IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/manrev/v70y2020i3d10.1007_s11301-019-00170-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A governance puzzle to be solved? A systematic literature review of fragmented sustainability governance

Author

Listed:
  • Jens Heidingsfelder

    (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)

  • Markus Beckmann

    (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Abstract

To address global sustainability challenges, adequate governance solutions are needed. Yet, sustainability governance is typically fragmented. This fragmentation poses a key challenge for practitioners and researchers and receives growing scholarly attention in different academic disciplines. So far, however, these research streams are missing a comprehensive mapping of the scholarly work on fragmented sustainability governance. While this lack of knowledge consolidation inhibits further academic learning, it also fails to provide corporate actors with practical guidance about the interplay between firms and fragmented sustainability governance. To address these gaps, we apply a mixed-method approach consisting of a systematic literature review and a citation network analysis to derive the following contributions. First, we elaborate on the composition and development of the research field on fragmented sustainability governance, including a citation network analysis. Second, we introduce a conceptual framework of overarching types of fragmentation regarding the ends, means, context, and outcomes of sustainability governance. Third, we introduce three types of managing fragmentation: coordination, convergence and integration, and meta governance. Fourth, we derive implications for future research regarding the role of business in fragmented sustainability governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jens Heidingsfelder & Markus Beckmann, 2020. "A governance puzzle to be solved? A systematic literature review of fragmented sustainability governance," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 355-390, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:manrev:v:70:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11301-019-00170-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11301-019-00170-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11301-019-00170-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11301-019-00170-9?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williamson, Oliver E., 2010. "Transaction Cost Economics: The Natural Progression," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 215-226.
    2. de Man, Reinier & German, Laura, 2017. "Certifying the sustainability of biofuels: Promise and reality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 871-883.
    3. 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.
    4. Kenneth W. Abbott & Steven Bernstein, 2015. "The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development: Orchestration by Default and Design," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 6(3), pages 222-233, September.
    5. Anant K. Sundaram & Andrew C. Inkpen, 2004. "The Corporate Objective Revisited," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 350-363, June.
    6. Christoph Humrich, 2013. "Fragmented International Governance of Arctic Offshore Oil: Governance Challenges and Institutional Improvement," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 79-99, August.
    7. Cashore, Benjamin & Auld, Graeme & Newsom, Deanna, 2003. "The United States' Race to Certify Sustainable Forestry: Non-State Environmental Governance and the Competition for Policy-Making Authority," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 219-259, November.
    8. Michael J. Bloomfield & Philip Schleifer, 2017. "Tracing Failure of Coral Reef Protection in Nonstate Market-Driven Governance," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 17(4), pages 127-146, November.
    9. Marin-Burgos, Victoria & Clancy, Joy S. & Lovett, Jon C., 2015. "Contesting legitimacy of voluntary sustainability certification schemes: Valuation languages and power asymmetries in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Colombia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 303-313.
    10. Oscar Widerberg & Philipp Pattberg, 2015. "International Cooperative Initiatives in Global Climate Governance: Raising the Ambition Level or Delegitimizing the UNFCCC?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 6(1), pages 45-56, February.
    11. Seongtae Kim & Claudia Colicchia & David Menachof, 2018. "Ethical Sourcing: An Analysis of the Literature and Implications for Future Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(4), pages 1033-1052, November.
    12. Lars Gulbrandsen, 2005. "The Effectiveness of Non-State Governance Schemes: A Comparative Study of Forest Certification in Norway and Sweden," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 125-149, June.
    13. Caleb Gallemore, 2017. "Transaction costs in the evolution of transnational polycentric governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 639-654, October.
    14. Manning, Stephan & Reinecke, Juliane, 2016. "A modular governance architecture in-the-making: How transnational standard-setters govern sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 618-633.
    15. Holzscheiter, Anna & Bahr, Thurid & Pantzerhielm, Laura, 2016. "Emerging Governance Architectures in Global Health: Do Metagovernance Norms Explain Inter-Organisational Convergence?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(3), pages 5-19.
    16. Schouten, Greetje & Bitzer, Verena, 2015. "The emergence of Southern standards in agricultural value chains: A new trend in sustainability governance?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 175-184.
    17. Kenneth Abbott & Duncan Snidal, 2010. "International regulation without international government: Improving IO performance through orchestration," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 315-344, September.
    18. Mayer, Frederick & Gereffi, Gary, 2010. "Regulation and Economic Globalization: Prospects and Limits of Private Governance," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, October.
    19. Rana, Pushpendra & Chhatre, Ashwini, 2017. "Beyond committees: Hybrid forest governance for equity and sustainability," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 40-50.
    20. repec:eme:ijlma0:ijlma-10-2014-0057 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Anica Zeyen & Markus Beckmann & Stella Wolters, 2016. "Actor and Institutional Dynamics in the Development of Multi-stakeholder Initiatives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 341-360, May.
    22. Harro Asselt & Fariborz Zelli, 2014. "Connect the dots: managing the fragmentation of global climate governance," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 16(2), pages 137-155, April.
    23. Macpherson, Allan & Holt, Robin, 2007. "Knowledge, learning and small firm growth: A systematic review of the evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 172-192, March.
    24. Fariborz Zelli & Harro van Asselt, 2013. "Introduction: The Institutional Fragmentation of Global Environmental Governance: Causes, Consequences, and Responses," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, August.
    25. Anna Holzscheiter & Thurid Bahr & Laura Pantzerhielm, 2016. "Emerging Governance Architectures in Global Health: Do Metagovernance Norms Explain Inter-Organisational Convergence?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(3), pages 5-19.
    26. Schouten, Greetje & Glasbergen, Pieter, 2011. "Creating legitimacy in global private governance: The case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1891-1899, September.
    27. Andreas Georg Scherer & Guido Palazzo, 2011. "The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of a New Perspective on CSR and its Implications for the Firm, Governance, and Democracy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 899-931, June.
    28. Louis Meuleman & Ingeborg Niestroy, 2015. "Common But Differentiated Governance: A Metagovernance Approach to Make the SDGs Work," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-27, September.
    29. Katharina Michaelowa & Axel Michaelowa, 2017. "Transnational Climate Governance Initiatives: Designed for Effective Climate Change Mitigation?," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 129-155, January.
    30. 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.
    31. Philipp Pattberg & Johannes Stripple, 2008. "Beyond the public and private divide: remapping transnational climate governance in the 21st century," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 367-388, December.
    32. Thomas Hale & Charles Roger, 2014. "Orchestration and transnational climate governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 59-82, March.
    33. Marcel J. Dorsch & Christian Flachsland, 2017. "A Polycentric Approach to Global Climate Governance," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 17(2), pages 45-64, May.
    34. Philipp Pattberg, 2005. "What Role for Private Rule-Making in Global Environmental Governance? Analysing the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 175-189, June.
    35. Mayer Frederick & Gereffi Gary, 2010. "Regulation and Economic Globalization: Prospects and Limits of Private Governance," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-27, October.
    36. Khalid Nadvi, 2008. "Global standards, global governance and the organization of global value chains," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 323-343, May.
    37. Agni Kalfagianni, 2014. "Addressing the Global Sustainability Challenge: The Potential and Pitfalls of Private Governance from the Perspective of Human Capabilities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 307-320, June.
    38. Fahimnia, Behnam & Sarkis, Joseph & Davarzani, Hoda, 2015. "Green supply chain management: A review and bibliometric analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 101-114.
    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. Agnieszka Szewczyk & Zbigniew Stempnakowski, 2021. "Social Energy as the Driving Force behind Crowdfunding—Analysis and Classification of Selected Attributes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-32, September.
    2. Kevin Friedrich, 2023. "A systematic literature review concerning the different interpretations of the role of sustainability in project management," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 31-60, February.
    3. Matthew P. Johnson & Theresa S. Rötzel & Brigitte Frank, 2023. "Beyond conventional corporate responses to climate change towards deep decarbonization: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 921-954, June.

