http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/13839/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31149/ 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z SUMMARY After outlining recent developments and the scope, target audience, and structure of the book, we review the literature on globalisation and environmental policy, especially the impact of globalisation on the environment and changes in environmental governance in relation to increasingly global spheres of influence. This is followed by a succinct representation of the essential points of all contributions to this volume. While each chapter has its own distinct focus and perspective, we identify common themes in major outcomes and future directions: the delicate and multifaceted relation between economic globalisation and environmental protection, shifts in domestic environmental issues, evolving governance mechanisms, dealing with changed sovereignty, the promotion of self-enforcing mechanisms, prospects for existing and new policy instruments, and finding a new balance between globalisation and national environmental policy. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26332/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z SUMMARY Companies operating in multiple countries face different and often changing regimes of environmental regulation. This regulatory turbulence raises the question of what environmental strategies multinational enterprises with a portfolio of divergent regulatory regimes should develop in relation to their international business expansion strategies. We argue that multinationals seeking to develop an effective environmental strategy should integrate relative regulatory stringency and international market interdependence. We discuss and illustrate four environmental strategies that match different regulatory/market configurations for multinationals from both developed and emerging markets, as well as the factors that drive strategic changes. We introduce a „regulatory turbulence tool‟ that describes relevant regulatory/market configurations and prescribes contingently effective, dynamic environmental strategies. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/25830/ 2011-06-06T00:00:00Z The debate over anthropogenic climate change or the idea that human activities are altering the physical climate of the planet continues to rage amid seemingly irreconcilable differences, both within the developed world and between developed and less developed countries. With high uncertainty, rival worldviews, and wide diversity of meaning attached to the expression, climate change has become a key narrative within which local and transnational issues – economic, social, and political – are framed and contested. The field is fraught with controversies regarding causes and consequences, as well as different attitudes toward risks, technologies, and economic and social well-being for different groups. Parties also dispute how to share responsibility for reducing emissions – whether the issue primarily needs market, regulatory, technological, or behavioral solutions. Climate change is many things to many people. Competing interests negotiate over its interpretation and utilize various strategies to promote practices that advance their own understandings regarding climate change and its governance. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26290/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: While most network studies adopt a static view, we argue that corporate social networks are subject to endogenous dynamics of cognitive path dependence and self-reinforcing power relations. Over time, these dynamics drive corporate networks to become increasingly focused (i.e., more homogeneous, stable, and tightly knit). More focused networks induce organisations to perpetuate existing routines, at the expense of developing new capabilities. We examine the role of organisational structure in maintaining balanced, rather than focused, networks, so that business organisations can realise progressive and timely adjustments to their evolving environments. We develop a theoretical argument, illustrated with the divergent network adjustment patterns of two large, mature companies, suggesting that business organisations with the following structural antecedents are likely to maintain balanced networks: the concurrence of centralisation and decentralisation; a high degree of differentiation and an intermediate level of integration; and an intermediate degree of formalisation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38848/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: Eureka is a century-old Netherlands-based company with multiple divisions and worldwide operations. Its focal division has had a ‘green’ focus since the early 1990s, first to ensure legal compliance and later on to achieve eco-efficiency and green marketing. Environmental coordinator, Peter Jansen, is involved in protracted negotiations with both external constituencies (the European Commission and the European trade association) and different internal actors (including an environmental steering group, business units, and the corporate research laboratory) to garner support for an environmentally benign product innovation. He eventually manages to get the green light from all stakeholders and realize his eco-innovation. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/40125/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Multinational enterprises face a great variance of environmental regulations in the countries in which they operate. How best to confront this challenge? In our research, we set out to develop and illustrate a conceptual framework for understanding the problem and suggest appropriate strategies. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/38789/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z Abstract: Greenheart, a multinational food producer headquartered in the Netherlands, has long sought environmental sustainability. Greenheart initially made great strides: it embraced sustainability as a core value, rethought its business activities, was open to a variety of (external) stakeholders, and allocated ample means to reduce its environmental impact. The initiative, however, lost momentum following a change of ownership and the advent of economic difficulties. Sustainability was interpreted in a more restricted sense and became of secondary importance. Environmental activities now had to fit within the existing business framework and a more restricted number of predominantly internal stakeholders had to be considered. Finally, the environmental budget largely evaporated. At the same time, the company’s environmental activities were undertaken on a more structured, integrative, and “realistic” basis. Were the changes in Greenheart’s environmental practices positive or negative from the viewpoint of sustainable business development? What were the critical factors accounting for the changes in corporate environmental