Institutional Designs and Effectiveness of Global Standard Initiatives (GSI): An Empirical Evaluation
Year: 2011
Type: preprint
Abstract: When does the implementation of global standard initiatives (GSI) in transnational companies (TNC) lead to effective outcomes? GSIs as institutions which try to find solutions for transboundary issues (e.g. health, migration, climate, labour rights) are becoming more and more important in the emerging global governance architecture. In GSIs, actors from different societal sectors (state, business, civil society) can be involved. Until now, many scholars have considered the setting of GSIs or questions of legitimacy, but they rarely focused on effectiveness. This study assesses the effectiveness of GSIs concerned with the social issue of labour rights. A GSI can be considered effective if a considerable aimed change in behaviour of the targeted actors is achieved through its implementation. GSIs concerned with the issue of labour rights have to be implemented by TNCs. This is why TNCs and their relationship to GSI-relevant stakeholders play a crucial role concerning the effectiveness of GSIs. This study offers an analytical framework for explaining GSIs’ effectiveness. It consists, firstly, of a conceptualisation of a causal chain leading to effectiveness and, secondly on theoretical explanations for it. The implications of this framework are then investigated empirically. The empirical GSIs chosen are the Fair Ware Foundation (FWF) and the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), both considered with labour rights. Preliminary empirical evidence supports the theoretical expectations about which institutional designs of GSIs lead to a higher effectiveness and which to a lower one.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Claude Meier
Institution: University of Zurich
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1559473725