outline avenues for research purchasing practices and labor standard noncompliance csr capacity building among local suppliers and improved csr monitoring by local resources in the developing world

economic and social upgrading in global value chains and industrial clusters why governance matters the burgeoning literature on global value chains gvcs has recast our understanding of how industrial clusters are shaped by their ties to the international economy but within this context the role played by corporate social responsibility csr continues to evolve new research in the past decade allows us to better understand how csr is linked to industrial clusters and gvcs with geographic production and trade patterns in many industries becoming concentrated in the global south lead firms in gvcs have been under growing pressure to link economic and social upgrading in more integrated forms of csr this is leading to a confluence of private governance corporate codes of conduct and monitoring social governance civil society pressure on business from labor organizations and non governmental organizations and public governance government policies to support gains by labor groups and environmental activists this new form of synergistic governance is illustrated with evidence from recent studies of gvcs and industrial clusters as well as advances in theorizing about new patterns of governance in gvcs and clusters

business codes of multinational firms what do they say business codes are an oft cited management instrument but how common are codes among multinationals and what is their content in an unprecedented study the codes of the largest corporations in the world have been collected and thoroughly analyzed this paper presents the results of that study of the 200 largest companies in the world 52 5 have a code more than half f these codes describe company responsibilities regarding quality of products and services 67 adherence to local laws and regulations 57 and the protection of the natural environment 56 many codes make reference to principles governing stake holder relations e g transparency 55 honesty 50 and fairness 45 corporate core values e g teamwork 43 appropriate conduct among employees e g discrimination 44 and intimidation 43 and treatment of company property by employees e g conflict of interests 52 corruption 46 and fraud 45 monitoring compliance with the code is addressed in 52 of the codes based on this content study three types of codes are distinguished the stakeholder statute 72 the values statement 49 and the code of conduct 46 the results of this inquiry present a benchmark for the evaluation and development of both individual and international business codes

the transit oil and gas pipeline and the role of bargaining a non technical discussion transit oil and gas pipelines are growing in relevance and face a number of topical problems one of such issues is the problem of potential disruption from a number of sources notably post construction behaviour of the transit country present and future pipelines face the risk of continuous conflict over legal economic and political issues once the pipeline is built and in operation the threat of disruption of the pipeline by the transit country over disputed transit terms exists this is due to two key problems first a shift in bargaining powers to the transit country upon construction and operation of the pipeline and second changes in the value of the throughput imply price changes that can affect the behaviour of the transit country this paper discusses the role of basic bargaining principles in cross border oil and gas pipelines involving transit through one or more countries it finds that the motive behind the pipeline plays a key role in the prevention of potential disruptions to the pipeline due to rent squeezing also although the potential of such disruptions does exist there are a number of factors that could serve to mute the consequences of shifts in bargaining power to the transit countries

partnerships for sustainable change in cotton an institutional analysis of african cases this article examines intersectoral partnerships formed to promote sustainable cotton production and the extent to which such partnerships are facilitated or constrained by their institutional environment based on an analysis of five partnerships in sub saharan africa this article shows that institutional factors create both opportunities and obstacles for partnership implementation which are inextricably linked to their adoption of particular farming strategies and sustainability standards in general these institutional factors tend to facilitate the implementation of partnerships using contract farming and mainstream sustainability standards and hinder those adopting cooperative farming methods and organic standards

quantifying the risk of an increase in the prices of non energy products by combining the portfolio and input output approaches abstract an increase in the price of imported fossil fuels indirectly increases the producer price in non energy sectors however this indirect influence cannot be taken into account by the traditional portfolio approach this study proposes an analytical framework combining the input output i o model and the portfolio approach that can take the indirect influence into account a risk of an increase in the producer price in japanese non energy sectors during the period 1970 2000 is estimated and the causes of a decrease in the risk through the analysis period are clarified by decomposing an index of the risk the result indicates that almost all non energy sectors have decreased this risk during the analysis period the degree and cause of the decrease depends on a sector s location in the hierarchical structure of japanese industries for example assembly sectors have decreased their risk mainly as the result of improvement in energy usage by upstream sectors such as material sectors rather than their own improvements proper policies considering such a structure are required to decrease the risk further because the effort taken to do so is seldom motivated by economic profit

from the editors experimental designs in international business research the question that motivated this editorial was where are the ib experiments the short answer is that experiments are largely absent from the ib literature and we argue that they shouldn t be experimental methods offer the opportunity to significantly improve the evidence for the causal relationships in international business research in a variety of ways in this article we highlight the value and limitations of experiments in ib research and explain the basic tenets of experimental design and thinking with the goal of encouraging the submission of more papers with an experimental design to jibs