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A Farewell to Arms… Manufacturing: Learning From a Landmine Producer Who Became a Deminer

Marco Guerci & Luca Carollo

Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility2026https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.70076article
AJG 2
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Certain industries—labeled “dirty,” “sinful,” “stigmatized,” or “controversial”—are under public scrutiny because of the ethical, social, and environmental concerns that they raise. Previous research has typically focused on the industry or organizational level of analysis, examining how companies in controversial industries can enhance their legitimacy by reforming the way they operate, for example by means of specific CSR and communication strategies. This article challenges that approach by adopting an individual‐level lens and presenting a life‐story interview with the former owner of a company involved in the arms industry, specifically the production of anti‐personnel landmines, who refused to reform his business to make it appear less controversial. After a difficult period, he decided to close the family business. He then redirected his technical expertise by joining the social movements supporting the global campaign against landmines and by working as a deminer, thus trying to act as an individual change agent and to repair the damage to which he had contributed. This heterodox individual‐level analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that controversial industries should seek only incremental improvements, and it sparks provocative reflections on the possibility of exiting them and contributing to their outright closure.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.70076

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{marco2026,
  title        = {{A Farewell to Arms… Manufacturing: Learning From a Landmine Producer Who Became a Deminer}},
  author       = {Marco Guerci & Luca Carollo},
  journal      = {Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.70076},
}

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A Farewell to Arms… Manufacturing: Learning From a Landmine Producer Who Became a Deminer

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.