Institutional Drivers Research Articles

A pathway towards corporate sustainability: Does media attention matter?

Examining informal institutional drivers of corporate sustainability is crucial. This study employs a sample of A-share listed firms in China from 2007 to 2020 to empirically examine the relationship between media coverage and ESG performance. It is demonstrated that media attention enhances corporate accountability, especially the print media and positive attention. And environmental investments and green innovation are the main mechanisms. It also reveals that media attention has a greater impact on larger firms, those with better internal controls, firms located in the eastern region, and manufacturing firms. Our findings help deepen the understanding of media's role in corporate development and highlight how informal institutions can promote sustainable economic growth in developing countries.

Answer to whom? A comparative empirical study on institutional drivers for firms’ CSR reporting in China and the United States

While earlier research has mainly focused on the business-centric perspective for corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, this study adopts a society-centric perspective and tests institutional drivers. We apply a panel data analysis using 56,532 firm-years from 2006 to 2019, comprising listed firms in China and the United States. The results show that firms exposed to more pressure are more likely to issue CSR reports in both countries. CSR reporting in China tends to be externally driven, as Chinese firms are experiencing more institutional drivers than their US counterparts under similar reporting circumstances. In verifying institutional drivers, those which are shared or differ in two distinct markets are not determined by economic development status, but are rather affected by the orders of institutional logics. This study provides empirical evidence for future research opportunities for an ex-ante view of CSR and practical suggestions for globalised CSR reporting frames.

Beyond tree planting: Mobilizing a global production network for savanna restoration in Brazil

Emerging global production networks innovate the supply of restoration products and services to reverse degraded ecosystems globally. Yet, savanna restoration interventions often neglect diverse plant life forms and planting techniques in implementing large-scale pledges. Drawing on global production network analysis, we examine how the configuration of savanna restoration practices in Brazil influences decision-making processes and outcomes. Our assessment of a case study in Central Brazil reveals a myriad of forces affecting the interconnections between institutional drivers, markets, and supply systems for restoration actions across multiple scales. Prevailing policies and regulations often disregard diverse expertise, economic strategies, and socio-cultural perspectives when setting savanna restoration priorities and incentives. While we identify different buyers influencing market demands to meet mandatory or voluntary environmental compliance, a wide range of suppliers remakes savanna restoration actions according to regional contexts. The experiences of community-led plant material supply systems in Central Brazil showcase collective organization that enables situated socio-technical innovations to link a high diversity of non-tree species with livelihood outcomes. This study contributes to revealing how institutional drivers and restoration markets assert political authority and commercial objectives in multifaceted decisions, while community partnerships catalyze place-based savanna restoration innovations.

A multi-level analysis of the relationship between formal institutions and ambitious entrepreneurship: The moderating role of economic development

Prior research predominantly focuses on institutional drivers of different levels of entrepreneurship across countries instead of specific types of entrepreneurship that can create considerable economic impact. In contrast, we investigate which formal institutions (i.e., government integrity, regulatory efficiency, and trade freedom) affect ambitious entrepreneurship (AE). Ambitious entrepreneurs are both opportunity-driven and innovative. Moreover, we introduce economic development as a boundary condition of these relationships. Using a multi-level research design and analyzing data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) with 2,121,002 individuals from 101 countries, we find that regulatory efficiency and trade freedom positively affect AE. Surprisingly, government integrity negatively impacts AE, but higher economic development mitigates this negative relationship. Our study informs the discussion on the nexus between comparative international entrepreneurship, institutions, and economic development.

The impact of the Social Fair Play project on Spanish professional football clubs’ corporate social responsibility

ABSTRACT Football followers increasingly demand greater commitment to social responsibility from sports organizations. However, football clubs widely differ in how they fulfil this commitment. To address the observed gaps between larger and smaller clubs and increase Spanish clubs’ social responsibility, Spanish LaLiga launched the Social Fair Play Project (SFP) in 2017. Drawing on institutional theory, this study empirically measures the impact of this institutional driver on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance among football clubs. We performed a panel analysis using financial, sporting, and CSR data from 2012 to 2021 for 33 first-division clubs. Our findings reveal that the SFP increased CSR performance among these clubs; however, their solvency situation moderated the effect of this soft measure. Accordingly, this study has implications for governing bodies in other football leagues, and its findings should encourage institutional programmes to promote social responsibility among sports clubs.

