Determinants of Environmental Standards Adoption by Multinational Corporations: A Review of Extant Literature

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monalisa Haque
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Standards Adoption

NAFTA & the Alien Tort Claims Act: Making a Case for Actionable Offenses Based on Environmental Harms and Injuries to the Public Health

2006 ◽  
Vol 32 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 381-404
Author(s):  
Kevin Scott Prussia
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
The United States ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legal Mechanism ◽  
Domestic Law ◽  
Legal Barriers

Multinational corporations often wield more power than many of the world's nations. Their immense wealth and political capital make them almost hegemonic entities. These domineering enterprises are often able to undertake profit-making endeavors, particularly involving the consumption or extraction of natural resources, in developing nations with little or no regulation, and often without meeting the social and environmental standards adhered to in the United States.The emergence of multilateral free trade agreements, specifically within the developing world, has further enhanced the ability of multinational corporations to proliferate their business. Concomitant with the rise of free trade, political and legal barriers to multinational entry into the economy of developing nations are rapidly disappearing. In addition, many nations are unwilling and unable to protect their citizens from environmental abuses through domestic law. Therefore, finding a legal mechanism capable of checking the hegemonic power of multinational corporations is extremely important to the vitality of most developing nations.

How to govern a sustainable supply chain: Standards, standardizers, and the political ecology of (in)advertence

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110145
Author(s):  
Matthew Archer
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Sustainable Supply Chain ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
The People ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Sustainability Standards

There is an ambivalence within political ecology about whether the unequal power relations that emerge from many development projects are intended or unintended. This ambivalence is a result of an empirical focus on the effects of these programs on target communities, as opposed to an empirical focus on the people who are responsible for developing those programs. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork among people tasked with designing, promoting, and enforcing sustainability standards in global agricultural supply chains, I argue that the empowerment of multinational corporations and well-funded environmental NGOs that characterizes market-oriented sustainability programs is, in fact, intentional. This intention reflects the belief among sustainability professionals that the intersection of western scientific expertise with the dynamics of “the market” is the most effective way to promote sustainability in global supply chains, and to generate global sustainability in a more general sense. Concepts like “stakeholder engagement” and a commitment to flexibility and accommodation in the development and adoption of social and environmental standards are examples of what I call euphemistic sustainability, which shifts critical attention away from a balance of power that is increasingly tilted toward private interests, even as that imbalance remains an intended outcome of non-state market-driven governance systems like ostensibly voluntary sustainability standards.

Impact of Multinational Corporations’ Firm-Based Environmental Standards on Subsidiaries and their Suppliers: Evidence from Motorola-Penang

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Rock ◽  
David P. Angel
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks

How successful are multinational corporations (MNCs) in extending their firm-based environmental standards to their wholly owned subsidiaries and local suppliers, particularly the small and medium sized firm suppliers in developing economies who operate as part of the global production networks of MNCs? Three developments suggest this is not an idle question. To begin with, the economic influence of MNCs is simply staggering. As Dowell et al. (1999: 4) state, the intra-firm transactions of the more than 40,000 MNCs with approximately 250,000 affiliates worldwide account for about 40% of world trade; foreign direct investment is roughly five times official development assistance, and the sales of the ten largest MNCs are larger than the GNP of the 100 poorest countries. This suggests that MNCs along with their affiliates and their suppliers have the potential for exerting substantial influences on local, national, regional, and global environments. Because most of the value added and employment in industry in most developing countries, including the developing economies of East Asia, is accounted for by small and medium sized firms that lie beyond the reach of most governments’ environmental regulatory agencies and because we suspect that the most viable path to technological upgrading and environmental improvement in the low income economies lies in finding ways to increase the participation of indigenous small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the global value chains of multinationals, it is important to ask whether an upgrading strategy based on linking indigenous SMEs to the global value chains of MNCs can also be used to affect the environmental performance of SMEs. While not all the SMEs in any one developing economy are ever likely to be reached through the supply chains of MNCs, there is substantial evidence that governments working in concert with MNCs in vendor development programs linking SMEs to MNCs in some places such as Taiwan Province of China, Malaysia, and Singapore have affected the technological upgrading activities of indigenous small and medium sized firms. To date, there is little rigorous evidence to suggest that these vendor development programs have affected the environmental behavior of small and medium sized firms in the East Asian newly industrializing economies.

