Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the linkages between formal/informal and licit/illicit flows of goods in the post‐socialist economy in order to better understand and provide an analysis of both sides of these economic practices.

Research over 20 months in Slovakia, between 2000 and 2007, included surveys of retailers of goods, households and firms who buy and sell contraband, and ethnographic research with truckers, consumers, and sellers of contraband. This study also included a novel research method – a microeconomic commodity supply chain analysis, providing a new means to understand the circulation of illicit goods.

This paper has important findings for the movement of illicit goods in Slovakia and more broadly. Tracing the movement of two goods: cigarettes and clothing, demonstrates that the current theories of informal and illicit flows are inadequate theoretically or to develop proper policies. Both the formal and informal, as well as licit and illicit, flows and production of goods are interwoven through economic practice.

Little research exists specifically tracking the movement of illicit goods and analyzing their economic role in social and economic practices regarding informal economic activity. The results of this study show how the production, distribution, and consumption of illicit goods are integral to the economic transformation of the post‐socialist economy from the household and firm level, and in such practices encourage marketization and capitalist development.

After Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005, Wal-Mart initiated emergency operations that not only protected and reopened its stores, but also helped its employees and others in the community cope with the disaster's personal impact. This response was part of a wider effort by the company under CEO Lee Scott to improve its public image. Wal-Mart's efforts were widely regarded as the most successful of all corporations in the aftermath of the disaster and set the standard for future corporate disaster relief programs.

Move beyond the operational dimensions of disaster response and appreciate how disaster response is connected to the company's strategy and its position in the market place. Understand how disasters are different than other types of reputational crises and are subject to different expectation from the public. Understand how a company can do well by doing good: how it can do the right thing and benefit its business at the same time. Discuss the changing expectations of companies to act in the public interest.