performance? http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26284/ 2008-03-12T00:00:00Z The Base- or Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BOP) philosophy has rapidly gained currency in business, following seminal articles and books in the popular management literature (Prahalad and Hammond, 2002; Hart and Christensen, 2002; Prahalad, 2005; Hart, 2005). The thrust of the BOP philosophy is to achieve economic and social development to four billion persons with very low incomes through a practical business model that proposes decentralized, often small-scale production and consumption activities that are tailored to the needs of the poor. The BOP philosophy has appealed to many in the business (education) world (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2007; Aspen Institute, 2007; Economist, 2004). By contrast, the academic research community has clearly lagged behind. The rare publications in scholarly journals have focused on the economic and social dimensions of the BOP philosophy (Kandachar and Halme, 2007). While its viability and merits have been questioned (Karnani, 2007a, b; Landrum, 2007), the continued exploration of the socio-economic potential of the BOP business model, with a number of demonstrated „success stories‟ (Prahalad, 2005; Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, 2007), is definitely worthwhile – especially against the backdrop of the lack of success of alternative models (Sachs, 2005; Stiglitz, 2006). http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10811/ 2007-07-01T00:00:00Z Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability of institutional entrepreneurs to spearhead change despite constraints. In many complex fields, however, change also needs cooperation from numerous dispersed actors. This presents the additional paradox of ensuring that these actors engage in collective action when individual interests favor lack of cooperation. We draw on complementary insights from institutional and regime theories to identify drivers of collective institutional entrepreneurship and develop an analytical framework. This is applied to the field of global climate policy to illustrate how collective inaction was overcome to realize a global regulatory institution, the Kyoto Protocol. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10812/ 2007-03-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10674/ 2006-02-01T00:00:00Z The literatures on stakeholder engagement by companies and organizational learning give little consideration to the power (or influence) of stakeholders to affect the process or content of organizational learning. These literatures generally assume that common ground between companies and their stakeholders can be established as a prerequisite for learning, that learning is a quasi-autonomous process unaffected by the motives or power of stakeholders, and that actors have the power to fulfil roles that are critical in fostering learning. The paper seeks to address these omissions, examining how and why stakeholder power and organizational learning interact, drawing on comparative case studies of the environmental management practices found in two major companies. The evidence from these cases suggests a complex relationship between the ambition of company goals, the structure of learning, and the influence of stakeholders on the process and outcomes of learning. Exploitative learning routines were effective when stakeholder influences converged, whereas explorative learning took place without convergence but the implementation of this learning was hampered. We suggest that this raises important issues for companies that seek to undertake both exploitative and explorative learning and that future studies of organizational learning should take more explicit account of the effects of stakeholder power. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10668/ 2005-04-01T00:00:00Z Options for government’s future climate policy are discussed as a function of the architecture of the present regime; the latter is anchored in the Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at reducing the human impact on climate change. We describe the basic tenets of this agreement, and explain how it was realised despite the widely divergent interests. The strengths and weaknesses of the Kyoto regime, and related future opportunities and threats, are presented. The degrees of collective decision-making and international participation were the basis for exploring four scenarios (local market, local collectivity, global market, and global collectivity) and concomitant policy instruments and actors. The possibilities of enhancing participation by linking issues and creating bandwagons are discussed. We conclude that the main flaw of the Kyoto regime is its lack of appropriate incentives. To realise a more effective regime, future climate policy should be geared towards making participation more attractive and rendering compliance self-enforcing. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10669/ 2005-04-01T00:00:00Z After outlining the scope, target audience, and structure of the book, we review the literature on globalisation and environmental policy, especially the impact of globalisation on the environment and changes in environmental governance in relation to increasingly global spheres of influence. This is followed by a succinct representation of the essential points of all contributions to this volume. While each chapter has its own distinct focus and perspective, common themes have been identified in major outcomes and future directions: the delicate and multifaceted relation between economic globalisation and environmental protection, changes in the prioritisation of environmental issues, shifts in governance mechanisms, dealing with reduced sovereignty, prospects for existing and new policy instruments, and finding a balance between globalisation and national environmental policy. These findings lead to conclusions with respect to the commensurability of different governance levels and the compatibility of different policy areas. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10670/ 2005-02-01T00:00:00Z In this paper, it is argued that innovation can be the result of a repetitive, multi-actor negotiation process. We present the case of an environment-related product innovation in a large multinational company which emerged as the outcome of a complex interaction process in which numerous external and internal actors negotiated to safeguard their own interests. This negotiation perspective challenges conventional economic views of innovations, in which new products and processes are regarded as exogenous variables, the outcomes of deliberately planned research, or the combination of technology (pushing) and market (pulling) inducements. Instead, innovation may be a non-linear, unpredictable process which involves multiple actors with divergent interests and which leads to outcomes that are collectively acceptable but not necessarily (sub)optimal.