Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira – författare

SME's are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently 'cluster' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by 'socially upgrading' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

SME's are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently 'cluster' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by 'socially upgrading' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

SME''s are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently ''cluster'' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by ''socially upgrading'' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

SME''s are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently ''cluster'' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by ''socially upgrading'' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

Corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility have become hot topics of debate for business, academia and organised civil society in Latin America. However, although there is a lot of material in Spanish and Portuguese, there are few publications available in English. This special issue of JCC opens the discussion in English across different countries in the region.

Uses Brazil as a case study of how governments implement environmental policies despite urgent needs for economic development.Environmental policy implementation in developing countries faces a number of institutional obstacles. Using the case of protected areas and tourism development in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil, Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira explores how economic development interests tend to have a higher priority on most governments' agendas in developing countries. Government agencies often fail to implement environmental protection policies mainly because they lack political support, have insufficient resources, have underdeveloped institutional capacity, and tend to overlook the importance of cooperation at the local level. Puppim de Oliveira explains how this trend may be reversed by decentralizing policy implementation into the hands of development-oriented agencies. To make the process work, central authorities should offer incentives to ensure increased attention to environmental protection objectives in the development process. At the same time, an independent body with oversight authority should be in place to prevent development agencies from neglecting environmental concerns.