Economic and institutional drivers of trade-related illicit financial flows

This paper aims to examine the influence of controlling corruption, tax burden reduction, price stability and trade liberalization on trade-related illicit financial flows. The analysis focuses on a sample of 120 developing and emerging countries, drawn from data collected over the period 2008–2017. The econometric results reveal that controlling corruption, tax burden reduction, prices stability and trade liberalization contribute significantly to reducing trade-related IFF or false invoicing of foreign trade transactions. These results can be observed both within and outside Africa. In addition, increased competition on the domestic market helps to reduce trade-related IFF, while higher public spending significantly increases trade-related IFF.

Green in their own way: Pragmatic and progressive means for cities to overcome institutional barriers to sustainability

To realise their potential to lead in sustainability development, cities require both symbolic resources such as social capital and legitimacy and material resources such as financial and technical support. Recent research in urban studies has shown that cities overcome institutional barriers to urban sustainability by drawing on support from their wider environment. However, we argue that resource needs vary depending on whether cities spotlight or sideline sustainability. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sustainability managers in cities with variable seriousness about sustainability, and representatives of city networks and support organisations, we show that cities express different symbolic and material resource needs as well as means to acquire them. When cities express pragmatic needs, they seek to demonstrate political feasibility and look to peer cities for legitimation; when cities express progressive needs, they aim to push the boundaries of technical possibility and broadcast their achievements to the world. Since cities require dissimilar external support, skewed attention towards ‘leading’ cities in extant research limits our understanding of how cities can overcome institutional barriers to climate action, especially when these barriers are high. Our findings offer contributions to the literature on city strategies for climate change on the institutional drivers of urban sustainability.

Land Titling and Microcredit in Cambodia: Examining the Reality of Hernando de Soto’s ‘Three Steps to Heaven’

Starting with the work of Hernando de Soto in the 1980s, the role of land tenure soon attracted the attention of the international development community as a neoliberal-oriented theory of change rooted in the possession and use of private individual land titles by the poor. One of the central mechanisms proposed by de Soto was a three-step process that involves the poor (1) “securing” their tenure with land titles, (2) using their newly acquired land titles as collateral to leverage large amounts of microcredit to be used to establish a functioning microenterprise, and then (3) escaping from their poverty due to the jobs and income associated with founding and running a microenterprise. This paper explores what I call de Soto’s “three steps to heaven” theory of change, a concept that was taken on board with gusto by leading Western governments and virtually all of the main international development institutions, particularly the World Bank. I argue that Cambodia provides the ideal setting for evaluating de Soto’s concept because, since around 2020, it has possessed the largest microcredit sector in the world (on a per capita basis), thanks largely to the obligatory use of land titles as the collateral required to obtain microcredit. While the first two of de Soto’s “three steps to heaven” have been realized, the evidence shows that the assumptions related to step three have proved to be extremely problematic: the ubiquity of microcredit that was achieved since the early 2010s via steps one and two has not, in general, improved the lives and communities of Cambodia’s poor through accelerated microenterprise development. It appears, instead, to have contributed to deeper poverty, insecurity, vulnerability and inequality. I conclude that de Soto’s “three steps to heaven” theory reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the real institutional drivers of sustainable local economic development and poverty reduction.

Sustainable economic growth and energy security nexus: A stochastic frontier analysis across OECD countries

This study aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the sustainable economic growth undertaken by 22 OECD countries from 2005 to 2021. Sustainable economic growth is conceived as environmental-economic efficiency, that is the ability to increase GDP while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. An efficiency effect frontier model is employed to simultaneously estimate the production frontier, technical inefficiency, and the effects of a composite set of institutional drivers that includes environmental taxation, economic globalization, and energy security. This study makes several contributions. Firstly, it expands upon the traditional single-output stochastic frontier model by incorporating a multi-output distance function. Secondly, it includes GHG emissions as an undesirable output in the analysis, providing unbiased assessments of sustainable economic growth. Thirdly, it explores the effects of an under-investigated institutional variable that has become crucial amid the current geopolitical uncertainty: the energy self-sufficiency represented by the energy import independence. Empirical results shed light on a decreasing trend in environmental-economic efficiency that started in 2009 and worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, environmental taxation and economic globalization have curbed efficiency. Lastly, energy self-sufficiency has been revealed as a crucial driver to enhance the green growth of OECD countries.

