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This paper aims to produce a framework for climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in the Yangambi landscape, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This would enable the authors to identify agricultural practices, assess vulnerability to climate change, identify options for improving agricultural systems from a climate change mitigation and adaptation perspective and finally provide climate-smart agricultural options.

The study used household survey methods of data collection. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire survey by interviewing 250 farm households, subdivided using three axes of the Yangambi landscape. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine relationships between two or more variables.

Results of the survey revealed that the vast majority (98%) of respondents perceived changes in temperature, rainfall and weather patterns. Reduction of crop yields and the emergence of new weed species and new crop pests are the main impacts on agricultural activities. Although 87.6% of respondents have no means of adaptation and resilience, some of them use crops rotation, fallow practice, fertilizers and bio-pesticides. A framework for CSA is proposed for the Yangambi landscape.

Policies and strategies to promote CSA in the study area should take into account local farmers' perceptions of climate change and consider first the adequacy of CSA practices for the specific conditions of the target area before its promotion. This study is thus useful for many REDD+ initiatives that are currently being promoted in DRC and particularly in the Tshopo Province.

This study is one of the first studies to focus on CSA in the Yangambi landscape, DRC. It assists the use of agriculture as a response to reducing deforestation while at the same time lowering agriculture’s carbon footprint and promoting a resilient and more productive farming system.

This paper aims to determine the essential “collective goods” which a foreign multinational enterprise (MNE) must have before production can start in a remote area of an emerging economy, and to consider the alternative governance modes available to procure or create these goods.

This purpose is examined conceptually and theoretically. First, the concept of “collective goods” is presented, followed by a consideration of the traditional “buy, ally or make” contractual approaches available to obtain goods and services. These approaches are repositioned in the context of an “emerging economy” so that alternative “ordering systems” as well as “non-contractual” means of obtaining things have to be considered in the context of internalization and reciprocity theories.

It is difficult to obtain collective goods in remote areas of emerging economies where private ordering prevails and even succeeds but at high transaction costs and with substantial government intervention. However, the use of non-contractual modes of exchange such as reciprocity is available to facilitate exchanges between market MNEs and nonmarket state offices and civil-society associations such as non-governmental organizations with which collaboration is necessary but which cannot be acquired or controlled by MNEs. However, market firms can use philanthropy and lobbying to obtain the help of these nonmarket actors who know how to operate under private and state-ordering systems.

Theoretical implications: Internalization theory explains why MNEs are able to obtain collective goods by providing them “in-house”, while reciprocity theory exemplifies how non-contractual modes of exchange can substitute for the traditional but contractual “buy, ally and/or make”.

Managerial implications: In terms of the organizational structure of the subsidiary of an MNE operating in an emerging economy, it appears that the line functions of procurement, engineering and production may rely more on contractual exchanges with foreign suppliers, while the staff functions of public affairs, government relations and human resources may be more adept at using reciprocal exchange with local suppliers.

The provisioning of the collective goods when a firm builds its facilities in a remote and underdeveloped part of an emerging economy has hardly received any research attention nor have the non-contractual ways – such as reciprocity – available in the context of private ordering to obtain these goods.

The French higher education system has experienced reforms since the 2000s that gradually emphasized the executive power of universities and the centralization of decision-making. This culminated with the excellence initiatives (Idex) that concentrated 7.7 billion euros on only nine institutions to create “world-class” universities and made their leaders responsible for the local allocation of this substantial endowment. The universities’ executives had four years to complete changes in governance in order to see their institution permanently awarded the title and the funding of Idex. The hiring process is one of the elements that this policy impacted the most within these universities, enabling leaders to create new kinds of positions and control the hiring process. However, by looking at the hiring practices within three different Idex, we will show that collegiality did not disappear but rather it evolved: in the three cases, the closest colleagues have been marginalized but decision-making remained collective and in the hands of academics chosen by the university executives. Variations in the intensity of this evolution could be observed according to two dimensions. First, the scientific reputation of the university: the higher it is, the less collegiality is transformed. Second, the level of external pressures: the less collegial universities have relaxed their hiring practices after the evaluation that permanently granted them the label of Idex.