Contenu du sommaire : Responsabilité sociale et environnementale des entreprises dans les pays en développement

Corporate Social Responsibility toward Development : The Bolivian Fair Trade Quinoa Case For a decade, Fair Trade undergoes a radical change. Private firms are more and more involve in fair trade value chains. On the based of quinoa case in Bolivia, we highlight that northern firms' strategies in fair trade niche could provoc substantial negative effects. Especially, vulnerability of producers' organisations and damage to environment are used to illustrate this kind of risk.

Social responsibility and property rights: Evidence from transnational corporations For producing abroad, multinational firms tend to prefer non-equity forms of investment rather than equity forms. One can ask whether one MNE has to own an entity abroad to be socially responsible. The research produces two case studies to highlight the question raised before: Fila, and Tesco. In such cases of control through other modes of influence than asset ownership, and since residual rights of control are difficult to appreciate, MNCs may be tempted to reject corporate social responsibility (CSR). From then on, CSR may be obtained through pressures exerted on corporations by stakeholders or by the way of laws.

The influence of NGO in the building of CSR practices The recent development of NGO-Firms relationships in France is putting the question of the efficiency of Non Governmental Organization (NGO) tackling CSR problems. Both collaborative and conflicting strategies from NGO with firms often have limited results in contrast to the narratives surrounding these partnerships. This article analyzes the influence of NGOs on the building of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices through a case study of a French retailer in the textile industry and its CSR project influenced by two NGOs. The limits of the NGO-Firm partnerships, often encouraged and financed by political institutions, are emphasized here: NGOs lack the resources to influence deeply and on a long term basis the behaviour of firm.

Economic interest and ethics : the case of Rio Tinto Alcan in Ghana Criticizing an instrumental view of business ethics, that submits social and societal corporate commitments to the constraints of profit, the paper defends a perspective that considers ethics as a critical tool aimed at establishing limits to an excessive economic growth, at transforming the rules of the game, enabling private actors to foster innovative activities which contribute also to local development. The case study of the activity of Rio Tinto Alcan in Ghana confirms this thesis.

Multilateralism and preferential agreements: the end of the asian exception Until 2000, East Asia countries have been involved in the multilateral trade system but did not participate on a large scale in regional or bilateral trade agreements, despite a real de facto economic integration through a high intra regional trade. Since 2000, these countries negotiate and ratify numerous bilateral agreements, closing the previous East Asia exception and bringing several issues to light (nature of the ongoing process, role of trade forum such as APEC, future of ASEAN, Asian monetary cooperation).

Regionalism in Asia: one building site, three patterns For a decade now, Asia's regionalism has been in mutation. There has been a proliferation of economic agreements and institutional arrangements bundled together without much coherence. These regional dynamics reflect the diversity in understanding and interests among Asia's great power and have resulted in a form of regionalism different from past American and European experience but which ultimate form remains uncertain. This uncertainty comes from the confrontation of American, Chinese and Japanese views of the optimal institutional arrangement for Asia which leaves the ASEAN as Asia's regionalism cornerstone. This paper first reviews different theoretical views of the “New Regionalism” in Asia and compares the approach of the regions' main powers and then concludes that Asia's regionalism institutional forms are rising from the pacific coexistence and competition of various visions and practices of regionalism: the ASEAN+3 (favored by China), the Asian Summit (favored by Japan) and the Asia-Pacific (favored by the US).

Development patterns and attractivity of the Indian Ocean's Export Processing Zones This paper aims to compare the evolution of three Indian Ocean's export processing zones, specialised in textile and garment industry. After the end of the 1990s crisis, each zone followed a specific development path in order to build up new growth dynamics. Mauritius' strategy was based on locally integrating the export-base activities, while Sri Lanka has chosen to follow an international supply value chain strategy. The long-term trends of Madagascar's zone are less clear.