Downstream management practices of transnational companies in institutionally vulnerable countries: Export and use of hazardous products Michael Søgaard Jørgensen a, * , Bruno Milanez b a Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark b Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil article info Article history: Received 27 July 2015 Received in revised form 3 August 2016 Accepted 13 October 2016 Available online 14 October 2016 Keywords: Institutional vulnerability Transnational company Hazardous products Path dependency Social constitution of company Innovation with users abstract Analyses of social and environmental management in transnational product chains focus often upstream on suppliers in socially and institutionally vulnerable countries and these suppliers' hazardous processes. Furthermore focus is on transnational companies' responsibility when they source from such suppliers. On the contrary, not much focus has been on transnational companies' downstream export of hazardous products to vulnerable countries and the product use in those countries. The article uses pesticides as case of hazardous products and identifies mechanisms in the downstream social and environmental management of a Danish pesticide company in vulnerable countries and especially in Brazil. The iden- tified mechanisms are: the transnational company's on-going interpretation of the regulatory and ethical obligations for development and use of its hazardous products in vulnerable countries, path dependency and path creation in the business strategy, geographical and organisational coverage of the management systems and practices, the willingness of the company to address social and institutional vulnerability in use countries, and the roles of users and other actors in development and facilitation of more sustainable practices. The mechanisms are discussed with reference to other analyses. In the conclusion the mechanisms are presented as themes in future research and civil society organisations' activities and as guidance in businesses' development and assessment of more sustainable management practices. The benefits of transnational research cooperation for this type of research are also discussed. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The recent 10e15 years there has been increasing focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) of transnational companies (TNCs) in institutionally vulnerable countries (IVCs), not least in relation to when TNCs source materials and products from com- panies, which apply hazardous processes like in the textile industry (Roberts, 2003; Robinson, 2010). Castleman (2015) discusses within this perspective what he calls “export of hazardous industries” when a TNC has production facilities in IVCs that are not allowed in the TNC's home country (for example production of asbestos). In this article, we define IVCs as newly industrialised countries and other peripheral countries. One aspect of TNC practices in IVCs concerns whether and how a TNC tries to benefit from weaker national regulation in IVCs or the TNC shows the same level of social and environmental responsibility in the IVCs as in its home country (Crane and Matten, 2010; Hansen and Kuada, 2006). In contradiction to the increased focus on sourcing in IVCs, there has not been much focus on TNCs' downstream export of hazardous products to IVCs and the product use in these countries. Also within this topic, different TNC practices can be expected. Weaker national regulation, trade unions, environmental organisations etc. in IVCs may imply lower demands to health and environmental in relation to for example chemical products than in Western countries, which a TNC might try to benefit from. However, a TNC might improve social and environmental protection in an IVC, for example if social conflicts in an IVC or in the TNC's home country force the company to improve its practices in IVCs (Siqueira and Levenstein, 2000). The objective of this article is to identify and discuss mecha- nisms in the shaping of the social and environmental practices of TNC export of hazardous products to IVCs and the use of the products in IVCs through a longitudinal case study of a specific * Corresponding author. E-mail address: msjo@plan.aau.dk (M.S. Jørgensen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.060 0959-6526/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 140 (2017) 1095e1104