Nathalie Aubourg

Béatrice Canel-Depitre

Corinne Renault-Tesson

Learning by Doing : Stakeholders, Social Reporting and Communication. The Case of CSR of Total in France

Introduction

Social responsibility has been brought back into the limelight following new pressure put on companies by the French law on New Economic Regulations (loi NRE), encouraging them to show a positive image. More and more companies dedicate significant resources to showing their commitments, asserting a certain ethical attitude and behaving in a socially responsible way. In this context, several researchers have spent time analyzing large corporations' Sustainable Development Reports (SDR). Amongst the most recent works, some analyze the environmental communication contents of the annual reports of some American corporations (Philippe, 2006), others study societal information disclosed on French logistics service providers' websites (Senkel, 2009) and speeches describing good business practices in terms of CSR (Gond, Igalens, 2008;Béji-Bécheur and Bensebaa, 2009). SDRs are one of the CSR tools and are often used as an "environmental and social showcase". Indeed, the French law 1 on New Economic Regulations is very broad and not very restrictive, thus allowing corporations to use and interpret them in their strategic interest. In all cases, SDRs are part of a globally-targeted institutional communication logic. Furthermore, corporations are more and more interested in local stakeholders in order to take their requirements into account. This is why corporations wishing to guarantee their legitimacy must provide answers which are part of a territorial logic. The originality of this article is to show how a corporation has created a local SDR to meet local stakeholders' expectations. This desire for legitimacy and proximity seems consistent but sometimes difficult to achieve, and leads us to our problem which is based around the following question: how does a corporation link the three components of a triptych founded on a global SDR, the territory and consultation of stakeholders? Amongst the CSR tools, Total's refinery in Normandy has formulated a local SDR named social and environmental report. Can the adaptation of a global SDR into a local SDR, which reveals a bottom-up tendency to consult stakeholders, provide a different kind of information source? Consulting stakeholders is part of a participative approach which is proof of a group learning process. We are firstly going to consider stakeholder management as the fruit of organizational learning. We will then compare the approach initiated by the Normandy refinery to this theoretical construction by focusing on the produced output, the local SDR.

I -THE STAKEHOLDER THEORY AT THE TEST OF LEARNING

The notion of stakeholders2 was born out of one of civil society's new ethical requirements, which demands that corporations account for the social and environmental consequences of their activity. Corporations firstly centered their attention on first tier stakeholders, i.e. those without whom they cannot operate or even survive. But, during the last years of the 20 th century, the notion of stakeholders changed to mean a person or organization with a legitimate interest in a project or an entity. This notion is no longer restricted to distributors, employees, clients (global players); it now includes community members and residents (local players) who are sensitive to the effects on the local economy and its environment. This means that all stakeholders can come together to build a corporation's legitimacy. We will firstly present how to learn to take local stakeholders into account, before wondering about the conditions of this learning process in a systemic view whilst focusing our attention on a specific CSR tool, the SDR.

STAKEHOLDERS AND LEARNING

Corporations, a coalition of stakeholders (Acquier & Aggeri, 2005) with expectations (Freeman, 1984) and diverging influential power (Michell et al., 1997), are greatly dependent and interdependent on other players (Cyert & March, 1970;Crozier & Friedberg, 1977). They can even be considered as being embedded in a social network on which they can rely and in which they actively participate (Piau, 2004). By taking into account the various stakeholders and top management responsibility (Carroll, 1999) as regards the possible damage caused by their activity, corporations make the transition between sustainable development and CSR. The contractual perspective put forward by Friedman (1970) was deemed insufficient by Donaldson & Preston (1995), Carroll (1979), Capron & Quairel (2001). By taking into account the management of externalities, corporations become part of the environment and their embeddedness leads them to be in contact with both contractual and non contractual stakeholders. This social and economic overlapping (Granovetter, 1973(Granovetter, , 1985) ) places corporations in a relational model which will determine their behavior towards CSR. Corporations willing to take on their responsibility whilst taking into account the various stakeholders must accept that their strategic choices may be questioned even though they remain first tier players. This proactive behavior is part of a systems logic in which learning takes place using feedback. Thro their desire to provide an answer to the integration of the various levels of responsibility, corporations take part in an organizational learning process in which interactions between individuals are multiplied and coordinated (Weick & Roberts, 1993). The beginnings of coordination tend to show that the path is still open to reach the learning objectives according to Koenig (1994). Indeed, learning is a group phenomenon of acquisition and development of skills which modify both the way situations are managed and the situations themselves. Koenig (2006) states that the impact of learning increases with the number and diversity of possible interpretations as it widens the range of possible behavior. This is how the joint will of all stakeholders will change the management of situations of environmental damage, thanks to the acquisition of new skills. The learning "by grafting" concept, developed by Huber in 1991, is particularly relevant in the desire to combine the skills of the various players. There are three main characteristics:

-The source of learning comes from a partnership (in our case, a moral contract with several local stakeholders), -The learning catalyst is based on the recognition of an organizational difference (for example, in terms of status, funding model or even mode of election when positions are taken up), -Learning is based on an inter-organizational configuration (corporations, associations, local government, Government departments are all associated with this). This learning may be envisaged from a systemic angle in which the local stakeholders and corporations will jointly develop a local SDR.

