IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp9743.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Business in Genocide: Understanding and Avoiding Complicity

Author

Listed:
  • Stel, Nora

    (Maastricht School of Management)

  • Naudé, Wim

    (RWTH Aachen University)

Abstract

Genocides and mass atrocities do not arise spontaneously, but tend to be meticulously sourced and managed. As such the concern in this paper is with the role of businesses in these processes, with a particular focus on the agency and decision making of entrepreneurs and managers. We critically explore the specific role entrepreneurs and businesses played in three of the most uncontested genocides of recent history: the Jewish, Kurdish, and Darfurian genocides. From this literature we seek to distill key insights into what entrepreneurs and socially responsible businesses can do to lessen the tensions, misunderstandings, exclusions, and marginalization that are among the complex causes of genocides and other mass atrocities. In order to better understand the complicity of business there is a need for a shift from diagnostic attention on how businesses are engaged in genocide to a more analytical exploration of why businesses have made the choices they did in the process of their engagement with genocide. This is also necessary to advance the debate on how to hold businesses accountable for gross human rights violations and moreover to provide incentives for businesses not only to avoid doing harm but also to proactively, preventively strive to protect and extend human rights.

Suggested Citation

  • Stel, Nora & Naudé, Wim, 2016. "Business in Genocide: Understanding and Avoiding Complicity," IZA Discussion Papers 9743, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp9743.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimo Guidolin & Eliana La Ferrara, 2007. "Diamonds Are Forever, Wars Are Not: Is Conflict Bad for Private Firms?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1978-1993, December.
    2. Achim Wennmann, 2009. "Getting Armed Groups to the Table: peace processes, the political economy of conflict and the mediated state," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 1123-1138.
    3. Baumol, William J., 1996. "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-22, January.
    4. Neil Cooper, 2002. "State Collapse as Business: The Role of Conflict Trade and the Emerging Control Agenda," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 935-955, November.
    5. Florian Wettstein, 2010. "The Duty to Protect: Corporate Complicity, Political Responsibility, and Human Rights Advocacy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 33-47, September.
    6. Tilman Brück & Wim Naudé & Philip Verwimp, 2013. "Business under Fire: Entrepreneurship and Violent Conflict in Developing Countries," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/167759, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Christine Batruch, 2010. "Lundin Petroleum AB’s experience in East Africa the role of the private sector in conflict-prone countries," Economics of Peace and Security Journal, EPS Publishing, vol. 5(2), pages 5-9, July.
    8. Bob Thompson, 2008. "Liveability," ERES eres2008_275, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Gries & Wim Naudé, 2021. "Extreme Events, Entrepreneurial Start-Ups, and Innovation: Theoretical Conjectures," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 329-353, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nora Stel, 2014. "Business in Genocide – Understanding the how and why of corporate complicity in genocides," Working Papers 2014/28, Maastricht School of Management.
    2. Thomas Gries & Wim Naudé, 2021. "Extreme Events, Entrepreneurial Start-Ups, and Innovation: Theoretical Conjectures," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 329-353, October.
    3. Stel, Nora, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and innovation in a hybrid political order: The case of Lebanon," MERIT Working Papers 2012-078, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    4. Naudé, Wim, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and economic development: Theory, evidence and policy," MERIT Working Papers 2012-027, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    5. Bernal, Carolina & Prem, Mounu & Vargas, Juan F. & Ortiz, Mónica, 2024. "Peaceful entry: Entrepreneurship dynamics during Colombia’s peace agreement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    6. Stel, Nora & Naudé, Wim, 2013. "Public-Private Entanglement: Entrepreneurship in a Hybrid Political Order, the Case of Lebanon," IZA Discussion Papers 7795, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Vahabi,Mehrdad, 2019. "The Political Economy of Predation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107591370, October.
    8. Ciarli, Tommaso & Kofol, Chiara & Menon, Carlo, 2015. "Business as unusual. An explanation of the increase of private economic activity in high-conflict areas in Afghanistan," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65015, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Sameeksha Desai & Zoltan J. Acs, 2007. "A Theory of Destructive Entrepreneurship," Jena Economics Research Papers 2007-085, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    10. Jonathan Munemo, 2022. "Do African resource rents promote rent-seeking at the expense of entrepreneurship?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1647-1660, March.
    11. Gölgeci, Ismail & Arslan, Ahmad & Khan, Zaheer & Kontkanen, Minnie, 2021. "Foreign firm operations and skills development of local employees in violence-hit countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. John E. Katsos & Yass AlKafaji, 2019. "Business in War Zones: How Companies Promote Peace in Iraq," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 41-56, March.
    13. Ritchie, Holly A., 2016. "Unwrapping Institutional Change in Fragile Settings: Women Entrepreneurs Driving Institutional Pathways in Afghanistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 39-53.
    14. Wim Naudé & José Amorós & Oscar Cristi, 2014. "“Surfeiting, the appetite may sicken”: entrepreneurship and happiness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 523-540, March.
    15. Alexandre Padilla & Nicolás Cachanosky, 2016. "Indirectly productive entrepreneurship," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(2), pages 161-175, August.
    16. Marceau, Nicolas & Mongrain, Steeve, 2011. "Competition in law enforcement and capital allocation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 136-147, January.
    17. Seitz, William Hutchins, 2016. "Stock market reactions to conflict diamond trading restrictions and controversies," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 63-84, April.
    18. Isabel Grilo & Roy Thurik, 2008. "Determinants of entrepreneurial engagement levels in Europe and the US," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(6), pages 1113-1145, December.
    19. Prabhir Poruthiyil, 2013. "Weaning Business Ethics from Strategic Economism: The Development Ethics Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(4), pages 735-749, September.
    20. Akresh, Richard & Lucchetti, Leonardo & Thirumurthy, Harsha, 2012. "Wars and child health: Evidence from the Eritrean–Ethiopian conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 330-340.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    conflict; mass killings; genocide; entrepreneurship; business; development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9743. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.