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We combine georeferenced data on mining extraction of 14 minerals with information on conflict events at spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° for all of Africa between 1997 and 2010. Exploiting exogenous variations in world prices, we find a positive impact of mining on conflict at the local level. Quantitatively, our estimates suggest that the historical rise in mineral prices (commodity super-cycle) might explain up to one-fourth of the average level of violence across African countries over the period. We then document how a fighting group's control of a mining area contributes to escalation from local to global violence. Finally, we analyze the impact of corporate practices and transparency initiatives in the mining industry.

Global sourcing largely occurs from so-called emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). In these contexts, substantial leverage effects for sustainability in supply chains (SCs) can be expected by reducing adverse impacts on society and minimising related risks. For this ethical end, an adequate understanding of the respective sourcing contexts is fundamental. This case study of South Africa’s (SA) mining sector uses institutional theory and the notion of institutional uncertainty to empirically analyse the challenges associated with establishing social sustainability. The case study research is informed by 39 semi-structured interviews with top management representatives and various state and non-state decision makers in SA. Our findings suggest that (social) sustainability in the institutional field is mainly shaped by the Social and Labour Plan institution, induced by state actors and mining companies’ practices. However, four weakening factors were identified that adversely affect this regulative institution, drive institutional uncertainty and allow for mining companies’ gradual decoupling. Contrastingly, complementing pressures of non-state actors limit institutional uncertainty and push toward mainstreaming the stipulations of the institution. This study contributes to the business ethics literature by providing an in-depth exploration of institutional uncertainty’s drivers and barriers within an upstream SC setting and shedding light on multiple actors’ interplay and relevance in sector-wide sustainability. The findings are condensed into three main propositions as well as an analytical framework as a basis for follow-up research. This case study helps practitioners understand and manage complexity that results from actor plurality and institutional uncertainty in EMDEs.

Prior research on firms’ liability of foreignness (LOF) has emphasized the role of isomorphic behavior in overcoming LOF. However, the literature has not adequately considered how firms can overcome LOF under conditions of institutional complexity, when fundamental differences in firms’ home and host country values, beliefs, and rules may make isomorphic behaviors impossible or undesirable. In this article, we use the emerging research on institutional logics and institutional entrepreneurship to address this important issue by examining case studies of eight foreign mining MNEs experiencing LOF in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based upon our qualitative analysis, we find that MNEs can overcome LOF by co-creating new institutional logics rather than conforming to existing ones. Yet our data show that this is a difficult process, one that may not be capable of being done unilaterally by the MNE. Instead, we find that local employees embedded in both sets of competing institutional logics acted as key intermediaries who facilitated institutional entrepreneurship. Moreover, we found that firms’ implementation strategy matters as well: in some cases, institutional entrepreneurship mitigated LOF; in others, friction returned to varying degrees.

This paper estimates the impact of uncertainty shocks on real income growth in U.S. states. Our results suggest that the effect is heterogeneous. The magnitude of the decline in income is largest in states with a large share of manufacturing and construction industries, a larger share of small firms, a high fiscal deficit, a less rigid labor market, and a more volatile housing market. In contrast, a higher share of mining industries and larger intergovernmental fiscal transfers ameliorate the impact of uncertainty.

The optimization and transition of the industrial structure help improve the quality of the economy, moving it toward low-carbon development. By using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments model and a city-level dataset covering the period 2006–2019, this paper explores the carbon lock-in mitigation effects of industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition, respectively. The heterogeneity and the synthetic industrial structure adjustment effect are detected, and the potential impact mechanism is also explored. Some findings have been generated. (1) Both industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition realize carbon lock-in eradication. (2) Industrial structure optimization and transition are more effective in inhibiting carbon lock-in in cities with a higher level of economic background. (3) By generating an interaction term of industrial structure optimization and transition and examining the impact of the interaction term on carbon lock-in, this paper detects that industrial structure optimization and transition have a synthetic impact on carbon lock-in, showing a “1 + 1 > 2” effect. (4) Industrial structure optimization and transition both affect carbon lock-in by improving technological innovation level, which is the impact mechanism. Some policy implications, such as sectoral diversification and promoting research and development, are put forward for better industrial structure development and carbon unlocking.

Advocated across the international community for more than 15 years, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is now widely recognised as a hallmark anti-corruption scheme in the extractive sector. This study presents an assessment of the relationship between EITI membership and countries’ progress in tackling corruption. It provides the first study that looks at this issue using a ‘state-of-the-art’ indicator called the Bayesian Corruption Indicator. It also introduces an innovative estimation strategy combining entropy balancing with a difference-in-difference framework to address the baseline inequalities that exist between member and non-member countries. Contrary to the findings of many leading studies, this analysis finds corruption scores have improved significantly among EITI member countries. In particular, the evidence is strongest when we examine a sub-group of EITI members designated fully compliant with the initiative's transparency standards.

Despite exhaustive research on technology upgrading in firms from emerging economies—latecomer firms—we still know little about micro-level learning strategies underlying technological innovation capability accumulation, also known as technology upgrading intensity, particularly in natural resource-intensive industries. Through an empirically grounded study of Brazil’s mining industry, which holds a globally leading technological and market position, we found that: (1) leading firms implemented technological learning strategies as responses to changing windows of opportunity (demand, technological, institutional, and idiosyncratic problems); (2) these technological learning strategies manifested in various ways from imitative and defensive to offensive with elements overlapping over the technology upgrading process, involving two forms of knowledge inputs: ‘doing, using and interacting’ and ‘science, technology and innovation’, which were operationalised through various learning mechanisms; (3) the use of these learning mechanisms changed qualitatively over time affecting firms’ technology upgrading intensity positively. Thus, we further the understanding of latecomer firms’ technology upgrading by providing in-depth empirical insights through a comprehensive approach to innovation capabilities and learning strategies in an under-researched natural resource-intensive industry in a middle-income resource-rich country.

Thermal hardening is widely used nowadays for modification of steel bar properties and obtaining effective reinforcing material. Strength and deformation characteristics of thermally hardened reinforcement is the complex indicator of reinforcement efficiency. Therefore, reliable assessment of physico-mechanical characteristics of thermally hardened rebar is topical and important issue. This article is intended to the analysis of physico-mechanical characteristics of thermally hardened rebar on the basis of experimental data. Thorough statistical processing of experimental data was made and specific features of strength parameters were identified. Analytical model of strength characteristics is proposed, which enables to take into account inhomogeneous strength properties of the rebar along its cross-section. It could be stated that assessment of physico-mechanical characteristics of thermally hardened rebar is topical and important issue, which is the prospective area of further research.

This article presents the materials of deformability studies of pre-stressed steel-concrete beams reinforced with a package of reinforcement with different ratio of tape and rebar in the pure bending moment zone. The aim of the research was determination of the reinforcement percentage influence, for pre-stressed reinforced concrete beams reinforced with a package of reinforcement on their deformability. Also, the aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of using pre-stressed rebar in combined reinforcement. The practical significance of the experimental research is to study the deformability in pre-stressed bending elements with external tape and rebar reinforcement, taking into account the influence of different ratios of reinforcement areas within the combined reinforcement and development of proposals for such structures` calculation and design. The scientific novelty of the research is in obtaining the deformability characteristics of reinforced concrete beams reinforced with a package of reinforcement (tape and steel bars with periodic profile) with different ratios in the case of static loads` action.