    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. 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.
    2. Joshua Philipp Elsässer & Thomas Hickmann & Sikina Jinnah & Sebastian Oberthür & Thijs Graaf, 2022. "Institutional interplay in global environmental governance: lessons learned and future research," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 373-391, June.
    3. Philipp Pattberg & Cille Kaiser & Oscar Widerberg & Johannes Stripple, 2022. "20 Years of global climate change governance research: taking stock and moving forward," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 295-315, June.
    4. Domenico Dentoni & Verena Bitzer & Greetje Schouten, 2018. "Harnessing Wicked Problems in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 333-356, June.
    5. Lasse Folke Henriksen & Stefano Ponte, 2018. "Public orchestration, social networks, and transnational environmental governance: Lessons from the aviation industry," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 23-45, March.
    6. Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh, 0. "Moral duties, compliance and polycentric climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    7. 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.
    8. Christine Moser & Sina Leipold, 2021. "Toward “hardened” accountability? Analyzing the European Union's hybrid transnational governance in timber and biofuel supply chains," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 115-132, January.
    9. Gallemore, Caleb & Guisinger, Amy & Kruuse, Mikkel & Ruysschaert, Denis & Jespersen, Kristjan, 2018. "Escaping the “Teenage” Years: The Politics of Rigor and the Evolution of Private Environmental Standards," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 76-87.
    10. Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh, 2020. "Moral duties, compliance and polycentric climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 483-506, September.
    11. 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.
    12. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    13. Ingrid J Visseren-Hamakers, 2018. "Integrative governance: The relationships between governance instruments taking center stage," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(8), pages 1341-1354, December.
    14. Benjamin M. Abraham, 2021. "Ideology and non-state climate action: partnering and design of REDD+ projects," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 669-690, December.
    15. Atika Wijaya & Pieter Glasbergen & Pieter Leroy & Ari Darmastuti, 2018. "Governance challenges of cocoa partnership projects in Indonesia: seeking synergy in multi-stakeholder arrangements for sustainable agriculture," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 129-153, February.
    16. Sandra Moog & André Spicer & Steffen Böhm, 2015. "The Politics of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: The Crisis of the Forest Stewardship Council," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 469-493, May.
    17. Verena Bitzer & Alessia Marazzi, 2021. "Southern sustainability initiatives in agricultural value chains: a question of enhanced inclusiveness? The case of Trustea in India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 381-395, June.
    18. Thomas Hickmann & Joshua Philipp Elsässer, 2020. "New alliances in global environmental governance: how intergovernmental treaty secretariats interact with non-state actors to address transboundary environmental problems," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 459-481, September.
    19. Thomas Hickmann & Joshua Philipp Elsässer, 0. "New alliances in global environmental governance: how intergovernmental treaty secretariats interact with non-state actors to address transboundary environmental problems," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-23.
    20. Hamish van der Ven, 2015. "Correlates of rigorous and credible transnational governance: A cross‐sectoral analysis of best practice compliance in eco‐labeling," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(3), pages 276-293, September.

    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:spr:manrev:v:70:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11301-019-00170-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.