Shopping for Human Rights. An Introduction to the Special Issue

Globalization, free trade, and individualization have opened up a worldwide marketplace for trading goods. The fair trade movement and other political consumerist endeavours view consumers as important active holders of responsibility for global welfare. Civil society and governments strive to teach consumers how political consumerism can be used as a push factor to change market capitalism. The market itself can also create an interest in political consumerism and, thereby, teach consumers about the political responsibility embedded in their shopping choices. When this happens, the market works as a pull factor for securing human rights. Questions can be raised about the significance of political consumers as a way to solve complex global problems. Political consumerism may be a fair-weather option that loses its attractiveness in times of downward private and corporate economic spirals. Parts of the fair trade movement believe that there are problems with sole reliance on voluntary consumer choice and using personal money and private capital to solve human rights problems by shopping them away. The exponential growth of voluntary codes of corporate conduct and labelling schemes has also created contradictory practices, incoherence in efforts, and superficial changes or what activists call “sweatwash.” Increasingly, many actors call on international law to create new standards that apply direct human rights obligations on corporations.     

Public relations and corporate social responsibility: Some issues arising

The paper questions current assumptions about the benefits of corporate social responsibility and the claims that corporations make on behalf of their corporate social responsibility programmes. In particular, the paper suggests that the use of corporate social responsibility for public relations ends raises moral problems over the motivation of corporations. The paper cautions that the justifications which corporations employ may either be immoral or inaccurate with regard to the empirical evidence gained from a small-scale qualitative study carried out in the UK at a time when the practice of corporate social responsibility was expanding quickly (1989). It is noticeable, in retrospect, that great emphasis is placed upon environmental rather than social responsibility. This implies that organisations are primarily reactive in their development of corporate social responsibility programmes and that they respond to external pressures rather than working out the nature of their corporate responsibilities. It might suggest that corporations only take such actions when they feel compelled to do so by consumerist and environmentalist lobbies. The paper argues that corporations do need to find moral justifications for their moral activities and to ensure that corporate social responsibility practice lives up to the claims made by public relations practitioners. The paper explores the nature of public relations and illustrates how its responsibility for corporate social responsibility extends beyond truthfulness in publicity.Jacquie L'Etang has postgraduate degrees in history, public relations, and social justice. She is a lecturer in public relations at the University of Stirling, Scotland, teaching on the M.Sc. in Public Relations full-time and distance learning courses. She teaches design and editorial management, communications, and business ethics. Her research interests are in corporate social responsibility and the history of public relations.     

OECD Export Credit Agencies: Supplementing Short-Term Export Credit Insurance during the 2008 Financial Crisis

ABSTRACT

The 2008 financial crisis impacted international trade in part due to decreases in trade finance and export credit insurance. This article shows that Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states used their public Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) to supplement the lack of private short-term export credit insurance as a means to increase trade. All OECD states, except Greece and Estonia, either increased the capacity of their ECAs to provide short-term export credit insurance, or they developed new products for this purpose. More generally, states that changed their short-term export credit insurance programs had major trading partners with defaults.     

Critical Events in the Ethics of U.S. Corporation History

The history of corporations in the United States (U.S.) is much older than the country, as it must be understood in the context of the history of peoples of Europe who eventually dominated the North American continent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These European settlers came, in part, to achieve economic prosperity for themselves and, in many cases, for early forerunners of the modern corporation. These business organizations had predecessors in Europe millennia earlier as ancient Romans had developed a functional and successful form of corporation for the purpose of conducting commerce in the Roman Empire. In the decades that followed the founding of the U.S. in 1776, corporations evolved from rare, small, closely controlled business organizations with a multitude of restrictions to very large, very powerful modern institutions that enjoy many of the legal rights of humans. With this evolution came ethical issues, as (1) the ethical distance was altered between corporate decision-makers and those affected by those decisions, and (2) many of the legal rights of individual humans were extended, through litigation, to corporations. This article explains the historical development of the U.S. corporation and identifies 20 Critical Events in the Ethics of Corporation History (CEECH). An understanding of these historical events may facilitate comprehension of many of the current ethical issues associated with a legal organizational form that profoundly affects business and society.     