California Greenin'

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Automobile Emissions ◽  
Oil Drilling ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Environmental Deterioration ◽  
Natural Beauty ◽  
Wilderness Areas

Over the course of its 150-year history, California has successfully protected its scenic wilderness areas, restricted coastal oil drilling, regulated automobile emissions, preserved coastal access, improved energy efficiency, and, most recently, addressed global climate change. How has this state, more than any other, enacted so many innovative and stringent environmental regulations over such a long period of time? This book shows why the Golden State has been at the forefront in setting new environmental standards, often leading the rest of the nation. From the establishment of Yosemite, America's first protected wilderness, and the prohibition of dumping gold-mining debris in the nineteenth century to sweeping climate-change legislation in the twenty-first, the book traces California's remarkable environmental policy trajectory. It explains that this pathbreaking role developed because California had more to lose from environmental deterioration and more to gain from preserving its stunning natural geography. As a result, citizens and civic groups effectively mobilized to protect and restore their state's natural beauty and, importantly, were often backed both by business interests and by strong regulatory authorities. Business support for environmental regulation in California reveals that strict standards are not only compatible with economic growth but can also contribute to it. The book also examines areas where California has fallen short, particularly in water management and the state's dependence on automobile transportation.

Can Multinational Corporations be responsible for human rights violation of its outsourcee company? Response of national or international law?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-179
Author(s):  
Alessandro Suppa ◽  
Pavel Bureš
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Corporate Law ◽  
International Economy ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Original Question ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Human Rights Violation

SummaryNowadays, an important role in the world is played by Multinational Corporations (MNCs). They hire, produce, and influence the international economy, but also, they exploit, pollute. Their business activities might have a worldwide effect on human lives. The question of the responsibility of MNCs has drawn the attention of many scholars, mainly from the study field labelled “Business and Human Rights”. The present paper does not examine the topic under the same approach. The authors aim at presenting the issue in a broader perspective, exploring the concept of due diligence both in international and corporate law. In this paper, authors strategically use the uniformity of national legislations as a possible and alternative solution to the issue. They are aware of three fundamental factors: 1) the definition of MNCs needs to be as clear as possible, so to avoid any degree of uncertainty; 2) the outsourcing phenomenon interacts with that definition; 3) in case of no possibility to include outsourcing in the definition of MNC, the original question arises in a significant way.

POLITICS-LAW CONVERGENCE OR DIVERGENCE? 'SMALL' POLITICAL PARTIES, REALPOLITIKAND SOUTH AFRICA'S 20 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kealeboga J Maphunye
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Secondary Research ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
African Charter

This article examines South Africa's 20-year democracy by contextualising the roles of the 'small' political parties that contested South Africa's 2014 elections. Through the  prism  of South  Africa's  Constitution,  electoral legislation  and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, it examines these parties' roles in South Africa's democratisation; their influence,  if any, in parliament, and whether they play any role in South Africa's continental or international engagements. Based on a review of the extant literature, official documents,  legislation, media, secondary research, reports and the results of South Africa's elections, the article relies on game theory, rational choice theory and theories of democracy and democratic consolidation to examine 'small' political parties' roles in the country's political and legal systems. It concludes that the roles of 'small' parties in governance and democracy deserve greater recognition than is currently the case, but acknowledges the extreme difficulty experienced by the 'small'  parties in playing a significant role in democratic consolidation, given their formidable opponent in a one-party dominant system.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document