NGO Pressure Research Articles

The Interplay Between Supply Chain Transparency and NGO Pressure: A Quantitative Analysis in the Fashion Industry Context

Companies have been experiencing increasing pressure from NGOs to overcome unethical and unsustainable behaviours. The purpose of this research was to study the interplay between supply chain transparency and NGO pressure. The analysis builds on the literature on supply chain transparency and institutional pressures. We conducted a time-lagged, multi-level regression analysis that included data from 270 fashion companies over a 5-year period to investigate the effect of NGO pressure on transparency and vice versa. The results revealed that companies with higher levels of transparency are more likely to be pressured by NGOs than less transparent companies. Furthermore, our findings show that, depending on the number of campaigns, NGO power and communication about campaigns, NGO pressure can either stimulate corporate transparency or turn into a negative effect that leads to lower levels of transparency.

Success factors of global goal‐setting for sustainable development: Learning from the Millennium Development Goals

AbstractThe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were an important precursor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, identifying the conditions that made the MDGs successful enhances our understanding of global goal‐setting and informs the global endeavour to achieve the SDGs. Drawing on a comprehensive review of 316 articles published between 2009 and 2018, we identify six factors that have enabled or hindered MDG implementation. Our analysis stresses the importance of path dependencies and shows that the MDGs catalysed changes only for those countries with sufficient resource availability, administrative capacity and economic development, as well as adequate support from external donors. National ownership and NGO pressure bolstered efforts to implement the MDGs. These findings suggest that globally agreed goals do not easily trickle down from the global to the national level. Thus, this article adopts a forward‐looking perspective and draws key lessons for the current implementation of the SDGs in developing countries.

Does Corporate Hypocrisy Predict When Firms Will Shirk Remedy Responses For Human Rights Abuses?

Following an overview of literature on corporate human rights abuse and remedy, we employ a qualitative comparative analysis approach based on the logic of fuzzy sets (fsQCA) (Crilly et al., 2012; Fiss, 2007; Ragin, 2008), to explore varying configurations of talk, decisions, activist NGO initiatives, and state involvement that may lead to additional action steps toward remedy for corporate human rights abuses. Our findings show that aspirational talk alone is not sufficient to lead to action, contrary to recent theorizing within organized hypocrisy scholarship (Christensen, et. al., 2020). Without NGO pressure, corporate hypocrisy prevails when it comes to human rights remedy: Firms that engage in human rights talk are no more likely to take action toward remedy than indifferent firms who do not engage with human rights. But with NGO involvement, firms’ human rights talk seems to provide leverage to pressure firms to take consistent action. When it comes to human rights abuse, firms that make empty promises should be prepared to match their talk with action because organized hypocrisy provides a trigger for NGOs to effectively apply pressure for remedy.

Policy styles, opportunity structures and proportionality: Comparing renewable electricity policies in the UK

Researchers expect under-reaction in climate policy. However, this might differ depending on the access of different interest groups to a political system. To explore the relationship between entrenched patterns of domestic politics and proportionality of climate policy, we compare two renewables policies which financially support new renewable electricity in the UK. Drawing on the literature on policy styles and related opportunity structures, this article shows that UK political parties have responded to growing public concern and NGO pressure by, at times, trying to out-green one another to win votes. However, powerful industry actors have been influential in shaping UK renewables policies, in particular when political competition about the individual policies has been low. The findings suggest that an over-reaction in terms of exceeding the marginal costs of renewable electricity production is equally likely under conditions of high or low political competition.

Ivory trade: Policy and law change

Against a backdrop of consistent NGO pressure, countered by an unrelenting and increasingly transnational organised crime-framed poaching effort, the Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs moved to enact legislation which will significantly curtail what remains of the market for ivory products in the UK. The Ivory Bill, at the time of writing going through its parliamentary stages, will sidestep the majority of the current exemptions, premised on the antiquity of a worked item, to the usual prohibition on the trade of raw or worked ivory which owes its existence to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 1973 (CITES) and the Treaty’s domestic implementing measures. The accelerated illegal killing of charismatic species such as elephants has prompted legal responses at international and local levels in both range and destination-market states. Laws targeting both the supply and demand sides of the trade have been undermined by the trade in antique ivory: a shadow, parallel market of imitation antiques has existed for some time to launder poached ivory through the exemptions to the CITES system. This short article will introduce the mechanics of the Ivory Bill, set in the context of the drivers which have prompted it, and will evaluate its potential contribution to curtailing this destructive trade.