TOWARDS A SYSTEMS APPROACH OF LOCAL STAKEHOLDER

MANAGEMENT

The first reports on CSR date back to the Eighties (Parker, 1986). After the four phases identified by Igalens (2005), the years 2000 are characterized by a growing standardization of SDR thanks to the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). The publication of the guidelines for the publication of reports was qualified as "technocratic", as they were "developed without any democratic control" (Capron, Quairel-Lanoizelée, 2004). We can therefore notice that different methods are chosen by corporations, even those quoted on the stock exchange subject to the French law on New Economic Regulations of 2001. According to the translation by the OCSR 3 , the GRI states that "reporting enables the corporation's contributions to society, to the environment, the opportunity to create economic, social and environmental value of its products and service to be highlighted…. so that the organization can keep and consolidate its right to trade". Corporations go as far as showing their legitimacy, particularly to different local stakeholders, in order to show their reason for being and favor their sustainability. This legitimacy increases when corporations meet stakeholders' expectations and report on the ways in which they do so by reporting in the SDR. The legitimacy theory stipulates that there is a "social contract" which obliges corporations to operate in compliance with society's expectations, and to therefore "justify" their actions by "speeches" addressed to the relevant components of this society (Preston & Prost, 1975;Hogner, 1982;Lindblom, 1994). To this effect, corporations maintain their justification thro the development of the SDR communication tool, they leave a lot of room for their speeches and promise the various stakeholders that they are committed to actions conducted or to be pursued. The desire to report on societal commitment using a local SDR can be considered as a learning process triggered by the corporation with some stakeholders whose representations and mental states differ and can also radically change; this is what the cognitive approach to organizational learning suggests (Argyris & Schön, 1978, 1996). If learning is used as a way of modifying and restructuring action theories, then the systems of rules and beliefs written in the firm's practices are modified. When environmental complexity is added to that, the scope can be widened and the corporation's boundaries extended by consulting several stakeholders. Learning takes place between different kinds of entities with different ways of learning. If the interorganizational nature is present, we can question the conditions in which this learning took place, do the various stakeholders work towards the same goal? If this is the case, we could think that they all contribute to the production of a new communication medium, for example, namely a local development report. This joint construction, Weick's enactment, is organizational learning, as it calls upon and associates several organizations, and is also individual as each stakeholder learns from its relationship with another entity. Interactions between members are the foundation of the system's existence. New proposals emerge, without each individual stakeholder being able to make them individually. Learning refers to group dynamics, which produce joint rules for action (Midler, 1990); it is not the sum of individual knowledge but the product of their interaction. Senge (1990), a precursor of "systems thinking", recommends thinking of phenomena in their entirety, studying the relations between them and integrating the notion of feedback. Morin (1977Morin ( , 1990) ) states that "the simple hierarchy between infra and supra must be abandoned in favor of organizational feedback, where the ultimate product feeds back by transforming what produces it". Without envisaging competition between the different stakeholders, the diversity of learning objects (what is learnt and the characteristics of what is learnt) makes learning part of a process. We can talk about the following process "CSR/legitimacy -consultation of local stakeholders -joint development of a local SDR" in which corporations seek legitimacy with respect to their territory in the face of concerns raised by sustainable development. The figure below formalizes the learning process mentioned above in a systems perspective.

Figure 1: Formalization of the learning process

We want to highlight the corporation's learning process around a management tool. Using the learning concept, we want to find out if the process of joint development of a local SDR has been initiated. The example of the refinery in Normandy will enable us to compare the main theories mentioned above with the reality on the field.

II -LEARNING HOW TO LISTEN TO STAKEHOLDERS: THE CASE OF TOTAL -UPPER NORMANDY

The case study of the Total refinery in Upper Normandy can be used to illustrate the learning process which accompanies the corporation's integration of the local stakeholders' expectations. Total anticipated the obligation of the French law on New Economic Regulations by publishing an SDR as early as 2001. This desire to report was also seen with the wish to communicate locally via the production of a local SDR. We may wonder whether this SDR is not simply the translation of the global SDR at local level. However, large-scale consultation of the local stakeholders can make us think that the Total Group wanted to give the local SDR a different form, to break away from the restrictions related to the production of the global SDR, or even to have a much more refined local focus. We will demonstrate how the refinery in Normandy has freed itself from the regulatory framework of the global SDR in order to ensure its territorial legitimacy, by initiating a consultation of its local stakeholders with the aim of producing a communication plan. The methodology we used is based on the following:

• Five individual, semi-structured interviews held between June 2009 and January 2010. They were held on the premises of the refinery in Normandy with the assistant manager of the sustainable development department for the Total Group and two persons in charge of communication/HR on these premises. These persons had been identified as decision-making players in the local SDR formulation process. Each of these interviews lasted three hours, and their thematic content was analyzed. • The refinery's internal documents, which we were allowed to use. We used documents which were available on the Internet, such as the Total Group's SDRs, as well as the local SDRs made available to local stakeholders and only available in hard copy. The other data came from reports of seminars written by the persons in charge of communication for the Total Group, on the local management of stakeholders and the SRM+ tool which is used to manage local stakeholders. • Our investigation refers to an essentially abductive approach. We start with the facts and wish to connect them to theoretical knowledge in order to understand them. We use Koenig's definition of abduction (1987): "Abduction is an operation which does not belong to logic, and is used to escape from the chaotic perception we have of the real world thro speculations about the relationships between different things […].

Abduction is about making observations about speculations which are then tested and discussed". Abduction is used to build assumptions which are only probabilities or speculations; it is about proposing a rule using case knowledge and consequences. We made use of systems approach theories, learning and stakeholders to conduct this comprehensive approach. Amongst the communication actions envisaged, the process of local SDR formulation will be examined. We will show how this process of territory management is part of corporation learning.

IN SEARCH OF LOCAL LEGITIMACY

The Total Group is established in more than 130 countries, and has shown its will to take on its responsibilities as a major economic player, and ensure that the surrounding communities are able to see the positive impact of this. Local and global acceptability is strengthened (or weakened) by the stakeholders' perception of this territory and the refinery's contribution to its socio-economic development.

In order to obtain the consent of the territories in which it is established, the Group wishes to develop dialog with residents. This desire is strategic as it is a way of obtaining effective permission to operate whilst gaining the trust of the local communities and authorities. Total's representatives play an active part in the authorities provided for in French regulations 4 in order to maintain close relations between the sites and their environment. The Group goes beyond regulatory structures by contributing to the creation of voluntary dialog structures as demonstrated by the Eco-Maires association created in 2005 5 . However, the production of a global SDR cannot be considered as a local dialog tool. The study of SDRs published between 2001 and 2008 show how little attention is paid to local stakeholders. By way of example, the refinery in Normandy, the leading refining cluster in France, subject to the Seveso directive and inspection from the DRIRE 6 , is only mentioned, on average, twice in each SDR for the studied period, despite the fact that it is located in the second largest industrial area in France. The content of the reported information reveals practically nothing but technical, environmental data which is not readily available to the public. If the refinery in Normandy is credible as regards the control of technical and chemical risks, and is greatly involved in the local dialog procedures mentioned above, it must face up to its bad public image. Indeed, there are still concerns over the chronic risks in terms of public health or odor nuisance, for example. In order to improve the societal acceptability of its sites, projects or subsidiaries, the Group developed a management tool called SRM+ 7 (Stakeholder Relationship Management) in 2005. Indeed, up until then, there had been no global approach to the relationships between a site/subsidiary and its stakeholders. Societal actions were handled in a reactive, or even intuitive, way, and more often than not by the Site Director. Since 2005, this tool has been deployed to more than 95 sites in 36 countries. The global aim of the SRM+ methodology is to compare the view of the site's teams with the perception of external stakeholders in order to define plans of action. The main objectives are to bring the societal approach of a particular site or subsidiary into line with stakeholders' expectations, and to initiate dynamics of all top management around the societal stakes. SRM+ uses the metaphor of the funnel to show how convergence and optimality between the internal and external views of the stakes and societal priorities are sought. We will present this tool in the following section.

