Micro-strategies of Contextualization Cross-national Transfer of Socially Responsible Investment

cases of small entrepreneurial companies that transferred SRI and developed an SRI
assessment tool that fit their own society. The French case is ARESE, a small entrepreneurial
company that was created in 1997 to measure the corporate social performance of companies
that were quoted on the stock market. The mission of ARESE was to provide structured,
quantified information to SRI fund managers to help them select the most ethical or
responsible companies for their investment portfolio (Igalens & Gond 2005). ARESE was the
first formal initiative to quantify and legitimize the notion of corporate social responsibility
within the French financial community (Déjean 2004; Déjean et al. 2004; Giamporcaro 2004).

The Quebec case is that of Fonds d’Investissement Responsable (FIR), a socially
responsible investment fund that was created in 2003. FIR’s mission was to evaluate the
financial, social and environmental sustainability of small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs) in Quebec and make investments in the most promising ones, using risk capital. Half
of the capital was provided by two labour pension funds in Quebec. The other half came from
public funds for environmental protection that was transferred from a non-governmental
organization. FIR sought to develop an SRI assessment tool that would foster sustainable
development of the Quebec economy.

Both transfers are examples of a successful transfer of SRI to the respective societies,
one of the first successful attempts, in fact. The two transfers unfolded independently and
several years apart. SRI was transferred to France in the late 1990s and to Quebec around
2002. Both cases capture the whole process of transfer from the United States to the
respective host society. In fact, the American context played an important role in both
transfers. The founder of ARESE had spent a long time in the United States prior to this
initiative, while the founder of FIR deliberately downplayed the American roots of SRI.

10

<<   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   >>

More intriguing information