Title: Community risk management by mining MNEs: managing local communities in Armenian mining

Authors: Jacob Taarup-Esbensen; Suren Movsisyan

Addresses: Zealand Institute of Business and Technology and Copenhagen Business School, Denmark ' Department of Economics, Armenian National Agrarian University, 74 Teryan Street, 0009, Yerevan, Armenia

Abstract: Using field work from the Armenian mining sector, we explore how MNEs practice community risk management. We start by conceptualising communities as communities of place (CofP), directly impacted by mining activities but have few resources, and communities of interest (CofI), as outsiders with an interest in mining projects and the resources to create uncertainty about the mine. We argue that community risk is a precursor to financial, political and cultural risks and that both CofP and CofI can expose the mining MNE to risks, either individually or in unison. We find that mining MNEs focus on mitigating community risks in the initial phases of the mine project, when the impact on the CofP is perceived to be lowest. Our interpretation is that the objective of the risk management practice is to commit resources to CofP for as long as there is a possibility that they will form partnerships with CofI.

Keywords: community risk; mining MNE; risk management; Armenia; liability of outsidership; communities of place; CofP; communities of interest; CofI.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2019.100790

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2019 Vol.23 No.1, pp.120 - 138

Received: 22 Dec 2016
Accepted: 04 Oct 2017
Published online: 18 Jul 2019 *

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