Uncovering Pathways to Remedy for Corporate Human Rights Abuses

How do victims of corporate social irresponsibility obtain redress for the wrongs against them? Scholars have evaluated many factors that may help such victims, and suggest that corporate policies, national institutions, NGO pressure, and transnational governance can each have a role in ensuring that corporations are held accountable for negative social impacts. Recognizing that these factors can be inter-related, and there can be multiple pathways toward this end, we explore the causal complexity in the area of business and human rights to uncover combinations of corporate policies, NGO involvement, national institutions and transnational governance to explain the conditions under which victims obtain access to mechanisms to provide remedy for corporate human rights violations. To investigate this, we developed a unique dataset that investigates access to remedy for human rights violations in the extractive industry in a range of host countries. Taking a neo-configurational perspective, we use fuzzy set logic to analyze the varying configurations of these elements that lead to remedy mechanisms for human rights abuses. Our results provide various explanations but strongly confirm the role of host country rule of law and NGO involvement in providing a pathway to remedy.

NGO influence on the CSR vocabulary and practice of a Chinese sportswear firm

NGOs are beginning to engage with Chinese firms. This raises the question of how Chinese firms react to NGO pressure. Taking a neoinstitutional approach to understanding NGO-firm interaction in Chi...

Adoption of green strategy by Danish firms

Purpose– The purpose of this study was to examine the issue of corporate environmentalism from a managerial perspective, specifically in connection to top management commitment and the need for competitive advantage, which can be integrated into the decision making of environmental strategies.Design/methodology/approach– This study uses data from a recent online survey of 77 Danish firms. Surveyed firms in the study were divided into two categories based on their adoption of a green strategy. Univariate analysis of variance and step-wise discriminant analysis were used to identify variables that discriminate between these firms.Findings– The results revealed that systematic planning to develop a green strategy coupled with each firm's view of the importance of formulating and implementing a green strategy are the key factors discriminating between the two groups of firms.Research limitations/implications– Since this study did not consider external factors such as, governmental regulation, NGO pressure, etc. the authors do not rule out the importance of these factors. But it makes sense to conclude both internal and external factors (no necessarily equally) contributing to a successful adoption of green strategy.Practical implications– It appears that adoption of a green strategy is a result of, mostly, internal factors. These factors are certainly within the control of management. Adopting any new strategy requires a wide range of knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, many managers and employees are deficient on their views about the importance of formulating and pursuing a green strategy. They need to be informed that half-hearted efforts in adopting a green strategy make the process both slow and difficult.Social implications– Management commitment to systematic planning to develop and implement a green strategy is essential. Committed managers systematically explore the possibilities of gaining competitive advantages through a proactive strategy by transforming the nature of their products and organization. However, the management mindset does not change solely due to inner managerial drives, but in a more complex interplay with outside stakeholders, including customers, consumers, and non-governmental bodies. Therefore, the riskiest venture occurs when the firm and its management are not totally committed.Originality/value– Developing a foundation for adopting a green strategy and verifying the results should contribute to a more comprehensive managerial understanding of how green strategies should be adopted by firms.

Managing sustainability performance through the value‐chain

PurposeEnvironmental management has not kept pace with the challenges of globalization. Case studies show that life‐cycle management (LCM) can be an important alternative approach in managing sustainability, performance of products and materials along the value‐chain.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyzes case study models for LCM used in different circumstances. It compares the new forms of governance along the life‐chain, and the coordination of environmental management tools already in widespread use. Strengths and weaknesses are discussed with respect to other CSR methods in current use. The role of life‐cycle assessment (LCA) in prioritizing sustainability issues is highlighted.FindingsBusiness focuses on supply‐chain management to achieve its sustainability goals. Governments give emphasis to communication rather than legislation. Community and NGO pressure on the commodity resource sector has led to important multi‐stakeholder life‐cycle‐management. These approaches are most effective in a cooperative framework.Practical implicationsThe choice of the LCM model depends on the nature of the value‐chain and the sector involved. Companies have made progress in managing longer portions of their value‐chains. However, there is now a need to refine the management instruments used to implement LCM, as many of them were not intended to function at broad levels, for example, globally.Originality/valueMuch attention so far has been given to LCA techniques. The paper looks at management models that can transform LCA into effective action programmes for a higher level of sustainability.