A PROCESS CONSISTING IN CONSULTING STAKEHOLDERS

A panel of sixty 8 stakeholders was created, divided into 4 categories: "business 9 ", "authorities 10 ", "civil society 11 ", "internal 12 ". A person from outside conducted hotline, telephone warning system, variable message signs, the local government's website, etc.) 6 The DREAL (French Regional Agency for the Environment, Development and Housing) has superseded the DIREN (French Regional Environmental Agency), the DRE (French Regional Development Agency) and the DRIRE (French Regional Agency for Industry, Research and Environment) since the decree published on 28 February 2009: the sole regional pilot of sustainable development policies. 7 In reference to Customer Relationship Management. 8 Out of 220 identified local stakeholders 9 Clients and product users, suppliers, service providers, industrial neighbors, financial & industrial partners, professional organizations, competitors, other group entities, union organizations, external R&D 10 Elected officials, administrations in charge of the environment, social/health administrations, local safety (e.g. fire brigade), other (customary and moral), educational system, hospitals and doctors 11 Owners of land or other assets, users of land, rivers, etc., residents / local communities, associations and NGOs, opinion leaders, the media, general public interviews lasting an average of 2 hours. The societal baseline is made up of fourteen criteria, formed around 3 themes: governance 13 (2 criteria), HSE 14 (7 criteria) and society 15 (5 criteria). For each of these criteria, the stakeholder being interviewed was asked open and/or closed questions enabling the importance of the subject for him/her, his/her satisfaction and expectations to be assessed. He/she then had to give a mark between 1 and 4 depending on the importance of the subject (1 corresponds to very low importance, 4 to a very important stake) and the level of satisfaction in terms of his/her expectations (1 corresponds to a high level of satisfaction, 4 to an extremely low level of satisfaction). The wheel diagram below is used to show the levels of satisfactiondissatisfaction expressed by all local stakeholders consulted at aggregate level.

Figure 2: SRM+ diagram

Source: Total Refinery in-house document So, once the interviews had been summarized, it appeared that the health criterion was very important for all the local stakeholders consulted (solid line) and that Total's solutions to this remain very unsatisfactory (broken line), hence the point of intersection (in the form of a circle) which alerts them to the priority actions. On the other hand, safety is also considered as very important but as 12 Corporate employees, Medical Center, Unions 13 Information, relations and dialog 14 Health, safety, greenhouse gases, preservation of natural resources, biodiversity, waste and recycling, local pollution 15 Nuisance, local economic development, education and training, citizenship, responsibility and product innovation Total's solutions to this are deemed rather satisfactory, no particular attention has been paid to this criterion.

The local stakeholder interviewed was able to express the actions he/she would like implemented with respect to the expectations that he/she had noted. At the end of the consultation, the steering committee in charge of the project collated the criteria of the societal baseline in the form of themes. As the site had promised the local stakeholders that it would not disclose the gathered information, table 1 only illustrates some of the expressed expectations. Total then separated the expectations into 2 groups -one for the expectations to be addressed by the site and the other for those concerning the entire industrial area in Le Havre. Table 1 reports the stakeholders' expectations identified during the consultation; it gives the six themes chosen by Total and some examples of mentioned expectations.

Table 1

: Favored themes amongst the expectations of the stakeholders of the refinery in Normandy

Levels of action Themes Examples of local stakeholders' expectations

Expectations concerning the industrial area

Health (of local population)

Better knowledge of the impacts of the industrial area on health, based on impact studies Voluntary initiatives taken by industrialists with respect to local health

Image and attractiveness of the industrial area

Visual impact of the industrial area of Le Havre Quality of air / odors

Support to local economic fabric and local employment

Industrialists requested to combine their efforts to give information about their contribution to local development in a more positive way

Expectations concerning Total

Communication, information and dialog

More information validated by third parties on the impacts on health, safety and nuisances More meetings with residents

Hygiene, safety, environment

Authorities think that there is too much subcontracting More recognition of subcontractors Support of local initiatives Opening up to local offers Amongst the local stakeholders' expectations in terms of communication by Total, requests for more information validated by third parties were made in terms of the impact on health, safety and nuisance, and more meetings with residents. Total initiated a local SDR in 2008, followed by another one in 2009, in order to better inform stakeholders of the refinery's activities. We will analyze the process which led to the production of this local SDR.

THE LOCAL SDR: FROM EXPECTED JOINT DEVELOPMENT TO SIMPLE

PRODUCTION

The local SDRs published16 in 2008 and 2009 each have about forty pages. Their structure is the same as that adopted in the global SDR (an editorial by the director, a presentation of the Total Group, safety, health, environment, human resources and local development); the establishment of the site in Normandy is an addition. Just after the end of the consultation of stakeholders in January 2008, work on producing the first local SDR started, and was finalized during the month of June. At the same time, the steering committee continued its deliberation on the actions to be conducted for stakeholders' benefit. This is why the local SDR was produced by Total's in-house communication department only.

The refinery organized an official ceremony during which this first local SDR was delivered to the stakeholders. All the persons having participated in the consultation received an invitation for July 3 rd 2008 to exchange about the findings of the consultation and key stakes retained. Hardly anybody attended this meeting (around 12 of the 60 local stakeholders consulted and invited were present); we can therefore deduce that the stakeholders voted without thinking (Hirschman's exit). Total had really initiated a process of creating a relationship with local stakeholders thro these consultations (60 persons representative of all local stakeholders consulted); however, this loyal behavior, as defined by Hirschman, was not enough to entail the continuation of exchanges with all the local stakeholders.

In 2009, the second local SDR was published in exactly the same form. The main local stakeholder mentioned in these local SDRs is the personnel (the term "employee" is used 46 times in 2008 in the local SDR of the refinery in Normandy). This confirms the fact that the local SDR is an internal communication tool.

It is right to say that the site's communication department had to face two stakes: improve communication with its local stakeholders and involve the site's employees in a societal approach. Indeed, as underlined by someone in charge of communication of another refinery, in an internal document: "Consultation is a reciprocal exercise which includes sharing knowledge and upgrading. This enables a common base to be created, which is essential if you wish to go farther, towards more tangible things". The dominant culture of a refinery such as the one in Normandy is technical. A participative approach like SRM+ was therefore not self-evident in an environment made up mainly of operators and engineers. It is also interesting to note that the term "employee" was not only used for Total personnel, but also for "employees from outside corporations". It is true to say that nearly half of the persons working for Total come from outside. Terms such as "business associates or employees from outside corporations" or "colleagues from outside corporations" translate the organizational reality of the supply chain. These persons obviously have no legal connection with Total; there is no reporting line in the legal sense, but this sense appears in Total's network operation. Within the supply chain, the question of the chain's (or network's) backbone can be transposed to CSR. The question of distributed control of the chains of players remains. By favoring the personnel, Total neglected the other local stakeholders. The content of these two local SDRs were not assessed afterwards, either by the employees or the local stakeholders. The process followed by the corporation is not part of a systems approach:

• The local SDR was created by the corporation, on the basis of the consultation of the local stakeholders without involving them in its formulation.

