Business and Human Rights as a Galaxy of Norms

In the last several years, there has been an increasing tendency to view the impacts of transnational business operations through the lens of human rights law. A major obstacle to holding companies accountable for the harms that they impose, however, has been the separate legal identity of corporate subsidiaries and of contractors in a company\u27s supply chain. France\u27s recently enacted duty of vigilance statute seeks to overcome this obstacle by imposing a duty on companies to identify potential serious human rights violations by their subsidiaries and by companies with which they have an “established commercial relationship.” Failure to engage in such vigilance can subject a company to liability for damages resulting from such failure. This Article situates the new French duty of vigilance within a broader set of norms that can be characterized as the Business and Human Rights Galaxy. This Galaxy consists of five rings that represent standards and expectations ranging from classic enforceable “hard law” to voluntary principles generated by private parties, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and international organizations. The provisions in these rings are related in fluid and dynamic ways and exert varying degrees of gravitational influence on one another. Thus, for instance, what are conventionally regarded as forms of hard law may draw on voluntary private standards in setting expectations for behavior, and soft law norms may be incorporated into legally enforceable contract provisions between companies and their suppliers. This Article suggests that appreciation of these dynamics can furnish guidance in interpreting the novel duty of vigilance that the new French statute establishes. In particular, the common law duty of care and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights can illuminate the nature and scope of the duty of vigilance. At the same time, the introduction of the new French statute into the Business and Human Rights Galaxy means that it too has the potential to influence provisions in other rings of the Galaxy

WoodCircus, Underpinning the vital role of the forest-based sector in the Circular Bioeconomy. D2.2 Resource Efficiency, Side Streams and Value Chain Analysis – WP2 Final Report

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THE EFFECTS OF MARKET INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS ON SALES REVENUE AMONG FRENCH BEAN PRODUCERS: A CASE STUDY OF OL-DONYO SABUK, MACHAKOS COUNTY, KENYA

Businesses operate in a world in which information is more readily and publicly available than ever before. Thanks to the development of the Internet, information on market trends, legislation, customers, suppliers, competitors, distributors, product development and almost every other conceivable topic is available at the click of a mouse. Search engines, online libraries, company websites and other sources provide information in an increasingly plentiful, easy to find, and easy to digest way. Small-scale farmers continue to sell their French beans to middlemen at throw away prices yet there are exporting companies that can buy their beans at high prices for profitability. This has been brought about by the possible missing information about the French beans marketing trends and the profitability of the crop, limited access to the necessary capital to make the switch possible, poor infrastructure necessary to bring the crops to export outlets, high risk of the export markets (for instance, from hold-up problems selling to exporters), limited human capital necessary to adopt successfully a new agricultural technology, for instance the Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) and Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs)requirements, and misperception by researchers and policy makers about the true profit opportunities and risk of crops grown for export markets. This study was conducted to assess the impact of market intelligence systems on sales revenue of French bean farmers in Ol-Donyo Sabuk of Machakos County, Kenya. To achieve this overall objective, three specific objectives were addressed, namely; (1) to establish the existing French beans marketing channels in Ol-Donyo Sabuk, (2) to compare the sales revenues of French bean farmers with and without market intelligence systems, and (3) to compare return on capital for different actors within the French bean value chain. Systemic random sampling was used to select 120 farmers for this study. Data were collected through administering questionnaire for personal interviews. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics such as percentages, and means to answer the stated objectives. In addition, statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse data. The study revealed that 30 percent of the 120 sampled French bean producers had access to French bean market intelligence systems, which is a small proportions of farmers compared to those who did not have access. The results revealed that 30 percent of the 120 sampled French bean producers were selling their produce as a group and had access to market intelligence systems 70 percent of the 120 sampled French bean producers not having access to market intelligence systems thus selling their produce to brokers. The results showed that group farmers selling their product to exporters had a higher return on capital as compared to individual farmers selling their produce to middlemen. xiii Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that the government and other key players in the horticulture industry enhance extension services to French bean producers by training them on market intelligence systems and stringent EU market requirements in order to improve on sales revenues from the crop and subsequent return on capital. Further the government establishes a French beans value addition plant that will cater for all farmers in French beans production and a high return on capital will go to Kenya economy but not to foreigners who own most of the value addition plants. This will too provide employment to many. The brokers should be removed from the production chain because they misuse farmers making profits where they did not invest and exporters would be advised to improve on their mode of produce payment and produce rejection handling.There is need to do away with hawkers and brokers within the value chain by having binding contracts and steady markets. Based on the findings, policy implications were drawn for improvingthe quality of French beans immensely by farmers through complying with GlobalGAP right from land preparation to harvesting and adhering to stipulated MRLs, proper postharvest handling of the produce with thorough grading and subsequent proper storage