Limits to non‐state market regulation: A qualitative comparative analysis of the international sport footwear industry and the Fair Labor Association

AbstractNon‐state market regulation has become a central focus and continues to receive scholarly attention. The present paper provides an assessment of the conditions under which multinational firms join a multi‐stakeholder certification initiative. The cases of the Fair labor Association and 17 international sport footwear companies have been selected for this purpose. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of the 17 cases is performed. The paper argues that the combination of sustained NGO pressure and public ownership of a firm is a necessary precondition for firms joining a multi‐stakeholder certification initiative. The theoretical and policy implications of this result are discussed.

Leveraging Green Power: Environmental Rules for Project Finance

Environmental policies of providers of international finance – namely the World Bank, export credit agencies, and Equator Principles banks – provide interesting cases within which to study the power of business not as only an input to the political process or as a constraint on politics, but also as a conduit for both state and non-state actors.This paper shows how targeting financial actors has allowed NGOs to transform their rather weak discursive power base into instrumental power over business actors in other sectors. NGOs have channeled their power through states, consumers, and financial institutions; this has allowed them to augment discursive power over their targets with additional indirect, yet more immediate, forms of structural and instrumental power. As a consequence of both direct and indirect NGO pressure, financial institutions have adopted environmental policies. This article posits a theoretical explanation of the underspecified power relationships in NGO strategies that allow NGOs to exploit weak links in commodity chains for their campaigns.This paper argues that financial institutions wield considerable structural power through their ability to control access to finance. It is particularly this power base which has made them prime targets for NGOs campaigning for the greening of infrastructure development projects. As a consequence of NGO pressure, financial institutions have adopted environmental policies which in turn have provided the World Bank and Equator banks with additional sources of discursive power.

‘Something else to burn’: forest squatters, conservationists, and the state in modern Tanzania

In the last fifteen years, Tanzanian forest policy has embraced an agenda of biodiversity preservation coupled with privatisation that calls for the expansion of state oversight over forests and woodlands. Reflecting the hegemony of conservationist donors and international and local NGOs, and couched in a language of community conservation, this agenda decries peasant intrusion into forest reserves to burn charcoal for the urban market and to expand fields for agriculture. This agenda is a departure from over a century of state forestry that sought to exploit forests for domestic consumer and development needs, and to compete in export timber and charcoal markets. Following the Second World War, state forestry anchored peasants in selected forest reserves as licensed cultivators in the face of an ongoing labour shortage, in order to create tree plantations that replaced indigenous hardwoods with fast-growing exotic softwoods. This trend continued after independence as forestry was perceived as a means for agricultural modernisation and economic self-reliance, particularly after the Arusha Declaration. Current changes in forest policy prioritise forests more as ‘refugia’ for endemic plant and animal species, rather than as sources of timber and fuel, moving forest policy more in the direction of wildlife conservation, which has long aimed at excluding peasants and pastoralists from reserves. Recent evictions of peasants from forest reserves, and ongoing tensions between villagers, the state and conservationists, are the direct result of NGO pressure to protect forest reserves and to expand forest conservation into previously unreserved lands.

Resettlement in the Sardar Sarovar Project: A Cause Vitiated

The rights of poor people of developing countries are a delicate and controversial issue. The state resents any western intervention for human rights, more so when it concerns developmental work. For a change, the state of Gujarat relented in the face of local-international NGO pressure to effect better resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) policy. The state retreated from a haughty position of being the solely legitimate guardian of tribal interests. The triumph was short lived, however. A new national-international alliance emerged and turned R&R into a means to stall the project. The World Bank Independent Review strengthened the manoeuvre immensely. The state reverted to its old corrupt ways. The R&R remains precarious and the viability of the project is endangered.

Corporate Greening of Foreign Transnationals in Singapore

The environmental performance of transnational corporations (TNCs) may need to be updated to include evidence of increased corporate environmental responsibility. This is a challenge to geographical perspectives that have been critical of the environmental performance of TNCs. The paper reports the findings of a survey of TNCs with branches in Singapore. Using the survey evidence, TNCs are classified according to their degree of participation in a range of voluntary environmental initiatives. According to the classification, there is a similar proportion of low and high performers but a dominance of medium level activity that can involve little organisational change. A significant association between organisational size and environmental activity is found. Respondents most frequently report that corporate environmental standards motivate environmental action in Singapore. Overall the survey evidence indicates that few TNCs are significantly changing their environmental behaviour. The absence of citizen, NGO and government pressure on TNCs is reducing the extent of voluntary environmental action in Singapore and expectations of widespread corporate greening overlook organisational differences in their opportunity to benefit from investment in environmental management. It is concluded that voluntary corporate environmentalism does not reduce the need for government regulation.

Japan's protected wetlands grow under NGO pressure

Japan's protected wetlands grow under NGO pressure