Conceptualizing data‐deliberation: The starry sky beetle,environmental system risk,and Habermasian CSR in the digital age

Building on an illustrative case of a systemic environmental threat and its multi‐stakeholder response, this paper draws attention to the changing political impacts of corporations in the digital age. Political Corporate Social Responsibility (PCSR) theory suggests an expanded sense of politics and corporations, including impacts that may range from voluntary initiatives to overcome governance gaps, to avoiding state regulation via corporate political activity. Considering digitalization as a stimulus, we explore potential responsibilities of corporations toward public goods in contexts with functioning governments. We show that digitalization—in the form of transparency, surveillance, and data‐sharing—offers corporations’ scope for deliberative public participation. The starry sky beetle infestation endangering public and private goods is thereby used to illustrate the possibility of expanding the political role of corporations in the digital sphere. We offer a contribution by conceptualizing data‐deliberation as a Habermasian variation of PCSR, defined as the (a) voluntary disclosure of corporate data and its transparent, open sharing with the public sector (b) along with the cooperation with governmental institutions on data analytics methods for examining large‐scale datasets (c) thereby complying with existing national and international regulations on data protection, in particular with respect to privacy and personal data.     

Corporate Disclosures: Strategic Donation of Information*

In this paper, we model a corporate insider's motivation of truthful pre‐trade disclosure of her private payoff‐relevant information. In a model in which disclosure has no efficiency gains like reduced cost of capital, no legal implications, and no signaling motivations, we show that a corporate insider may choose to disclose payoff‐relevant information as a means of maximizing her trading profits. This truthful disclosure is done pre‐trade and is beneficial to the corporate insider as it erodes the informational advantage of other traders with private information. This new rationale for public disclosure needs to be empirically tested by examining the trades of corporate insiders after, and not before, public disclosures.     

《2010年国际贸易术语解释通则》与《 2000通则》的比较

为帮助外贸业务人员深入理解和正确使用《2010年国际贸易术语解释通则》的条款,本文旨在通过对最新发布和生效的《2010年国际贸易术语解释通则》的修订背景、及其与《2000年国际贸易术语解释通则》的比较分析,探讨《2010年国际贸易术语解释通则》在国际贸易今后发展中的实际意义,并结合目前外贸企业对贸易术语的应用现状,有针对性地提出如何使贸易术语更好地与外贸企业实际业务相结合,从而使外贸从业人员能熟练掌握、灵活运用《2010年国际贸易术语解释通则》,避免贸易纠纷,减少贸易风险,以防患于未然。     

国际贸易与投资理论的新发展:新制度经济学分析

新制度经济学在国际贸易和投资相关研究领域的渗透并非一个新现象,内部化理论就是在新制度经济学的影响下产生的。21世纪初,新制度经济学和国际贸易与投资理论出现了新的融合趋势,从原来的简单运用发展到将不完全契约直接融入不完全竞争条件下的跨国公司组织形式选择的一般均衡模型分析,甚至直接在新制度经济学的产权理论框架下分析跨国公司的组织选择行为。这一理论上的整合对于分析跨国公司在发展中国家的直接投资及其组织形式具有重要意义。     

跨国公司全球供应链管理背景下的上海国际贸易中心建设

在经济全球化的浪潮下,全球化供应链管理越来越受到跨国公司的重视。文章通过对跨国公司全球供应链发展动因的分析,探讨了跨国公司在我国实施全球供应链管理战略的新趋势。结合上海建设国际贸易中心的实践,文章提出加强其跨国采购中心和国际研发中心建设,使整个上海成为跨国公司的国际供应链中心,从而为上海国际贸易中心建设服务。     

国际贸易政策的保护性研究

文章通过对国际贸易政策的历史回顾 ,总结出了任何时候、任何国家的贸易政策的本质是保护性的。国与国之间贸易利益分配的差异 ,自由贸易对国家内部的不同部门 (利益集团 )的不同影响 ,是产生保护性贸易政策的内部原因和外部原因。贸易政策的国际协调并不能从根本上改变贸易政策的保护性的问题。最后分析了WTO条件下国家贸易政策保护性的表现     

