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



values that carry negative connotations in the host society. Filtering serves to eliminate
features that may block the transfer, alternatively replace them with a softer notion. It
disentangles elements that the host society may perceive as illegitimate.

In its original form, SRI advocates synergy between profit-making and social gains.
This synergy did not resonate in Quebec where the two elements were historically construed
as being in opposition to one another. Until the 1960s, the francophone population of Quebec
was primarily employed as unskilled workers in factories that were owned and managed by
the Anglophone community. While Anglophones profited from these factories, the
Francophone community expressed feelings of oppression and exploitation in this production
regime. They developed negative sentiments towards liberal market economies, which they
associated with profit, capitalism, large factories, management, power, and money. In fact, the
United States is a liberal market economy that assigns much value to profit making and gives
prominence to this element in business practices. The strong emphasis on profit making in
SRI met resistance in the coordinated market economy of Quebec, where it was easily
associated with exploitation of workers and lack of democracy.

Although the negative sentiments toward liberal market economies have diminished
somewhat over the past decades in response to growing institutional autonomy in Quebec, the
Francophone community still harbours negative feelings towards money, power, and profit:

“The reality of this country [Quebec] is that no Francophones had power. Nor money, for
that matter. There were priests, notaries, doctors and liberal professions who did, but the
rest of us did not touch money. They were dirty. They served to exploit others. I felt that
way myself when I was 10 years old and wanted to be a communist. Now, at 35, I tell
myself, I want to take charge of money myself.” (CEO of FIR)

The CEO engaged in filtering to minimize the prominence of profit making in the SRI
concept. She downplayed the American origin of SRI, presenting it instead as a global
business practice associated with the World Summit on Sustainable Development in

14



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