• The low attendance at the meeting to exchange with the local stakeholders shows that the process is incomplete. • There was no feedback in the sense that the published documents were not assessed. The communication department's desire to start thinking about the local SDR shows the beginnings of a learning process (Fillol, 2007). The emergence of the learning organization appears to be an undetermined, non linear process, created by the players, facilitated by management tools. The refinery initiated the consultation of local stakeholders which was at the origin of the creation of tools, especially the local SDR. It is now a question of continuing this process by associating the local stakeholders with it. Deliberation about the form of such collaboration is under way; one of the chosen ideas is organizational feedback. It must now be made really operational and shared.

We can sense disappointment as regards how the process was managed. The initiator seems to be the only body to have started the learning process. The solitude of the refinery at this stage may be explained by the fact that the process was taken in hand in a very directive way and that the chosen actions (called axes of improvement) were not discussed. We can understand Total's independence in this type of decision making but it might be interesting for Total to try and measure the local stakeholders' perception of the impact of the actions undertaken. Furthermore, this learning process assumes that all the local stakeholders are players. Those associations for the defense of rights which were consulted must be involved not only at the dialog stage but also in the decision making if they are really to be part of the learning process. This involvement is a more sensitive question, and requires thorough learning of the global analysis.

Conclusion

The aim of this article was to report on corporation practice in terms of CSR in a territorial logic. Despite the fact that a lot of research now attempts to analyze the societal information disclosed by corporations about their institutional sites, hardly any is interested in local stakeholder management. The case study of Total in Upper Normandy enabled us to show that the exercise of CSR follows a learning process but is not part of a systems approach. The communications department has planned to involve local stakeholders in the formulation of the next local SDR. It will then be possible to check whether the organizational feedback requested is actually included. The subject of this research project, the local SDR, was one of the expectations expressed by the local stakeholders in terms of communication. It would be interesting to be able to analyze the initiated process for other expectations which have given rise to concrete action by the corporation. The concept of CSR still remains difficult to model (Mullenbach-Servayre, 2007), but the stakeholder theory makes it more operational as it becomes possible for the corporation to put "faces and names" (Carroll, 1991) to the societal requirements to be met. The territorial governance initiatives are thus less based on counter trading and the formulation of substantial standards and more based on the coordination of multiple group interventions oriented towards the definition and creation of a "shared territorial asset" (Dupuis, 2008). Being able to "map" one's stakeholders is not necessarily a sign of having the abilityor the desire -to meet all their expectations. This must not make us lose sight of the fact that the stakeholder theory remains a management tool with the ultimate aim of making a corporation legitimate.

The law no.

2001-420 dated 15 May 2001 on new economic regulations was published in the Official Bulletin dated 16 May 2001; the implementation decree no. 2002-803 dated 3 May 2002.

Stakeholders are defined as any person, groups of persons or organizations: -on which the activity of the entity (site, subsidiary) has a potential, direct or indirect, positive or negative impact -which have a potential, direct or indirect, positive or negative impact on the activity of the entity (site, subsidiary). This definition is close to that given byFreeman & Reed, 1983.

Observatoire de la Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises (French Corporate Social Responsibility Observatory)

Such as the CLIC (Local Information and Consultation Committees) set up on all the sites classified as Seveso in France, whose activity is centered on technological safety.

The Eco-Maires association groups together 800 French towns concerned by the setting up of industrial sites. For Total, Upper Normandy, it is a question of identifying the information procedures and the threshold beyond which information must be given (scale of severity and emergency). A list of the inhabitants' concerns has been drawn up and several kinds of tools have been tested to appreciate their effectiveness and accuracy (24/7

Only in hard copy, the refinery's website is under construction and should make the local SDR tool available.


Nathalie Aubourg
email: nathalie.aubourg@univ-lehavre.fr

Corinne Renault-Tesson

Learning how to implement a French firm's CSR policy in an emerging country

Keywords: learning, stakeholders, mining company, CSR policy, embeddedness

The implementation by a foreign multinational of its social responsibility policy in an emerging country raises the question of the boundaries of the firm. In emerging countries, when a company is the only economic player in a particular area, the links between local and corporate governance are all the more important as government action is weak. This study examines the process used by a French company to learn how to implement its social responsibility policy in an emerging country, Indonesia. By taking into account the management of externalities, firms become part of the environment and their embeddedness leads them to be in contact with both contractual and non contractual stakeholders. This social and economic overlapping places firms in a relational model which will determine their behavior towards CSR. Firms willing to take on their responsibility whilst taking into account the various stakeholders must accept that their strategic choices may be questioned even though they remain first tier players. This proactive behavior is part of a systems logic in which learning takes place using feedback. Thro their desire to provide an answer to the integration of the various levels of responsibility, firms take part in an organizational learning process, in which interactions between individuals are multiplied and coordinated. The beginnings of coordination tend to show that the way is still open to reach the learning objectives. This research is based mainly on qualitative data. Several semi-structured interviews were held between June 2010 and January 2011, with managers in charge of the mining project and with external stakeholders. The results of the study show that the implementation by a multinational of its social responsibility policy in an emerging country follows a learning process. To increase its social acceptability, the company develops internal structures, such as a communication department and a foundation dedicated to the local communities, and uses the services of external structures, such as the World Bank's MIGA and French academic, port and health institutions.

Introduction

The implementation by a foreign multinational of its social responsibility policy in an emerging country raises the question of the boundaries of the firm. Indeed, in emerging countries, when a company is the only economic player in a particular area, the links between local and corporate governance [START_REF] Grochain | La Responsabilité Sociale d'Entreprise, entre gouvernance d'entreprise et gouvernance locale[END_REF][START_REF] Rey | L'entreprise n'est pas l'Etat[END_REF] are all the more important as government action is weak and even sometimes nonexistent. More and more enterprises are dedicating significant resources to the presentation of their commitments, the declaration of certain ethics and the demonstration of socially responsible behavior. Several researchers have focused on analyzing large enterprises' Sustainable Development Reports (SDR). Some of the most recent research includes the analysis of the content of American firms' annual reports about environmental communication [START_REF] Durand | Communication environnementale et réputation de l'organisation[END_REF], research into societal information communicated on the websites of French logistic service providers [START_REF] Senkel | La représentation de la RSE sur les sites Internet des prestataires de services logistiques français[END_REF] and speeches describing good company CSR practice [START_REF] Gond | La responsabilité sociale de l'entreprise[END_REF][START_REF] Béji-Bécheur | Les stratégies de positionnement responsable :le cas des tours opérateurs[END_REF]. Nevertheless, there is not a lot of empirical work on the process used by a firm to implement its CSR policy in an emerging country. A promising way to report on this process is to use learning, especially as the firm has to learn to "govern" its stakeholders in order to be granted the right to operate. Implementing a CSR policy may be considered as a result of organizational learning, of which the ways of acquiring knowledge remain to be explored. We are firstly going to talk about stakeholder management as a result of organizational learning. We will then oppose the steps taken by a French firm in an emerging country with this theoretical construct, by concentrating on the factors influencing the implementation of a CSR policy.

