Soft Regulation Research Articles

How do external regulations shape the design of ethical tools in organisations? An open polity and sociology of compliance perspective

In response to the numerous hard and soft ethical regulations that have emerged in the wake of recurrent corporate scandals, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have adopted ethical tools. This move is often interpreted as a means to garner legitimacy and as loosely coupled to corporate activities. Little is known, however, about the processes by which external regulations affect the design of ethical tools. Approaching organisations as open polities and building on institutional theory and the sociology of compliance, we conducted a qualitative study of the development of 23 ethical tools at four MNCs. We analytically induced a three-stage model that explains how ethical tools are externally sourced (importation), then subjected to competing pressures from distinct professional groups that replicate legal features of the environment (politicisation), to become finally turned into quasi-legal procedures (legalisation). Our analysis contributes to theory by explaining how external regulations relate to the organisational production of ethical tools in a self-reinforcing manner, while specifying the role of ethics professionals in the process of ethical tool production.

Seeing like an investor: urban development planning, financialisation, and investors’ perceptions of London as an investment space

ABSTRACTThere is a growing orthodoxy that since the global financial crisis European policy-makers and planning systems have become more dependent on inward investment and the availability of global finance to fund welfare services and projects. This process of financialisation, it is claimed, is driven by the needs of developers and investors, who are focused on maximizing returns and limiting their social and economic liabilities. Planning agencies and traditional territory-based arrangements are viewed with increasing suspicion, as standing in the way of investment and acting as a brake on much needed house-building and regeneration. However, in this paper, drawing on detailed research with investors and developers in London, we argue that there needs to be a stronger focus in academic and policy writing on the multiple, variegated, and diverse calculations and framings that private sector actors take when making investment decisions. Too often their perspectives are caricatured and/or over-simplified. We show that and imaginations of planning and regulation are complex and that many firms have realized that market success results from becoming more deeply embedded in the local political, social, and regulatory environments in which they are investing. A greater understanding of these multiple forms of calculation, in turn, opens up opportunities for the maintenance and/or implementation of more effective forms of territorially-based soft and hard regulation. The paper concludes by outlining a broader research agenda for planning and urban studies.

Recreation user knowledge, support and engagement in French MPAs: Are there reverse side-effects of the French soft regulation and management approach?

Marine and coastal recreation represents a common and increasing range of activities in marine protected areas (MPA). Understanding and factoring in the views of recreational stakeholders is considered an important component of effective MPA management. The diversity of recreation users and history of management can present stakeholder engagement challenges This paper presents the findings of a French MPA recreation user survey involving 1000 respondents across 7 recreation activity types regarding knowledge of MPAs, the perceived importance of MPAs to their recreation activity, and support for additional regulation and engagement associated with French MPAs. Respondents generally had little or no knowledge about the MPA existence and regulations in locations they accessed for recreation. A low perceived importance of MPAs as a place to recreate and low interest in engagement was also apparent. However, there was significant support for additional MPA regulation. The results demonstrate the complexity of engaging with recreation users in a country where MPAs are a relatively recent concept superimposed on well-established and historically settled human uses. It seems that soft regulation of French MPAs to avoid impinging on recreation access and public liberties is associated with an overall low awareness of MPAs. This situation questions the ability of managers to engage effectively with recreation stakeholders and indicates a need to make French MPA more visible and more understandable for users.

Patterns of compliance with soft regulation in Italian listed companies

The aim of this paper is to identify some clusters of companies which represent and classify different forms of compliance with soft regulation and the comply-or-explain principle. The analysis was conducted through the administration of a structured questionnaire to a sample of compliance officers from 102 companies listed on the Italian stock market. Our results identify three different clusters of companies with different patterns of compliance characterised by distinct forms of regulation conformity. The first cluster of companies called “regulation adherents” favour a clear and explicit application of compliance, the second cluster called “regulation dissenters” favour the “explain” principle and show compliance values below the sample average, while the third cluster called “regulation dissenters with balanced task orientation and an independent supervisory unit” fall between the first two clusters. Our study gives a contribution to corporate governance literature, with the aim of contributing to both the studies focused on the measurement of code compliance and the studies focused on identification of different patterns of code conformity. This paper extends the literature related to compliance and makes a relevant step towards the identification of principles and practices related to an innovative and unique application of the anti-corruption system based on the comply-or-explain principle.