The Market Dynamics of Collective Ignorance and Spiraling Risk

Abstract In some markets, offerings become riskier over time as producers introduce new versions that are made more affordable by increasing their risk. Existing theories suggest consumers adopt riskier versions either because they become more risk tolerant or they trade higher risk for lower price—both of which presume consumers know the risks. We reveal a third explanation: evolving market dynamics that increasingly encourage consumer inattention to risk and produce “collective ignorance.” We identify factors of collective inattention and propose a three-stage model of development of collective ignorance by analyzing the case of risk buildup in the Hungarian mortgage market. Data include archival materials and interviews with borrowers, lenders, and regulators. Initially, producers offer low-risk products, and social, cultural, and institutional factors encourage attention to risk. Consumers attentive to and capable of assessing risk become early adopters. Over time, increasing adoption and changes in market factors divert consumers’ attention from risk, shifting it to price. Under insufficient regulation, risk escalates: producers repeatedly cut price by offering increasingly risky products, while rising collective ignorance leads even risk-averse consumers to adopt them. We offer theoretical contributions to research on the social construction of risk, the attitude–behavior gap, and neoliberal responsibilization.

Circular economy and public policies: A dynamic analysis for European SMEs

AbstractPrevious empirical studies have highlighted the importance of the institutional framework in fostering a transition towards the circular economy (CE). Adopting a dynamic approach, which merges three Flash Eurobarometer surveys conducted in 2015, 2017 and 2021 into a single dataset, we observe the evolution in the factors determining the adoption of CE practices. Firstly, using factor analysis, our results indicate two groups of institutional drivers: knowledge and environmental spillovers. Secondly, applying a multivariate probit model, we observe that both spillovers have a positive effect on the adoption of the CE. Finally, we find that the effect of knowledge spillovers remains relatively constant, while that of environmental spillovers tends to increase. This suggests that firms are increasingly benefiting from the adoption of circular practices by their peers. Policymakers should take into account that a more intense knowledge spillovers and a stronger institutional framework will increase the likelihood of European small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) adopting CE practices.

Institutional drivers for integrating palliative care services in a hospital in a sub-Saharan African military hospital context.

The growing burden of life-threatening illnesses and advancements in care interventions call for the intentional integration of palliative care services into existing care systems. The absence of active, functioning palliative care services in most hospitals in Ghana is a major concern. This study explored the factors influencing the integration of palliative care services in one of such institutions. The aim of the study was to explore the institutional drivers of palliative care integration in a military health facility. Exploratory qualitative study. We employed a qualitative exploratory study design situated within a constructivist paradigm. A purposive sampling method was used to select and interview 11 healthcare professionals. A semistructured interview was used to conduct face-to-face, in-depth interviews with participants between April and May 2022. A thematic data analysis was done based on the Braun and Clarke analysis process with the aid of QSR NVivo-12. The six themes that describe the institutional driving factors for integrating palliative care services were cognitive restructuring, supportive logistics and infrastructure, staffing, healthcare professional skills, institutional policies and priorities, and utilization of focal persons. It was observed that a paradigm shift in the mindset of healthcare professionals and administrators was a major driver that would determine the integration of palliative care services. A cognitive restructuring will facilitate a more aggressive integration of palliative care services because logistics, staffing, and medication access will be prioritized. Institutions have the responsibility of aligning with the WHO policy on palliative care service access and must invest in training, staffing, prioritizing palliative care needs and policies, procurement of essential drugs, and the provision of logistics and supportive infrastructure to scale up the implementation of palliative care services.

