IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/reggov/v14y2020i1p3-25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community structure and the behavior of transnational sustainability governors: Toward a multi‐relational approach

Author

Listed:
  • Luc Fransen
  • Jelmer Schalk
  • Graeme Auld

Abstract

Hundreds of transnational private governance organizations (TPGOs) have emerged in recent decades to govern social and environmental conditions of production using voluntary standards. A debate persists over whether the ties among different TPGOs and other organizations create a professional community that affects the behavior of TPGOs. To help resolve this debate, we analyze multiple ties among agriculture TPGOs to offer a more robust exploration of community structures and their potential effects for three forms of TPGO behavior – coordination, collaboration, and isomorphism. Our aggregate measure of ties reveals a thin community dominated by older TPGOs and TPGOs advancing a broad notion of sustainability that were created by Solidaridad, the World Wildlife Fund, and/or Unilever. The clearest community structures are built from ties that exhibit the potential for not actual collaboration, coordination, and isomorphism. Thus, while there exists convergence toward an emergent TPGO‐community, obstacles remain to more intense behavioral effects for TPGOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Luc Fransen & Jelmer Schalk & Graeme Auld, 2020. "Community structure and the behavior of transnational sustainability governors: Toward a multi‐relational approach," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(1), pages 3-25, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:14:y:2020:i:1:p:3-25
    DOI: 10.1111/rego.12185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12185
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rego.12185?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. Sigrid Quack, 2010. "Transnational communities and governance," Post-Print hal-01891975, HAL.
    2. 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.
    3. Adam Sneyd, 2014. "When Governance Gets Going: Certifying ‘Better Cotton’ and ‘Better Sugarcane’," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(2), pages 231-256, March.
    4. Fuchs Doris & Kalfagianni Agni, 2010. "The Causes and Consequences of Private Food Governance," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-36, October.
    5. Abbott, Kenneth W. & Green, Jessica F. & Keohane, Robert O., 2016. "Organizational Ecology and Institutional Change in Global Governance," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 247-277, April.
    6. Haas, Peter M., 1992. "Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-35, January.
    7. 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.
    8. March, James G. & Olsen, Johan P., 1998. "The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 943-969, October.
    9. Eelke M. Heemskerk & Frank W. Takes, 2016. "The Corporate Elite Community Structure of Global Capitalism," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 90-118, February.
    10. Fuchs, Doris & Kalfagianni, Agni, 2010. "The Causes and Consequences of Private Food Governance," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 1-34, October.
    11. Jessica F. Green, 2013. "Order out of Chaos: Public and Private Rules for Managing Carbon," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Renckens, Stefan & Auld, Graeme, 2019. "Structure, path dependence, and adaptation: North-South imbalances in transnational private fisheries governance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Burkard Eberlein & Kenneth W. Abbott & Julia Black & Errol Meidinger & Stepan Wood, 2014. "Transnational business governance interactions: Conceptualization and framework for analysis," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Laura Kurth & Pieter Glasbergen, 2017. "Serving a heterogeneous Muslim identity? Private governance arrangements of halal food in the Netherlands," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 103-118, March.
    5. Oren Perez & Reuven Cohen & Nir Schreiber, 2019. "Governance through global networks and corporate signaling," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 447-469, December.
    6. 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.
    7. May-Britt Stumbaum, 2015. "The diffusion of norms in security-related fields: views from China, India and the EU," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 331-347, September.
    8. Tanja A. Börzel & Thomas Risse, 2009. "Diffusing (Inter-) Regionalism - The EU as a Model of Regional Integration," KFG Working Papers p0007, Free University Berlin.
    9. Ronja Teschner & Jessica Ruppen & Basil Bornemann & Rony Emmenegger & Lucía Aguirre Sánchez, 2021. "Mapping Sustainable Diets: A Comparison of Sustainability References in Dietary Guidelines of Swiss Food Governance Actors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    10. Philipp Pattberg, 2017. "The emergence of carbon disclosure: Exploring the role of governance entrepreneurs," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(8), pages 1437-1455, December.
    11. Anna Clare Bull & Jagjit Plahe & Lachlan Gregory, 2021. "International Investment Agreements and the Escalation of Private Power in the Global Agri-Food System," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 519-533, May.
    12. S. Henson & J. Humphrey, 2012. "Private Standards in Global Agri-Food Chains," Chapters, in: Axel Marx & Miet Maertens & Johan Swinnen & Jan Wouters (ed.), Private Standards and Global Governance, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Kenneth W. Abbott & Benjamin Faude, 2022. "Hybrid institutional complexes in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 263-291, April.
    14. Godswill Ntsomboh Ntsefong & Hermine Ngalle-Bille & Walter Ajambang & Benoit Constant Likeng-Li-Ngue & Tabi-Mbi Kingsley & Joseph Martin Bell & Emmanuel Youmbi, 2016. "Brief Review on the Controversies around Oil Palm (Elaeis Guineensis Jacq.) Production and Palm Oil Consumption," International Journal of Regional Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(2), pages 1-60, December.
    15. 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.
    16. Büthe Tim, 2010. "Private Regulation in the Global Economy: A (P)Review," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-40, October.
    17. Jung, Suhyun & Polasky, Stephen, 2018. "Partnerships to prevent deforestation in the Amazon," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 498-516.
    18. Dolata, Ulrich & Schrape, Jan Felix, 2014. "Masses, crowds, communities, movements: Collective formations in the digital age," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    19. Oliver Westerwinter & Kenneth W. Abbott & Thomas Biersteker, 2021. "Informal governance in world politics," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    20. Wenlong He & Wei Yang & Seong-jin Choi, 2018. "The Interplay Between Private and Public Regulations: Evidence from ISO 14001 Adoption Among Chinese Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 477-497, October.

    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:14:y:2020:i:1:p:3-25. 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.