Bidirectional Role of β2-Adrenergic Receptor in Autoimmune Diseases.

Disorder of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is closely related to the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases (ADs). Catecholamine triggered beta2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) signaling is important in creating a bidirectional response in the progression of ADs due to factors including diverse expression patterns, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), biased signals, and desensitization of β2-AR, as well as different subtypes of Gα binding to β2-AR. In this review, we summarize the actions of β2-AR signaling in regulating the functions of immunocytes and in the pathogenesis of ADs, and the application of β2-AR agonists or antagonists in treating major types of ADs is also discussed. We suggest that restoring the immune balance via a soft regulation of the expression or activation of β2-AR is one of the promising therapeutic strategies for systematic ADs.

A Self-Oscillating Boosting Amplifier With Adaptive Soft Switching Control for Piezoelectric Transducers

This paper describes the design of a high-voltage amplifier for a piezoelectric transducer used in underwater communication applications, which incorporates boosting and signal generation within a single boost converter stage improving the total efficiency of the system. The proposed architecture combines hysteretic ripple current-mode control with an adaptive soft switching technique to achieve improved power efficiency over the full output power range. This is achieved by dynamically controlling the inductor current ripple to keep the converter running in soft switching. The feedback control and the soft switching regulation are implemented in a 0.25 $\mu \text{m}$ 60-V TSMC process with an external power stage. The system achieves a peak efficiency of 85% at 20 W of output power up to 30-kHz signal frequency.

Codes of conduct and practical recommendations as tools for self-regulation and soft regulation in EU public affairs

During the 2000s–2010s, EU Commission and Parliament and European interest groups advanced a specific model of regulation. It combines, on one side, lobbyists self-regulation—the codes of conduct for EU lobbying professionals' associations, such as SEAP and EPACA—with institutional nonbinding or “soft” regulation on the other side—the EU Transparency Register framework for registered interest groups, its code of conduct, the related system of checks, alerts, and complaints about interest groups misconduct put forward by the EU Joint Transparency Register Secretariat, the list of Dos and Don'ts by the EU Ombudsman. This paper examines the peculiar lobbying self-regulation and soft regulation tools and practices, as implemented within the EU model: SEAP and EPACA codes of conduct, EU Transparency Register, EU Interest Groups Code of Conduct, Commissioners and MPs codes of conduct, the procedures of the EU Joint Transparency Register Secretariat, and the Ombudsman list of Dos and Don'ts, underlining their growing impact on interest groups registration to the EU Transparency Register. This EU innovative regulatory model-based on a peculiar mix of self-regulation and institutional, incentive-based, soft regulation-stands as a concrete alternative to the traditional North American top-down binding regulatory pattern. The EU model is based on a participatory, cooperative, and pragmatic dialogue between European policy makers and interest groups. Clarifying the concept, the nature, and the functions of this model, while underlining its peculiarity is the purpose of this paper.

Corporate social responsibility reporting: The case of the agri-food sector

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting lies in the hands of business organizations themselves. This paper identifies and categorizes the forms of CSR that can be consistent with the most important current goals in a specific sector that touches us all- food. The investigation assesses the actual capability of agribusiness to contribute to sustainability and meet social needs and expectations, and questions whether private regulation is effective, and that societies may be better served by the government case for corporate CSR. Theories and concepts of CSR are explored, notably to identify the role of the government case. Empirical analysis concerns corporate reporting of business social commitment carried out by agri-food organizations. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines are used to assess the commitment to sustainability of a sample of major agribusiness companies operating in the seed, agrochemical, food processing and retail industries. The level of comprehensive reporting of the social responsibility reports of the selected companies is appraised through a content analysis framework. The results of the study indicate a low level of comprehensive reporting. Findings recommend that state intervention should not be completely dismissed and that CSR actions and their reporting should be monitored and evaluated by independent third parties. The paper argues that soft regulation of organizations is not sufficiently comparable enough or effective. Effort is required to build new institutional frameworks able to increase the level of commitment and fairness of business to their stakeholders and to society at large.