‘Public–private partnerships’: The Portuguese General Company of Pernambuco and Paraíba (1759)

This paper proposes that we can learn from past experience how specific contexts can explain specific public–private interfaces and the corporate governance rules ascribed to them, and so inform debate about modern ventures of this type. To this end, the paper explores the ‘public–private partnership’ of the Portuguese Companhia Geral de Comércio de Pernambuco e Paraíba (CGPP – General Company of Pernambuco and Paraíba) founded in 1759 by the Pombal government. Based on archival sources, and considering the social, economic and political context, the study helps to enhance understanding of how the Portuguese enlightened despotic regime developed and connected the empire through a corporatist interface with a private company.     

Corporate Governance and the Responsibility of the Board of Directors for Strategic Financial Reporting

One of the fundamental principles of good corporate governance is transparency, i.e., the disclosure of private information to external stakeholders, so that they may make judgments and decisions relating to the corporation. Equally important, but less discussed, is the competing value that corporations need to protect legitimate secrets. Corporations thus need a communication strategy for dealing with external stakeholders which addresses the conflict between disclosure and secrecy. This article focuses on an important element of that communication strategy in the context of financial reporting: the possibility that corporate insiders may consider it in their interest, or in the interest of specific stakeholders, to alter or manipulate the financial information that it discloses publicly. Using concepts from the corporate governance and financial reporting literatures, it addresses the ethical question of who (management or the board of directors) should be responsible for making the fundamental strategic choices whether and (if so) how the corporation alters or manipulates the financial information. This article argues that the board of directors is responsible for formulating (and monitoring) the corporation's communication strategy, and that management is responsible for carrying it out.     

我国高比例加工贸易引发的思考

我国已经成为世界第三大贸易国,但在根据原产地规则计算的进出口总额中,加工贸易的比例正迅速增加,本文从进出口贸易的统计数据出发,指出这一现象源自外商投资企业贸易额占我国贸易额的高比例以及其自身贸易方式中加工贸易的高比例,分析了这种外商投资企业主导进出口贸易,且以加工贸易为主的格局对我国经济的短期和长期影响,就我国今后吸引外资的方向和国内企业的发展做了进一步探讨。     

The expansion of branding in international marketing: The case of olive oil, 1870s–1930s

Abstract

Drawing on a variety of sources, this article investigates the emergence and expansion of branding in the international olive oil markets prior to World War II. It documents the rapid growth of the world trade in packaged olive oil from the 1870s onwards and shows that the main destinations of this consumer-ready product were in the Americas. In this respect, it complements previous findings based on the use of trademark registration figures. The article then argues that the expansion of canned and branded olive oil exports to the New World was the result of three interconnected factors: the mass migration of southern Europeans in the late nineteenth century and the formation of a new market on the other side of the Atlantic; significant transformations in the commodity chain of the product in the Americas during the first third of the twentieth century; and the problems of quality uncertainty and fraud in the emerging New World markets for olive oil. By analysing these factors, this study also provides evidence to further the debate on the purpose of branding and modern marketing.     

Effect of financial development on international trade in Africa: Does measure of finance matter?

Although improving international trade on the back of financial sector development is one of the preoccupations of countries in Africa, empirical literature on financial development-trade nexus has not been rigorous in examining how finance shapes trade. In this study, we examine the effect of financial development on international trade in Africa relying on data for 46 countries over the period 1980–2015. Results from our system generalized method of moments reveal differential effects of finance on trade. In particular, we notice that, private credit does not promote trade while domestic credit positively affects trade. These effects are robust to measures of trade. Thus, improving the level of private (domestic) credit dampens (amplifies) exports and trade openness. However, we also find a U-shaped relationship between private credit and trade measures suggesting that financial sector development may be detrimental (helpful) to trade for economies with low (high) level of private credit.     