Determinants of Food Safety Level in Fruit and Vegetable Wholesalers’ Supply Chain: Evidence from Spain and France

Food safety management in short supply chains of fruit and vegetables, controlled by large retailers, has been widely studied in the literature. However, when it comes to traditional long supply chains, which include a greater number of intermediaries and wholesalers who, in some cases, play a dual role as resellers and producers, the mechanisms which promote the use of safety certifications have yet to be clearly defined. The present study intended to fill this gap in the literature and shed light on the food safety level that exists in this channel. In addition, this work attempted to identify the existence of differences between both sales systems. For this purpose, the empirical research studied the most important variables that influence the food safety level of some of the main European fruit and vegetable wholesalers. A survey was thus designed and later applied to Spanish and French intermediaries working in key wholesale markets and in the southeast of Spain, which is the leading commercialization area of these products in Europe. The results revealed the positive influence of specific customers (big retailers) on establishing stricter safety controls within wholesale companies. It was also observed that specific wholesalers also play an important role in the system, namely those dedicated to importing, but which are also responsible for quality and safety inspection of agri-food products exported from third countries into the European Union

International expansion and buyer-driven commodity chain: the case of TESCO

This paper is prepared within the project ‘The Emerging Industrial Architecture of the Wider Europe; the Co-evolution of Industrial and Political Structures ’ funded by the ESRC programme ‘One Europe or Several?’ * Authors would like to thank Nick von Tunzelmann for his valuable comments in earlier draft versions. Following the collapse of Communism, central European countries have experienced an invasion of foreign investment in many sectors. The sectors that target consumers directly have found an opportunity to gain market share with considerable long-term profit potential. Thus, investments by western retailers are quite large when compared to other industries1. These multinational

Global strategies to overcome the spiral of decline in universal bank markets

Although there has been an increase in the overall financial services market, the profitability of banks world-wide has decreased from the early 1980s to the 1990s. This has been attributed to several factors: the decline of traditional banking activities (deposit taking and lending); poorly performing debts (arising from poor lending decisions); and, for domestic banks, depressed property prices and important local industrial sectors performing badly. However, the analyses of bank performance tend to be short-term and narrow in their outlook, and seldom attempt to explain the underlying trends and processes of change. In this paper it is argued that the broad competitive forces of information technology, globalisation and deregulation are destabilising the banking industry leading to irrevocable changes which allow new entrants, disintermediation, innovation and customer changes on a much greater scale than has occurred in the past. These concepts are illustrated using a range of different bank markets as examples. To compete in these new markets different approaches are needed, and a series of possible strategies for addressing new bank markets are outlined with reference to size and type of bank. The long-term outlook for banking is discussed with particular attention being focussed on the changing role of universal banks

Organic Exporter Guide

This guide was developed for the programme 'Export Promotion of Organic Products from Africa' (EPOPA), implemented by Agro Eco and Grolink. The focus of this guide is on export marketing of organic agricultural products. Finished consumer products and other concepts of certification such as Fair Trade and EurepGAP are briefly discussed as well. The guide is written for African exporters starting with organic exports. It may also be useful for business supporters involved in export marketing

Industrial integration and growth of firm in transition economies: the case of a French multinational company

In the last decade, the prospect of accession of Central and East European countries (CEECs) to the European Union has given momentum to the discussion of their economic integration into the EU. Thus, academic studies have generally focused on variables at the macro level and are conducted in the light of quantitative methodologies in social sciences. This paper instead focuses mainly on the industrial integration of the CEECs into the EU at the firm and inter-organisational level, and uses in-depth, face-to-face interview techniques. Examining the growth of a multinational firm that operates in CEE in the context of networks help us to determine the depth of east-west industrial networks. In this light, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of the 'network alignment' framework from the perspective of the multinational companies located and operating in CEE. The growth of the French Soufflet Group in CEECs is taken as an exemplar to demonstrate the need to link the elements of the existing literature on foreign direct investment (multinational companies) with an evolutionary approach, through consideration of evolving and multiple networks