To the Yukon and Beyond: Local Laborers in a Global Labor Market

This article explores the possibilities for effective protection of labor rights in the emerging global labor market. It explores existing forms of transnational labor regulation, including both hard regulation, i.e., regulation by state-centered institutions, and soft regulation, i.e., regulation through private actors responding to market forces. The author finds that existing regulatory approaches are inadequate to ensure that the global marketplace will offer adequate labor standards to its global workforce. She proposes new approaches to global labor regulation, approaches that blend hard and soft law by reshaping market forces and embedding them in a regulatory framework that is protective of core labor rights.

Implementation of EU initiatives on gender diversity and executive directors’ pay in municipally-owned enterprises in Germany and The Netherlands

A popular topic in the assessment of the functioning of municipally-owned enterprises is the corporate governance (CG) of such organizations. The results of the comparative study presented in this paper indicate that European Union initiatives on gender diversity and executive directors’ pay are often not implemented in public CG codes and in practice in municipally-owned enterprises in Germany and The Netherlands. The paper proposes that EU initiatives should specifically target municipally-owned enterprises and shows concrete hard and soft regulation options for national and international policy-makers and future research perspectives.

Aktuelnost principa UNIDROIT za međunarodne trgovinske ugovore - efekti bottom­up metoda harmonizacije prava

The UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts have recently been published in their fourth edition, prompting the analysis of the origin of such a great success of this multifunctional instrument. Namely, this soft law regulation, although formally non-binding has significant de facto legal effects: it is a model law for many legal systems, it can be used as the law governing contracts, in processes before courts and arbitration tribunals, and as a means of interpretation and supplementation of uniform instruments. In this paper, the role of the so-called bottom-up approach was observed as an academic, non-sanctioned method of law harmonization that was applied in the making and developing of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. This regulation is an obvious example of advantages that can be achieved by the creative normative process of the most esteemed experts not limited by the political imperative of the states they hail from. Their results achieve success because of the quality of their solutions and by doing so they promote alternative methods of harmonization of international commercial law.

Consideration in developing new anti-inflammatory immune drugs- Soft regulation of inflammatory immune responses

Consideration in developing new anti-inflammatory immune drugs- Soft regulation of inflammatory immune responses

CP-25, a Novel Anti-inflammatory and Immunomodulatory Drug, Inhibits the Functions of Activated Human B Cells through Regulating BAFF and TNF-alpha Signaling and Comparative Efficacy with Biological Agents.

Paeoniflorin-6′-O-benzene sulfonate (code: CP-25) was the chemistry structural modifications of Paeoniflorin (Pae). CP-25 inhibited B cells proliferation stimulated by B cell activating factor belonging to the TNF family (BAFF) or Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). CP-25, Rituximab and Etanercept reduced the percentage and numbers of CD19+ B cells, CD19+CD20+ B cells, CD19+CD27+ B cells and CD19+CD20+CD27+ B cells induced by BAFF or TNF-alpha. There was significant difference between CP-25 and Rituximab or CP-25 and Etanercept. CP-25 down-regulated the high expression of BAFFR, BCMA, and TACI stimulated by BAFF or TNF-alpha. The effects of Rituximab and Etanercept on BAFFR or BCMA were stronger than that of CP-25. CP-25, Rituximab and Etanercept down-regulated significantly the expression of TNFR1 and TNFR2 on B cell stimulated by BAFF or TNF-alpha. CP-25, Rituximab and Etanercept down-regulated the expression of MKK3, P-p38, P-p65, TRAF2, and p52 in B cells stimulated by BAFF and the expression of TRAF2 and P-p65 in B cells stimulated by TNF-alpha. These results suggest that CP-25 regulated moderately activated B cells function by regulating the classical and alternative NF-κB signaling pathway mediated by BAFF and TNF-alpha-TRAF2-NF-κB signaling pathway. This study suggests that CP-25 may be a promising anti-inflammatory immune and soft regulation drug.

