October 2, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Globalization and NGOs: Transforming Business, Government, and Society
edited by Jonathan P. Doh and Hildy Teegen
This book presents essays on how nonprofit groups have used both cooperation and protests to influence business and government decisions and to help set international policies.
Jonathan P. Doh, an assistant professor of management at Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, and Hildy Teegen, an associate professor of international business and international affairs at George Washington University, in Washington, say that the Internet, which allows nonprofit organizations in different countries to better coordinate their activities and communicate with the public, has helped increase charities’ influence.
The authors explain that nonprofit groups put pressure on business and government by organizing boycotts (such as efforts to dissuade the public from purchasing clothing produced in factories with unsafe labor conditions) and by conducting and publicizing research related to ethical concerns and international policies. (The Environmental Defense Fund, for example, manages a Web site that makes note of companies emitting pollutants.)
Noting the unfavorable reaction by some charities to genetically modified crops, one chapter describes how companies might work with nonprofit organizations to ensure that potentially controversial technologies will be better received by consumers.
The book also provides case studies of successful collaborations between businesses and nonprofit organizations. For example, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and several other organizations helped develop a voluntary global certification and accreditation system to verify that lumber companies are harvesting trees in socially and environmentally responsible ways. Under this system, nonprofit organizations establish standards and provide assistance to companies to reduce the harmful effects of logging. At the same time, businesses receive certification, which makes their products more appealing to many consumers.
Publisher: Greenwood Publishing Group, 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, Westport, Conn. 06881-5007; (203) 226-3571; fax (203) 222-1502; http://www.greenwood.com; 256 pages; $55.95; I.S.B.N. 1-56720-499-6.