Learning how to implement a French firm's CSR policy in an emerging country

The notion of a stakeholder came about with new ethical demands from civil society, which requests that firms report on the social and environmental consequences of their activity. Firms originally focused on first-tier stakeholders, i.e. those without whom they can neither operate nor survive, but during the last years of the 20 th century, the notion of a stakeholder developed to describe a person or organization with a legitimate interest in a project or entity. We can see that the word "stakeholder" no longer refers simply to suppliers, employees or clients, but extends to members of the community, area residents, associations and local government, all of whom are sensitive to how the local economy is organized and to environmental protection. This is why all stakeholders are associated with the construction of a firm's integrity. We will firstly present how the firm learned to take stakeholders into account, by selecting some of the ways set out by [START_REF] Huber | Organizational learning: the contributing processes and the literatures[END_REF], and then describe the context in which the research was carried out and the chosen methodology.

Stakeholders and learning

A firm is a coalition of stakeholders [START_REF] Acquier | La théorie des stakeholders permet-elle de rendre compte des pratiques d'entreprise en matière de RSE?[END_REF], with expectations [START_REF] Freeman | Strategic management: a stakeholder approach[END_REF] and diverging soft power [START_REF] Michell | Towards a theory of stakeholder identification: defining the principle of who and what really counts[END_REF], and is strongly dependent and interdependent on other players [START_REF] Cyert | Processus de décision dans l'entreprise[END_REF][START_REF] Crozier | L'acteur et le système[END_REF]. It is even possible to think of the firm as being embedded in a social network on which it may rely, and in which it plays an active role [START_REF] Piau | Développement durable: est-ce bien rationnel[END_REF]. By taking the various stakeholders into account, and the responsibility of corporate executives [START_REF] Carroll | Corporate Social Responsibility, Evolution of a definitional construct[END_REF] towards potential damage caused by the firm's activity, firms can articulate the transition between SD and CSR. [START_REF] Donaldson | The stakeholder theory of the modern firm: Concepts, evidence and implications[END_REF], [START_REF] Carroll | A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance[END_REF], [START_REF] Capron | Les dynamiques relationnelles entre les firmes et les parties prenantes[END_REF] find the contractual arrangements put forward by [START_REF] Friedman | The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits[END_REF] insufficient. By taking the management of externalities into account, firms become part of the environment and their embeddedness leads them to be in contact with both contractual and non contractual stakeholders. This social and economic overlapping [START_REF] Granovetter | The Strength of Weak Ties[END_REF][START_REF] Granovetter | Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness[END_REF] places firms in a relational model which will determine their behavior towards CSR. Firms willing to take on their responsibility whilst taking the various stakeholders into account must accept that their strategic choices may be questioned even though they remain first-tier players. This proactive behavior is part of a systems logic in which learning takes place using feedback. Thro their desire to provide an answer to the integration of the various levels of responsibility, firms take part in an organizational learning process, in which interactions between individuals are multiplied and coordinated [START_REF] Weick | Collective mind in organizations: heedful interrelating on flight decks[END_REF]. The beginnings of coordination tend to show that the way is still open to reach the learning objectives, according to [START_REF] Koenig | L'apprentissage organisationnel: repérage des lieux[END_REF]. Indeed, learning is a group phenomenon of acquisition and development of skills which change the way in which situations are managed, and the situations themselves. [START_REF] Koenig | L'apprentissage organisationnel: repérage des lieux[END_REF] states that the impact of learning increases with the number and diversity of produced interpretations, as this widens the range of possible forms of behavior. The numerous stakeholders, associated at different degrees, will become aware of the environmental stakes. They will make contact with one another and interact at different levels of responsibility. They will compare their respective skills, and acquire new ones. This is how the common desire of all the stakeholders will change the way in which situations of environmental degradation are managed, thanks to the acquisition of new skills. In its desire to compare the skills of the various players, an organization will learn how to implement its CSR policy. This learning process refers to Huber's work (1991), and centers itself on the following themes: ways of acquiring knowledge, sharing and processing the information obtained, integrating the acquired skills into the organizational memory. The fact that there is hardly any empirical research into the implementation processes by CSR policy organizations makes the question of the ways of acquiring knowledge particularly sensitive. Two of the ways put forward by [START_REF] Huber | Organizational learning: the contributing processes and the literatures[END_REF] seem to be relevant to the understanding of the factors influencing the implementation of a CSR policy: experiential learning and grafting.

•

Experiential learning results from an organization's ability to manage its accrued experience (by setting up ad hoc structures or self-assessment procedures) and its ability to remain open to experimentation. The organization will adapt to changes in its environment, and also develop its adaptability.

•

Grafting comes from interactions with other organizations or individuals outside the organization. The firm thus learns by finding itself confronted with its stakeholders, with whom it may exchange and share knowledge and know-how.

En mettant en place des structures de dialogue ad hoc avec ses parties prenantes, l'organisation apprend aussi en accumulant de l'expérience. De façon délibérée, elle va When an organization sets up ad hoc exchange structures with its stakeholders, it also learns by accruing experience. It will deliberately try and manage the acquisition of new knowledge. However, the intentionality of this approach may also find itself related to trial and error type situations, resulting from non intentional experiments. We are then faced with the contradictory demands of any organizational learning, between the logic of experience and the logic of experimentation. The organization is under the influence of, and adapts to its environment, as well as constructing it. This embeddedness in the environment requires a voluntary, permanent learning approach.