Exploring institutional drivers and barriers for green ESG strategies performance in Russian regions

Stakeholders are interested in creating an institutional environment in regions that promotes green economic growth. However, the increased risks of failing to achieve sustainable development goals are shifting stakeholders’ focus towards strategic evidence-based and data- driven approaches to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies. This article aims to identify the drivers and barriers to green ESG strategies in Russian regions. Using regression analysis, institutional factors affecting the green index, calculated based on national sustainable development indicators, were identified. The green index proposed by the author includes indicators of water quality, green urbanization, and local climate impact. The results showed that the drivers of effective green ESG strategies are environmental investments, activities of small and medium- sized enterprises in the region, high-quality urbanization, and the development of public transportation infrastructure. Barriers to green performance include regional unemployment and a low level of health capital, reflected through mortality from cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The findings of this study can be used for green monitoring of the effectiveness of regional ESG strategies.

A cure-all for energy poverty? Thinking critically about energy advice

Dramatic increases in global energy prices in 2022 have sharpened focus on the suffering experienced by people living in energy poverty – a situation where they are unable to afford the energy required to meet their basic needs. In many countries, providing energy advice to householders is part of a wider strategy to assist those who are experiencing such hardship. However, little research scrutinises whether and how energy advice can be useful in reducing vulnerability to energy poverty. It is this research gap we address here. Drawing on an extensive qualitative dataset, we find that efforts to provide tailored, in-person advice can help to partially ameliorate energy poverty, but its impacts are limited by structural factors that are beyond the immediate influence of advisors or individual citizens. Energy advice should be seen as a supplement to, not a replacement for, more ambitious and transformative political action that addresses the structural and institutional drivers of inequality.

Does institutional quality matter for primary school retention? Lessons from Uganda

Our study examines school institutional drivers of pupil retention schools in Uganda over the period 2008–2014. We use longitudinal data from a sample of 7824 government and privately owned primary schools. Using the fixed effects regression model, we estimate the association between institutional factors and retention. Our study finds that only three in every ten (32%) pupils who enrolled in primary one complete primary seven. Regression results further suggest that school retention is associated with moderate and not necessarily small class sizes which promote a conducive learning environment as well as group interactions among the learners. Additionally, retention is associated with boarding schools, and government–owned schools compared to their private counterparts. These findings suggest the need for government to strengthen the school inspection function especially in rural based government schools promote surveillance critical in addressing pupil dropouts. Furthermore, recruiting more and better trained teachers while regulating high school fee policy is critical to provide a support system for pupils to complete the primary school cycle.

Drivers and barriers for implementing social sustainability in supply chains: a qualitative investigation of a developing country's multi-tier suppliers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate why multi-tier apparel suppliers integrate social sustainability practices into their supply chains and what barriers these suppliers encounter while embedding social sustainability practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a qualitative research design, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 46 owners and managers from 33 multi-tier apparel suppliers in Bangladesh, an important outsourcing hub for the global apparel industry. To corroborate research findings, the views of owners and managers were triangulated by further interviewing 11 key representatives of institutional actors such as third-party auditors, a donor agency, industry associations, regulatory agencies and a non-governmental organisation (NGO).FindingsThe authors' findings suggest a range of divergent institutional drivers and barriers – coercive, mimetic and normative – that determine the implementation of multi-tier suppliers' social sustainability practices. The key reported drivers were buyers' requirements, external stakeholders' expectations, top management commitment and competition. Conversely, cost and resource concerns and gaps in the regulatory framework were identified as key social sustainability implementation barriers. In particular, owners and managers of second-tier and third-tier supplier firms experienced more internal barriers such as cost and resource concerns than external barriers such as gaps in values, learning and commitment (i.e. compromise for mutual benefit and non-disclosure of non-compliance) that impeded effective social sustainability implementation.Research limitations/implicationsSocial sustainability in supply chain management has received significant attention from academics, business practitioners, governments, NGOs and supranational organisations. However, limited attention has been paid to investigating the drivers and barriers for social sustainability implementation from a developing country's multi-tier supplier perspective. The authors' research has addressed this knowledge gap.Practical implicationsThe evidence from the authors' study provides robust support for key assumptions of institutional theory and has useful implications for both managers and policy-makers.Originality/valueThe authors' study contributes to the embryonic research stream of socially sustainable multi-tier supply chain management by connecting it to the application of institutional theory in a challenging institutional context.