Municipalities as Frontrunners in Mitigation of Climate Change: Does soft regulation make a difference?

AbstractSoft regulatory measures are argued to represent a useful alternative to hard regulation when policy‐makers seek to deal with difficult problems. This article investigates the impact of a national guideline on climate and energy planning adopted in Norway, a soft regulatory instrument, which sought to encourage stronger local climate mitigation policies. To assess the effectiveness of this policy approach the research reported here investigated the impact of the guideline on the institutionalization of local climate policy activity in a set of Norwegian municipalities. Our findings indicate that for municipalities in the early phases of developing their climate mitigation policy the planning guideline contributed to legitimizing climate policy by linking it to other policy areas. For municipalities that had come further in developing their climate mitigation policy, however, the planning guideline made little difference. The findings indicate that even if soft policy instruments might be needed in a situation with complex regulatory issues, it is difficult to achieve results without the support of harder policy measures. This is particularly the case if local authorities face financial constraints and lack manpower in their work in developing effective climate mitigation policy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

THE ROLE OF SOFT LAW IN THE CONVERGENCE OF PENSION POLICIES OF EU MEMBER STATES

The failure of the European Union to harmonize the pension policies of its Member States and tighten the policy of budget deficit and public debt control have intensified the efforts to find a new way to regulate this area. Instead of harmonizing the Member States’ pension policies, the European Union has decided to take action aimed at their convergence. Given that the great heterogeneity of the Member States’ pension systems and policies made the implementation of the hard law infeasible, soft law has been implemented for regulating this area. The aim of this paper is to determine the effect of soft law regulation on the convergence of pension policies of the European Union Member States and assess its impact on the achievement of common defined objectives: sustainability and adequacy of pension systems, as well as modernization of pension systems.

Patient access to electronic health records: Differences across ten countries

ObjectivesPatient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) are being implemented at international scale. Comparing policies and systems could allow countries to learn from each other to address global and nation-specific challenges. We compare national PAEHR policy (hard and soft regulation) and services in 10 countries. MethodsPAEHR policy and system documentation was gathered from Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United States. A basic analytic model for policy analysis was used to delimit our focus to policy content, followed by an inductive thematic analysis across countries, in which we clustered initial themes into a set of categories of PAEHR service “approaches” related to three specific content areas. ResultsAlthough all 10 countries ensured some patient rights to access medical records, policies and systems were highly variable, as were the technological processes arising from these. In particular, three policy areas showed great variability. Depending upon country of origin, a patient would encounter differences in: login procedures (security), access to own and other patients’ data during adolescence (user rights), and types of medical data made available to the patient (data sets). ConclusionsIndividuals encounter very different access rights to their medical data depending on where they live. Countries may be able to develop improved policies by examining how other nations have solved common problems. Harmonizing policies is also an initial step likely to be needed before cross-national PAEHRs could be possible.

Integración e incorporación de las normas internacionales de soft law sobre derechos humanos a los sistemas penal y disciplinario en Colombia

Las normas de derecho blando no han sido consideradas como obligatorias, por no aparecer en tratados internacionales. Sin embargo, una interpretación que reconozca la dignidad humana y pretenda la ampliación del alcance de los derechos humanos permite que, a través del control de convencionalidad, dichas normas se integren al ordenamiento jurídico colombiano, por componer el Bloque de Constitucionalidad. Esta novedad ha sido introducida por el Código Penitenciario y Carcelario, desde el cual las normas de derecho blando pueden incorporarse al Código Penal y de Procedimiento Penal; similar ejercicio cabría en el derecho disciplinario, debido a que el sistema penal es uno solo; al igual que el sistema disciplinario.