Research environment and methodology

We want to look at the process used by a French firm to learn how to implement its CSR policy in an emerging country, Indonesia. We would particularly like to understand how organizations acquire the knowledge needed to manage their relations with stakeholders, in this specific context. Using the typology of knowledge acquisition processes according to [START_REF] Huber | Organizational learning: the contributing processes and the literatures[END_REF], are the ways of learning the result of grafting, accrued experience or experimentation? The mining company in question, Eramet SA, the 6 th largest nickel producer in the world, wants to diversify its sources of nickel supply, which have been centered in New Caledonia up to now. Eramet has 40 production sites in 20 different countries and employs 15,000 people worldwide. The French public sector has a significant share in the firm's capital, as the Areva group holds 26%. Eramet acquired the PT Weda Bay Nickel (WBN) project in Indonesia in May 2006, in order to double its nickel production in the long term (expected capacity of 60,000 T), and joined forces with Mitsubishi Firm and PT ANTAM (ANeka TAMbang, an Indonesian firm with 10% of WBN's capital). WBN wants to develop a nickel and cobalt mine, and a hydrometallurgical processing plant on the island of Halmahera located in North Maluku Province, northeast of Indonesia. North Maluku Province used to be a department of the Maluku province (Kabupaten), but obtained the status of province in 1999. Ternate officiated as temporary capital of the province for a long time; today's capital is Sofifi located on the island of Halmahera. There are 1.2 million inhabitants in the province, including 950,000 who live in Ternate and Tidore, and 250,000 on the island of Halmahera. According to the local development manager, "the island of Halmahera is the largest island of the province but also the least developed one. Some parts of the island have no electricity or running water, and there is sometimes only one doctor for ten villages". The project managers estimate that "18 villages may be potentially affected by the extraction activities, that is less than 20,000 inhabitants". The WBN project is still in its financial feasibility phase. WBN is continuing its exploration activities, is optimizing the process thanks to pilot experiments outside Indonesia, completing the social, environmental and health components of the impact studies, and initiating the first phase of core infrastructure implementation. The WBN project currently employs 850 people (both direct jobs and sub-contracting), including 650 from the island of Halmahera and neighboring islands. The financial feasibility is being assessed, and the final decision to continue with the WBN project should be made in 2012. Our methodology is based on the following:

Semi-structured interviews held between September 2010 and February 2011.

The various verbatim reports produced after these interviews are in italics and between inverted commas in the text. These interviews took place at Le Havre University, in the presence of the PT WBN project director, the head of communication and local development, and the head of human resources and external relations. These people had been identified as being decision-makers when it comes to the implementation of the CSR policy on the island of Halmahera. One of the secondary stakeholders' representatives, the University president, was also interviewed. These interviews lasted three hours each, and their topical content was analyzed.

In-house documents belonging to Eramet, presented by a member of WBN during a conference organized at the Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia in October 2010, which we were allowed to use, and Internet sources. Non-participant observations during a trip to North Maluku Province, which we were able to set up at the end of October 2010. Further to a request made by ERAMET, based in Upper Normandy, to Le Havre University, we were able to discuss cooperation in both training and research. As far as research is concerned, the social science laboratories were approached, as were the ecotoxicology and industrial maintenance laboratories. Eramet issued an invitation to sign the master agreement between North Maluku Province Universities and Le Havre University, in North Maluku Province. We were able to take part in the exchanges, and thus report on field practices.

Our exploration refers to an essentially abductive approach. We start with facts which we would like to relate to theoretical knowledge, in order to understand them. We have used Koenig's definition of abduction (1987): "Abduction is an operation which does not belong to logic, and therefore allows us to escape from our chaotic perception of the real world, by trying to speculate on the effective relationships between things […]. Abduction consists of inferring from observation speculations which we then have to test and discuss". Abduction enables us to make assumptions which are merely probable and speculative; it consists of suggesting a rule created from case knowledge and its consequences. We made use of the theories of learning and stakeholders, for this approach geared towards understanding.

Some of these points are worth emphasizing, if we are to better understand the stakes of the implementation of a corporate social responsibility policy. First of all, the field of activity in question, the mining industry, has had to face violent reactions from local populations due to behavior described as "irresponsible 1 " for the environment (this is still the case for Freeport, an American firm, which develops a gold mine in Grasberg, Papua). Mining companies would therefore do well to prevent these social risks, or quite simply ensure their social acceptability, for the "sustainable" management of their activities. The PT WBN project director and president says that "this risk management is a real investment". It must be specified that the WBN project is currently under validation by the shareholders "who pay great attention to the environmental and social consequences of such a project". It is therefore a matter of creating exchanges with local populations who have no idea of the disruption which will be caused to their environment by the development of such a site, in an unspoiled area a far cry from the issues raised by the development of an industrial base. To finish, Indonesia is a country in which the first democratic elections took place in 1999, whose institutions are strongly decentralized and must learn to become organized and dialog with central and local authorities.

We would like to observe and understand the implementation of ERAMET's CSR policy as part of a far-reaching project, not only for ERAMET but also for North Maluku Province and the Indonesian state. The various structures set up by WBN aim to increase its social acceptability in Halmahera, in Indonesia and also beyond the national boundaries. We will examine the learning process which both ERAMET and WBN are going thro, as part of their desire to "develop a socially and environmentally sustainable project" (taken from the website, Eramet.fr). In contrast with social reporting, which must report on past actions, we are looking at probable consequences and a few current actions. We nevertheless think that this phase of the project is a key element of the decisions made by the shareholders. The stakeholders currently identified and contacted by the firm are the Indonesian state and its local government 2 , the inhabitants of Halmahera, the shareholders, the media, the NGOs and associations of all sizes, as well as national 3 or supranational 4 institutions.

2. Learning to govern the stakeholders PT WBN's CSR policy implementation process was focused on the setting up of specific management tools and a participative approach with the World Bank, local populations and a French university.

Management tools set up by Weda Bay Nickel

Since 2007, an Indonesian law 5 has required that mining companies take their social and environmental responsibilities. As some of the permits for the project have not been granted, an "External Relations" department must lobby the central authorities in Jakarta. This department works for the site on the island of Halmahera, Ternate and Jakarta. The Saloi Foundation and the "External relations" department are related, by the communication department which they share. The creation of a new department meant to record the claims from local populations, and to inform the different structures of the firm of them, is currently under study. The firm has therefore shown that it is pro-active, by setting up these different structures to prevent the social risks of such a far-reaching project. It has become equipped with specific management tools, as it wishes to deliberately develop skills which will enable it to adapt to a specific environment. It is thus going to accrue experience by learning to dialog with local populations. These exchanges are seen as an obligatory step, even by shareholders who have recently become more aware of the social risk. As the Weda Bay Nickel project director says, "CSR is not seen to be a legal obligation, it is considered to be an investment to guarantee the continuity of our operations". While the project depends on agreement from the shareholders, we could also be led to believe that the latter have become very sensitive to the social risk. Consulting and listening to stakeholders could become an asset with which to convince shareholders to get involved in the performance of this project. Should we see this, as explained by [START_REF] Coutrot | Jalons vers un monde possible. Redonner des racines à la démocratie[END_REF], as the expression of an "active democracy" which would consist of replacing shareholders' monopoly power by the "government of stakeholders"?

