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The informational role of nongovernmental organizations to induce self-regulation: Cheering the leaders or booing the laggards?

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  • Matthieu Glachant

    (CERNA i3 - Centre d'économie industrielle i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Gabrielle Moineville

    (CERNA i3 - Centre d'économie industrielle i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a key role in creating incentives for firms to develop a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy by disclosing publicly self-regulatory corporate efforts. Their informational behavior is heterogeneous: Some NGOs mostly disclose information on firms that do not behave responsibly (e.g., Greenpeace). Others are specialized in revealing firms that are socially or environmentally responsible (e.g., the Marine Stewardship Council). We develop a model describing the interactions between a NGO, a continuum of firms and a representative stakeholder to explain what drives the NGO communication choice and its impact on the level of self-regulation. We show that the NGO specializes in equilibrium: depending on the size of its budget, it either chooses to cheer the leaders or to boo the laggards. We extend the model to the case with multiple NGOs. We also introduce the possibility of NGO corporate partnerships and derive policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthieu Glachant & Gabrielle Moineville, 2012. "The informational role of nongovernmental organizations to induce self-regulation: Cheering the leaders or booing the laggards?," Working Papers hal-00716864, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00716864
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://minesparis-psl.hal.science/hal-00716864v2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Carmen Arguedas & Esther Blanco, 2014. "Incentives for Voluntary Practices, Fraud, and Certification," Working Papers 2014-18, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    2. Arguedas, Carmen & Blanco, Esther, 2014. "On Fraud and Certification of Corporate Social Responsibility," Working Papers in Economic Theory 2014/02, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).

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