国际贸易合同适用国际贸易惯例的实证分析

国际私法领域的国际贸易惯例与国际公法领域的国际惯例有着明显的区别。它与国际贸易合同的关系十分密切,无论惯例的适用、修改抑或排除都离不开合同的规定。最新国际贸易惯例有发展当事人意思自治原则的新趋向,允许甚至明确赋予合同当事人有选择、修改或排除适用惯例的权利。本文在探讨国际贸易惯例定义及其与合同关系的基础上,着重论证国际贸易惯例在合同中的实际适用及适用时应当注意的若干问题。     

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Will Change the Governance of Non Profit Organizations

As a public director of a NASDAQ stock exchange listed public corporation, I have seen how quickly the reforms in corporate governance imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have changed procedures and policies in public corporations. In areas such as transparency of financial records and other financial matters including compensation of top executives and conflict of interest policies affecting both corporate boards of directors and employees of the corporation the reforms of this new federal law have quickly changed corporate practices in many corporations. Many persons who have studied this new law believe that these changes will benefit the public, shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders in the modern corporation by increasing the reputation of these organizations for integrity and transparency. Stock exchanges such as NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange now require all listed companies to have (after a transition time) a majority of independent directors on their boards of directors. Only independent directors may serve on the audit, nominating and compensation committees of boards in most cases. Some exceptions are made to these rules for foreign and domestic issues of companies where a majority of the voting power is held by one person. According to Morrison & Foster LLP, Corporate Board Advisory March , 2004, NASDAQ requires that the board of directors of a listed company determine that an independent director does not have a relationship that would “interfere with the exercise of independent judgment” in carrying out the responsibilities of a director. Donald Grunewald served as President of Mercy College from 1972 to 1984. He has served as a member of the board of trustees of several colleges and proprietary educational institutions and on the boards of other charitable institutions. Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of EVCI Career Colleges, Inc., a NASDAQ listed corporation.     

Assessing the Accountability of the Benefit Corporation: Will This New Gray Sector Organization Enhance Corporate Social Responsibility?

In recent years the benefit corporation has emerged as a new organizational form dedicated to legitimizing the pursuit of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Eschewing traditional governmental authority, the benefit corporation derives its moral legitimacy from the values of its owners and the oversight of a third party evaluator. This research identifies the benefit corporation as a new type of gray sector organization (GSO) and applies extant theory on GSOs to analyze its design. In particular, it shows how the theory of GSO accountability can be used to assess the potential of benefit corporations for enhancing CSR. This research first examines the statutes that have established benefit corporations in five states in the US, along with bills in other states, to show how legislation defines their specific public benefits and holds them accountable for delivering these benefits. It then compares the accountability of the benefit corporation with that of other corporate-centric GSOs, e.g., GSOs that closely resemble traditional corporations. It concludes with significant design-based concerns about the utility of the benefit corporation as an effective organization for implementing CSR.     

国际服务贸易与国际物流服务贸易——战略性的发展机遇

国际服务贸易作为国际间新的经济形态,是世界经济高度化、一体化发展的结果,应当看到这个新的经济增长点和经济发展的重要机遇,进行战略性的思考和长远的安排.国际物流服务贸易作为国际运输服务贸易的升华和发展,是国际服务贸易一个新的课题,对于促进国际间从商品、技术、知识到服务的全面融合,提高我国国际服务贸易水平具有重要意义,将成为我国新的经济增长点和战略选择.为推进国际物流服务贸易,可从两方面着手进行:一方面是以系统物流为独立的服务形态进入到国际服务贸易领域里面去,这是国际物流服务贸易的主体;另一方面是作为国际实物商品贸易共生、配套、派生的物流服务,随同实物商品国际贸易进入到国际贸易领域,在多数情况下,这已经成为国际商品贸易的一部分,不容忽视.此外,推进国际物流服务贸易,除了要从数量上推进外,还要注重内涵的扩展.而且国际服务贸易与国际物流服务贸易的发展,会遇到很多困难和问题,对此要有充分的准备.