Damiebi Denni-Fiberesima and Nazatul Shima Abdul Rani.

School of Business ,Curtin University,Sarawak Campus,CDT250,98009 Miri,Sarawak,Malaysia

Dear Eelco,

A number of studies have been undertaken in oil and mining sectors. A few selected studies drawn from Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Colombia and India are as follows:

Coronado, G. and Fallon, W. (2010) "Giving with one hand: On the mining sector's treatment of indigenous stakeholders in the name of CSR", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 30 Iss: 11/12, pp.666 – 682.

The purpose of this paper by Fallon and Coronado (2010) is to draw attention to the political dimensions in the relationships between mining companies and their aboriginal stakeholders in Australia. Whereas your question is more related to ‘stakeholder engagement’, some of the findings drawn in this study might provide some insights on the applications of stakeholder approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the mining sector, and particularly among various stakeholders affected by mining such as the indigenous people.

The second study by Lindsay (2012) examines how structural dynamics of the global mining industry condition and limit the positive impacts of corporate responsibility and sustainable development strategies, despite considerable effort on the part of both the Canadian government and the global mining industry to promote the twin concepts.

Lindsay, N.M. (2012), The Structural Dynamics of Corporate Social Irresponsibility: The Case of the Canadian Mining Industry, in Ralph Tench, William Sun, Brian Jones (ed.) Corporate Social Irresponsibility: A Challenging Concept (Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability, Volume 4) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.207 – 230.

For Nigeria and Indian related studies, the following two are worth looking up:

Eweje, G. (2007) "Multinational oil companies' CSR initiatives in Nigeria: The skepticism of stakeholders in host communities", Managerial Law, Vol. 49 Iss: 5/6, pp.218 - 235.

Sarkar, A.N. (2013), Review of Strategic Policy Framework for Re-Evaluating ‘CSR’ Programme Impacts on the Mining-Affected Areas in India, in Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-perez, Liam Leonard (ed.) International Business, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (Advances in Sustainability and Environmental Justice, Volume 11) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.217 – 261.

Eweje (2007) study is drawn from the oil sector and it does address some of the issues posed in your sub question related to stakeholder engagement. Most importantly, some of the engagement dynamics between state, private sector and civil society are viewed through the lenses of the multinational oil companies' (MOCs) (private) and some other stakeholders using the corporate social responsibility platform. This might give you some further insights.

Other stakeholder engagement specific studies drawn from Australia and Colombia are as follows:

Parsons, R. (2008) "We are all stakeholders now: The influence of western discourses of “community engagement” in an Australian Aboriginal community", Critical perspectives on international business, Vol. 4 Iss: 2/3, pp.99 – 126.

Gutierrez, R. and Lobo, I.D. (2007) "Corporate Social Engagement in Colombia", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 3 Iss: 1, pp.40 – 51.

The Parson (2008) study is well suited for your second sub question on engagement dynamics.

All the best with your research,

Nicholas

Three weeks ago I visited Glencore in Zug, Switzerland, the leading mining and commodity trader of the world. They are absolutely not interested in socio-political risk research.  Almost all studies today are local/national and they end in reclaiming the violation of environment and workers rights.

But these violations are a result of missing Social Capital in the society, not of "bad" entrepreneurs from abroad.

Maybe our Social Capital Assessment, which takes place in 89 countries today, may be a way to identify socio-economic risk.

But from a company's perspective a low Social Capital is good because it guarantees low costs and a corrupt class to get all permissions.

The problem is, that nobody wants to pay for such a study - even if it could contribute to a more sustainable way to deal with Oil and Mining.

Dear Eelco, I based my Phd Thesis in taxation and mining (is in Spanish). I examined the taxation regimes of 30 countries in 8 different products and how this regimes (in terms of tax structure and changes) affect the investment decisions of the mining companies. I found that countries with high volatile tax systems (like Argentina) tend to have industries less capital intensive. In the case of Argentina I tried to explain the volatility in a model where two elites (the regional and the urban one) compete for the control of the resource-rent. I hope this can help you.

When I saw your question I looked through the answers with the hope of finding more research done in this area. My PhD is based on the dynamics of stakeholder engagement, with a focus on the emerging shale gas industry in UK.