Construction of place: social and institutional drivers of informal settlements’ public realm in Caracas

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the [construction of the] public realm in informal settlements in Caracas, Venezuela and the social and institutional drivers underpinning its development. Public spaces in informal settlements are usually conceived and constructed by residents, sometimes with the help and support of diverse institutions. These places created by people can be considered public realm from their genesis, as the community have built and experienced them since their staFrt. A qualitative study with a case study design informs this paper. In-depth interviews, mapping and a photographic survey were carried out. The focus on the physical space, religious activities and psychosocial meanings in an informal settlement in Caracas led to understanding the constituents of the public realm and their drivers. The community’s solidarity and collaboration and their religiosity shaped the construction of the public realm. Simultaneously, governmental and ecclesiastic institutions played a fundamental role in its development. The paper adds to the knowledge about the creation of the public realm in informal settlements by discussing residents’ stories related to this process. The public realm in informal settlements is created through resident-driven approaches founded on social aspects and influenced by institutional factors that go beyond the design and construction of the physical space.

Militarization, Risk, and the Environment

Militaries are distinct social institutions that significantly impact the environment. As militaries seek to satisfy institutional goals, they put unique pressure on industries that help supply vital materials. Operating under the logic of the treadmill of destruction, militaries generate specific forms of risk. This paper focuses on the U.S. military’s use of Agent Orange during the American War in Vietnam as a markedly militarized form of risk. Through a historical case study, this paper demonstrates how the risks associated with military herbicide use differ from commercial, civilian use. Military demands and strategic goals influenced how Agent Orange was produced and used, leading to a more dangerous product used in greater quantities and at higher concentrations. This research underscores the importance of focusing on the institutional drivers of militarization, demonstrating how this can further develop our understanding of risk production and environmental degradation.

What drives vulnerability? Explaining the institutional context of flood disaster risk management in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper analyzes institutional vulnerability drivers in Flood Disaster Risk Management (FDRM). Using Ghana as case study, we explain the distinct institutional context of vulnerability to natural hazards in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Addressing a research gap, the limited consideration of the embeddedness of institutional vulnerability, we broaden Papathoma-Köhle et al.'s (2021) institutional vulnerability framework for application in SSA. This combines the analysis of institutions that directly or indirectly impact disaster management and of the capacity to respond to impacts of hazardous events. We explore four pillars, each with specific drivers (socio-cultural, socio-political, fiscal-economic and legislative-regulatory), to answer two research questions: 1) What drives institutional vulnerability in Ghana? and 2) How do these drivers foster or hamper FDRM in Ghana? Specifically, we analyze the drivers of institutional vulnerability and how they hamper FDRM, revealing causal links between the institutional context and FDRM policy implementation. Our qualitative application of the framework enables us to identify the interconnectedness between drivers of institutional vulnerability and underlying causes. Our results show that in an SSA country such as Ghana, the institutional context can be understood as a sensitive interplay of formal and informal institutional drivers, behavioral pitfalls, a culture of impunity, and deficits in necessary resources and risk transfer mechanisms.

Fiscal deficit in sub-saharan Africa: A new intuition from the institution and political drivers.

Motivated by the growing fiscal deficits in sub-Saharan Africa, this study examines fiscal deficit's economic, political, and institutional drivers using a panel of twenty-three sub-Saharan African countries. Panel spatial consistent correlation, dynamic fixed effects autoregressive distributed lag, and feasible generalised ordinary least squares were used as the estimation techniques. Our findings reveal that while per capita income, trade openness, population, and religious tension increase the size of fiscal deficit, bureaucracy quality, government stability, Law and order, and military in politics reduce the extent of fiscal deficit. However, corruption control, democratic accountability, and internal conflict have weaker statistical evidence. Furthermore, the study established evidence of long-run co-integration relationships among institutional factors, economic factors, and fiscal deficits in SSA. Per capita income has a significant positive influence in the short run but a negative effect in the long run. Population and religious tension positively impact fiscal deficit in both periods. However, democratic accountability, government stability, and the military in politics significantly negatively impact fiscal deficit in the long run. This study concludes that beyond economic factors, institutional and political factors are significant drivers of fiscal deficit in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, strengthening the institutional quality and creating a stable political environment would lessen the accumulation of fiscal deficit.