IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/reggov/v9y2015i3p259-275.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fragmented or cohesive transnational private regulation of sustainability standards? A comparative study

Author

Listed:
  • Luc Fransen
  • Thomas Conzelmann

Abstract

Literature on private regulation recognizes the proliferation of competing regulatory organizations and approaches in various industries. Studies analyzing why fragmentation arises so far focus on single‐case studies, the exploration of single variables, or variation in types of fragmentation. This article analyzes why in certain industries and for certain issues regulatory organizations proliferate, while in others a single regulatory organization emerges which covers the entire industry. Through a comparative case study of private regulation of sustainability standards in the forestry, clothing, IT‐electronics, and chemicals industries, we show how a combination of low industrial concentration, civil society involvement in governance, and stringent standards of a first‐moving regulator offer the strongest explanation for a fragmented private regulatory field, while high industrial concentration, business‐driven governance, and lenient standards of a first‐moving regulator lead to cohesive regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Luc Fransen & Thomas Conzelmann, 2015. "Fragmented or cohesive transnational private regulation of sustainability standards? A comparative study," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(3), pages 259-275, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:9:y:2015:i:3:p:259-275
    DOI: 10.1111/rego.12055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12055
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rego.12055?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Büthe Tim, 2010. "Private Regulation in the Global Economy: Guest Editor's Note," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-2, October.
    2. Tad Mutersbaugh, 2005. "Fighting Standards with Standards: Harmonization, Rents, and Social Accountability in Certified Agrofood Networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(11), pages 2033-2051, November.
    3. Turcotte, Marie-France & Reinecke, Juliane & den Hond, Frank, 2014. "Explaining variation in the multiplicity of private social and environmental regulation: a multi-case integration across the coffee, forestry and textile sectors," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 151-189, April.
    4. Büthe Tim, 2010. "Private Regulation in the Global Economy: A (P)Review," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-40, October.
    5. Frank Biermann & Philipp Pattberg & Harro van Asselt & Fariborz Zelli, 2009. "The Fragmentation of Global Governance Architectures: A Framework for Analysis," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 9(4), pages 14-40, November.
    6. Luc Fransen & Brian Burgoon, 2012. "A market for worker rights: Explaining business support for international private labour regulation," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 236-266.
    7. Niklas Egels-Zandén & Evelina Wahlqvist, 2007. "Post-Partnership Strategies for Defining Corporate Responsibility: The Business Social Compliance Initiative," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 175-189, January.
    8. Cashore, Benjamin & van Kooten, G. Cornelis & Vertinsky, Ilan & Auld, Graeme & Affolderbach, Julia, 2005. "Private or self-regulation? A comparative study of forest certification choices in Canada, the United States and Germany," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 53-69, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin Cashore & Jette Steen Knudsen & Jeremy Moon & Hamish van der Ven, 2021. "Private authority and public policy interactions in global context: Governance spheres for problem solving," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1166-1182, October.
    2. Laura M. G. Hidalgo & Rosane N. de Faria & Roberta Souza Piao & Christine Wieck, 2023. "Multiplicity of sustainability standards and potential trade costs in the palm oil industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 263-284, January.
    3. Imbrogiano, Jean-Pierre & Steiner, Bodo & Mori Junior, Renzo & Sturman, Kathryn, 2023. "What enables metals ‘being’ ‘responsible’? An exploratory study on the enabling of organizational identity claims through a new sustainability standard," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Onna M. van den Broek & Robyn Klingler‐Vidra, 2022. "The UN Sustainable Development Goals as a North Star: How an intermediary network makes, takes, and retrofits the meaning of the Sustainable Development Goals," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 1306-1324, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Janina Grabs & Graeme Auld & Benjamin Cashore, 2021. "Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1183-1208, October.
    2. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    3. Thomas Hale & David Held & Kevin Young, 2013. "Gridlock: From Self-reinforcing Interdependence to Second-order Cooperation Problems," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 4(3), pages 223-235, September.
    4. Anne Mione, 2015. "The value of intangibles in a situation of innovation: questions raised by the case of standards," Post-Print hal-01988676, HAL.
    5. Shahidur Rahman & Kazi Mahmudur Rahman, 2020. "Multi‐actor Initiatives after Rana Plaza: Factory Managers’ Views," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1331-1359, September.
    6. Thomas Dietz & Janina Grabs & Andrea Estrella Chong, 2021. "Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 333-355, April.
    7. Anne van Aaken & Janis Antonovics & Anne Aaken, 2016. "Is International Law Conducive To Preventing Looming Disasters?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7, pages 81-96, May.
    8. Baudot, Lisa & Cooper, David J., 2022. "Regulatory mandates and responses to uncomfortable knowledge: The case of country-by-country reporting in the extractive sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Cary Coglianese & Shana M. Starobin, 2020. "Social Science and the Analysis of Environmental Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(5), pages 578-604, September.
    10. Kenneth W. Abbott & David Levi-faur & Duncan Snidal, 2017. "Theorizing Regulatory Intermediaries," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 670(1), pages 14-35, March.
    11. Afshin Mehrpouya & Rita Samiolo, 2019. "Numbers in regulatory intermediation: Exploring the role of performance measurement between legitimacy and compliance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 220-239, June.
    12. Mattia Ubaldo & Steven McGuire & Vikrant Shirodkar, 2022. "Voluntary programs and emissions revisited: What is the effect of EU trade agreements with environmental provisions?," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(4), pages 467-489, December.
    13. Paul Verbruggen, 2013. "Gorillas in the closet? Public and private actors in the enforcement of transnational private regulation," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(4), pages 512-532, December.
    14. Heidingsfelder, Jens, 2019. "Private sustainability governance in the making – A case study analysis of the fragmentation of sustainability governance for the gold sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Sheldon, Ian M., 2022. "“Enforcement of Private Food Standards: A Role for Self-Reporting of Non-Compliance?”," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322404, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Luc Fransen & Brian Burgoon & Luc Fransen & Brian Burgoon, 2017. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Public and Private Labor Standards Policy in the Global Economy," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8(s3), pages 5-14, May.
    17. Schleifer, Philip & Fiorini, Matteo & Fransen, Luc, 2019. "Missing the Bigger Picture: A Population-level Analysis of Transnational Private Governance Organizations Active in the Global South," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Jack Clark & Gillian K. Hadfield, 2019. "Regulatory Markets for AI Safety," Papers 2001.00078, arXiv.org.
    19. Luc Fransen, 2015. "The politics of meta-governance in transnational private sustainability governance," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 48(3), pages 293-317, September.
    20. Trey Herr, 2021. "Cyber insurance and private governance: The enforcement power of markets," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 98-114, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:9:y:2015:i:3:p:259-275. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1748-5991 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.