The role of CTLA-4 in the pathogenesis of chronic tonsillitis

Objective:The purposes of the present study were to explore the role of CTLA-4 in the pathogenesis on development of chronic tonsillitis, and to provide new possibilities and theoretical basis for the drug therapy of chronic tonsillitis and, from soft regulation of the inflammatory immune response point of view. Method:Tonsil tissues were obtained by tonsillectomy and classified into two groups according to clinical forms of tonsillitis, CT (chronic tonsillitis) group (n=21) and TH (hypertrophy of tonsil) group (n=15). We used HE staining to observe the pathological changes in the structure of tonsil tissue in different groups. We used immunofluorescence (IF) method to determine the differences in expression of CTLA-4 between two groups and their distribution characteristics , and used Real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR technique (qRT-PCR) to detect CTLA-4 mRNA expression in the two groups. Result:①HE staining showed the pathogeny structure mainly characterized as the follicular hyperplasia and germinal center in CT group, and obvious "star" phenomenons in TH group. ②Immunofluorescence results showed that the average fluorescence intensity and density of CTLA-4 protein in CT group was significantly higher than in TH group (P<0.05), the difference was statistically significant. ③The qRT-PCR experiment results showed that the expression level of CTLA-4 mRNA in CT group were obviously higher than in HT group (t=6.294, P<0.01), and the differences were statistically significant too. Conclusion:We found CTLA-4 played an important role in the development of chronic tonsillitis disease, suggesting that the mechanism of immunosuppression may exist in the process of chronic tonsil inflammation. Tonsil lymphoid tissue immune suppression provided a new explanation for recurrent tonsillitis, and provides a possibility for the development of new drugs for the treatment of chronic tonsillitis with the exception of surgery recurrent tonsillitis, at the same time for the clinical treatment of chronic tonsillitis in addition to surgery, but the possibility of researching new drugs from the perspective of immunology.

The Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of ‘Significant Law of Treating Haze’ and Improvement Ideas

As the ‘important law of treating haze’ of the new period, while the newly revised Air Pollution Law of the People's Republic of China is effectively promoting all people to participate in battle of air pollution prevention by defining the new joint prevention and control of air pollution pattern, concretizing local supervision responsibilities and diversified appraisal mechanisms, improving the liability system of air pollution, etc., it gradually exposes many difficult problems, such as soft regulations about source treatment, improperly combing key concepts, dysfunctional joint conferences without actual effects, and failing to realize the cooperative progress of economic development and environmental protection. It is urgent to effectively improve air environment quality and realize the ecological process of economic development by building crisscross and the bidirectional mechanism of joint prevention and control of air pollution, setting up the scientific operational model involving subjects of pollution sources, building diversified disputes handling patterns, perfecting sharing scientific and technological methods of preventing and controlling air pollution, and improving the information disclose system.

The role of organizational learning in soft regulation of workplace gender equality

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain progress, or the lack of it, in achieving workplace gender equality goals prescribed by affirmative action regulation by using concepts from soft regulation and organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachThe research design is a longitudinal study (2002-2012) of a critical case, that of a single large organization in the male-dominated steel manufacturing, distribution and mining industries. The case focusses on the evidence about organizational learning to be found in that organization’s reports to government on its activities to promote workplace gender equality.FindingsWhile other factors play a role, the apparent failure of the soft regulation to generate a significant shift in gender equality outcomes may also be attributed to ineffective organizational learning, demonstrated by the absence of systematic reflection within the organization on how to improve workplace gender equality, and the lack of firm targets and external benchmarking.Research limitations/implicationsSelf-reported data may be overstated or incomplete. More research is needed to confirm the nature of the specific learning processes occurring within organizations.Practical implicationsAbsent the advent of hard sanctions in workplace gender equality regulation, the responsible government agencies may find it valuable to focus on ways to encourage target organizations to develop competence in organizational learning.Social implicationsMore effective gender equality regulation may change organizational policy and practice and improve work opportunities for women.Originality/valueRather than concluding that the only alternative, when soft regulation is unsuccessful, is hard regulation, this paper shifts the focus to ways that soft regulatory processes might be improved to strengthen their effect.