Different processes used to mobilize stakeholders 2.2.1. Experienced stakeholders

The company simultaneously wanted to reassure the project shareholders, by obtaining the right to operate from an international organization with the reputation of not being easily inclined to provide guarantee for mining investments. An important step in the performance of the project was made in March 2010, when the MIGA (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency) came. MIGA is a credit rating agency which depends on the World Bank; it aims to measure the political risk and social acceptability of direct foreign investments in emerging countries. This agency ensures that foreign investments contribute to the economic growth of emerging countries, and also reduce poverty by improving the quality of life of the affected populations. MIGA uses qualitative criteria for assessment. MIGA auditors went to the future mining site and interviewed the local populations. During the interviews with the local development manager, the latter told of his surprise at the methods used by the credit rating agency: the MIGA teams questioned the inhabitants of the concerned territory at random, using both photographic and audiovisual equipment. The consultation of the local populations was more like a street poll than a rigorous approach adapted to the local environment. Finally, further to this audit, MIGA gave its agreement in July 2010 by issuing a public report 7 . It must be noted that generally speaking, MIGA provides very little guarantees for mining projects. This step was important for the PT WBN project, not for financial reasons (the amount of the loan requested from the World Bank is nothing compared to the overall project) but because it represented an extra asset with which to obtain the shareholders' support 8 . Indeed, the survey report issued by MIGA is considered as a key asset in communication with the NGOs. Despite the fact that, in its report, Eramet declares that it met both local and national NGOs, in reality, it has actually worked with two NGOs, one of which is greatly contested by civil societythe private foundation, Sampoerna, which develops training programs in Indonesia. This foundation depends on the group of the same name, which is one of the leading Indonesian cigarette manufacturers bought out by Philip Morris in 2005. Despite the fact that the NGOs acknowledge the existence of a consultation about the project, some of them refused to participate because, as underlined by an NGO director, "during this type of consultation, some members of the communities feel pressurized into going with the flow of the project, because the firms work hand in hand with the local authorities to decide on land issues, for example". 9 Some NGOs are also reticent due to previous catastrophic experiences as far as the environment is concerned. The development of two gold mines by an Australian firm on the island of Halmahera at the beginning of the decade stirred up the anger of the local communities. Given these elements, a coalition of NGOs 10 sent several letters to MIGA to inform it of the risks, to no avail.

Stakeholders initiated despite themselves

Since November 2009, the local development manager has created exchanges with the local populations. During one of the interviews, he declared that "we need local authorities, as they are the ones to audit and control us". Since the law on independence of the Indonesian regions, the national authorities only grant the right to operate if permission is given by the local authority (even if the project had started before this law was enacted). The executive power of North Maluku Province 11 is made up of a governer elected by direct suffrage since 2005 and seven heads 12 of district (Kabupaten) also elected. Democracy is new in Indonesia and is still in its adjustment phase. The representatives of the local populations are the village headmen. It took one year of public meetings and discussions to get the ten headmen of the villages concerned by the future site to support the project. This phase was essential because, as underlined by the local development manager, "they are in a position to be able to lobby the Bupati 13 ". In November 2010, meetings were held with the village headmen about 7 http://www.miga.org/documents/WedaBay_ESRS.pdf 8 Extract from the ERAMET report: "In 2010, WBN also asked for and obtained (July 2010) coverage for the project from the World Bank Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), against the political risks during the exploration and feasibility phases. On this occasion, an intermediate file describing the environmental and social impacts of these two project phases was issued, examined and audited in depth. This was an opportunity to meet both local and national NGOs, and to make the file public on the Internet for 60 days so that all the stakeholders were able to make comments." 9 at the site in Novethic on 26/10/2010 10 Walhi, Earthworks (American association specialized in the impact of mining operations), Bank Information Center (helps NGOs to influence financial institutions).

11 North Maluku became a province in 1999, before then it had only been a district (comparable to a département in France).

12 Called Bupati 13 The Bupati will (not) give permission to develop the site! the work processes to be implemented in order to start a participative approach. The village headmen undertook to invite all the social categories of the villages to the public meetings, during which three key actions were to be proposed. These priority actions were then compared with the local authority's projects. The village headman is an important person according to the local development manager, as "everything goes thro him, even if he does not always have the vision for his own village", as far as the gigantic Weda Bay Nickel project is concerned.

In fact, the people having initiated dialog with the local populations were expecting requests relating to education, health or the development of the local economy. The local development manager therefore made proposals to this end, to revitalize the fishing industry. In 2010, the results of this participative approach were considered as disappointing14 by the firm's executives. By way of an example of the actions identified by the populations, there were a lot of requests to put up barriers around the mosque.

The actions are judged disappointing with regard to the means unleashed, but what is the local populations' perception of this? Furthermore, the heads of the communication department provided a methodology, but was it adapted to the way in which decisions are made in Indonesia? Even if the results of the consultation seem derisory at the moment, they are tainted by a linear conception of time; what is more, the time allocated may seem short. As regards this notion of time, did the populations feel confident enough to be able to express themselves in a time scale which they might have found insufficient? We must also remain aware of the fact that, as reminded by the governor of North Maluku Province, "the development strategy for all the districts is based on efforts made to unify 800 islands and their 34 different languages".

"Surety" stakeholders

In 2010, Le Havre University was a member of the scientific and technological park for the city of Le Havre. This park aims to facilitate the setting up of innovative enterprises in the field of sustainable development. The Communauté d'Agglomération, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Grand Port Maritime all govern this park, which is chaired by the city mayor, and whose vice-president is the vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The latter has also been elected head of sustainable development for the city of Le Havre. On a professional level, the vicepresident is the director of the Eramet facility located in the industrial area. On the occasion of the Weda Bay Nickel project manager's visit to Le Havre, the director of the Eramet facility in Le Havre persuaded him of the interest of creating cooperation between the institutions in Le Havre and Weda Bay Nickel. Two institutions, which are members of the scientific and technological park, were called upon: the GPMH and the Le Havre University. The Weda Bay Nickel project manager, concerned with obtaining support of the shareholders in order to move on to the project validation phase, must therefore make sure that the project is socially acceptable. A partnership with a public institution of higher education has the merit of making the socially responsible aspect of the project credible in the eyes of the project's stakeholders. Indeed, Le Havre University has particular assets in the fields of training and research. Thanks to its international dimension, the university welcomes lots of foreign students and has skilled teachers of both French as a foreign language and Malay-Indonesian. It would therefore be possible, in the long term, to train Indonesians recruited to develop the site in North Maluku Province, in Le Havre, in the linguistics field; this could also be a way of training them in French management processes. As underlined by the project director, "these employees must learn how to work in a European way with European products". An agreement between Le Havre University and an Indonesian university was set up by a research professor in Malay-Indonesian. This was an unavoidable step towards obtaining support from the local populations. This project is of interest to research, as it presents opportunities for some laboratories to research into chemistry, ecotoxicology and renewable energies. By way of example, biological indicators of discharge are to be set up. This cooperation with a private enterprise is also an opportunity to obtain funding as part of a project to create a corporate foundation at university. The president of Le Havre University sees this decision to accompany a mining project as part of the university's social responsibility. According to him, it is not a question of "acting as an alibi, it is a question of positioning ourselves as specialists, particularly in the environmental field, in order to ensure that the country's resources are used as they should be".

