Trade and investment in natural mineral resources hold great potential for generating income, growth and prosperity, sustaining livelihoods and fostering local development. However, a large share of these resources is located in conflict-affected and high-risk areas. In these areas, exploitation...

Voluntary initiatives in the area of corporate responsibility have been among the major trends in international business in recent years. Business surveys show that most large OECD-based multinational enterprises have participated in this trend in one way or another. These initiatives involve,...

In the ongoing public debate on globalisation, concerns have been expressed about the economic, social and environmental impacts of deepening international trade and investment ties and about the activities of the multinational enterprises. These concerns focus on a variety of issues including...

Many companies have implemented programmes that help them to respond to societal concerns about the economic, social and environmental impacts of their activities. These help them to manage their compliance with legal or regulatory requirements and their response to “softer” forms of social...

RFID touches on several regulatory and/or policy issues with potentially wide-ranging social, economic, as well as national security implications, including international trade, intellectual property rights, standards, spectrum, security, and privacy.

The expanding geographical sweep of supply chains reflects important advances in the area of logistics management. Some of these advances are linked to progress in computing, telecommunications and robotics technologies as well as to the accumulation of management expertise. Managers have...

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a promising new technology with a rapidly growing range of applications, many integrating technologies such as sensors. In this report, eight major fields of application are analysed, impacts are discussed and country initiatives described.