practices associated with them. Stowing occurs when individuals align a foreign business
practice with a social movement or a current trend to use its mobilizing force to facilitate the
transfer. It is metaphorically similar to stowing tree trunks down a river (Cochoy, 1999).
Stowing facilitates acceptance of a transfer and infuses it with energy and meaning.
Stowing was employed already at the launch of ARESE in 1995. The founder/CEO
aligned SRI with the financial market liberalization that was taking place in France at the
time, benefitting from the energy of a pending reform. She organized a business trip for
financial executives from two French banks associated with the public sector: the Caisses de
Dépôts et Consignation (CDC) et the Caisses d’Epargne (CE). The purpose of the trip was to
introduce the financial executives to innovative ideas and techniques in the American
financial market. The founder/ CEO dedicated the last day entirely to SRI, and executives
responded with enthusiasm. They perceived the notion of SRI as an opportunity to reconcile
social concerns (social welfare in a public service ideology) with institutional investment
(new commercial products and profitable markets), two dimensions that had proven difficult
to reconcile in the liberalization of the French financial markets (Schmidt 2003).
Two managers who attended the business trip played a central role in stowing. They
financially supported the development of ARESE and the transfer of SRI to France. The two
financial institutions also showed interest in developing the emerging market of employee
savings in light of the pending reform of French pension funds. Newspaper reports from the
late 1990’s made explicit links between SRI and the reform. In a newspaper article, published
in Le Monde, SRI professionals expressed that they “feel ready to provide an answer to the
demand for socially responsible pension funds [if they are created]” (Le Monde 1998). By
means of stowing, the ARESE project was connected to strong institutional forces for social
change in French society, which greatly facilitated the transfer.
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