Discussion

As part of the examination of the ways of learning how to implement a CSR policy, we have shown how different learning processes are interrelated.

Adapting a CSR policy to a particular territory can be clearly likened to an exercise of stakeholder governance. In order to reach this goal, the firm accrued experience thro ad hoc control structures. By mobilizing different kinds of stakeholder, it was able to benefit from the experience of other institutions (like MIGA, or French or Indonesian institutions of higher education). This is what Huber (1991) called grafting. The results which were deemed disappointing by the local development manager during the participative approach are part of a trial-and-error experiment, which can be added to the skills acquired thanks to the control structures. At this stage of the project, it is still too early to know how the firm will make use of the knowledge acquired thro CSR policy learning. A co-construction phenomenon is under way but visibility is limited.

The various actions undertaken are nevertheless constituent of project progress. The list of these stakeholders shows us their organizational and geographical differences with relation to the WBN project. They are called upon, associated and recognized as partners by WBN. WBN sets up means to maintain relations with the different stakeholders so that the latter can be listened to and express themselves. This learning process is made up of trials and errors on a particular territory, with experiments which should enable a decrease in the resistance to change and the invention of new forms of communication between the players. Due to the constant concern to increase the project's social acceptability, a certain number of structures have been developed, like the communication department and the Saloi foundation at an internal level, and requests made to external structures such as the World Bank's MIGA and the expertise of academic, port and health institutions in France. These stakeholders also maintain relations between one another. The fact that they belong to different networks makes things more difficult for WBN, as it does not have just one contact. Having said that, the fact that there are several players with different knowledge states makes the CSR learning process stand out. The level of information in a village on the island of Halmahera is used in the same way as MIGA, an entity affiliated to the World Bank participating in the UNO. The fact that some NGOs refuse to dialog also shows that the firm still has a way to go before it is credible. Its governance of the stakeholders is still perceived by the latter as purely instrumental, managerial logic only. The process of listening to the stakeholders is long and complex, and hardly compatible with conventional managerial requirements. The failure of the participative approach bears witness to the firm's will to impose its own vision, which is more of a top-down approach than a bottom-up one. In view of the diversity of the stakeholders and the various levels of expertise, empowerment is vital [START_REF] Schmitt | Dealing with Wicked Issues: Open Strategizing and the Camisea Case[END_REF]. Mining industry projects are not only technically complex, but also require knowledge in the fields of sustainable development, law and economics if there is to be participation in a consultation. This infers the ability to identify those stakeholders likely to understand all these stakes. If the implementation of a CSR policy in an emerging country is to be successful, it must make way for a less structured governance of the stakeholders, because, as underlined by [START_REF] Callon | Some elements of a sociology of translation-Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay[END_REF], "everything is uncertain and reversible, order and stability are more of an exception than a rule".

Conclusion

We may be surprised that so many different stakeholders are associated; the territorial approach nevertheless enables us to understand that geographical, sociological and institutional proximity are brought together. Geographical proximity is highlighted, both in Indonesia and in France. WBN is in direct contact with the governor, the Bupati and the village headmen. Eramet calls upon the institutions located near its industrial facility in Sandouville, Upper Normandy. The GPMH (Grand Port Maritime du Havre) is called upon for its expertise in port infrastructures, the ARS (Agence Régionale de Santé) in Rouen and Le Havre University have been selected as experts and are part of the project progress. Sociological proximity is maintained thro the will to employ inhabitants from the Maluku provinces and other Indonesians. Once the project will be operational, between 2,000 and 2,300 people will work on site, 50% of the personnel will probably come from North Maluku Province. It is a matter of creating a large pool of human resources for WBN, as the turnover rate is predicted to remain high. An Indonesian changes employer on average once a year, which means that creating loyalty among the Indonesian workers is an important stake. Institutional proximity is based on the wish to have permanent contact with provincial and local institutions, as they are the only ones able to grant the license to develop the mine.

Figure 1

 1 Figure 1 The ways of acquiring knowledge when learning how to implement a CSR policy

Figure 2

 2 Figure 2 The ways in which knowledge is acquired when learning how to implement a CSR policy for the Weda Bay Nickel project

  As the PT Weda Bay Nickel project is not yet in operation, it is not obliged to abide by this law. The company has nevertheless set up specific structures foreshadowing the official implementation of a CSR policy; these structures employ around thirty people. The first entity closest to local populations is the Community Development (Com'dev). Since 2008, the purpose of this department has been to create a development program for the stakeholders and corporate employees, as regards health, the environment, the development of the local economy and education. The Community Development's annual budget is one million US dollars. Since January 2010, the Saloi 6 Foundation has been acting as an operational support to the Community Development program. These two entities are strongly related and managed by the PT WBN project director. According to the local development manager, "the foundation enables partnerships with NGOs or public or private bodies, which would otherwise not like to work directly with a private firm". This is how, in May 2010, the foundation created the cooperation between North Maluku Province and the region of Upper Normandy. Agreements were signed in the fields of education, health, port infrastructures and national and regional planning.

		-Supply of teaching materials to schools in 15 villages
		-Construction of a dormitory for 32 students
		-Funding of 55 scholarships
	Health	-Free appointments with doctors and supply of medecines
		-Payment of salaries for two doctors and two nurses
		-Renovation of healthcare facilities
		-Plans for the prevention of malaria
	Development of	-Launch of 10 experimental programs in agriculture,
	local economy	fishing and animal farming
		-Program to train people in the creation of enterprises
		-Access to microcredit
	Environment	-Reforestation program
		-Installation of 750 solar panels
		-Funding of a program to research into the protection of
		the coral barrier reef
	The table below shows some of the Saloi foundation's actions:
	Education	-Program to train 56 teachers

2

The governor of the province, the Bupati, the local authorities 3 Such as universities 4 Such as the World Bank 5 Law on Minerals and Coal Mining 6 Saloi is the name of the basket traditionally used by populations in Eastern Indonesia to transport goods. It is also a symbol of work.

at the site in Novethic on 14/06/2006

According to our system of assessing and prioritizing development