Direct Targeting as an NGO Political Strategy: Examining Private Authority Regimes in the Forestry Sector

Abstract

In recent years, International Political Economy literature on “politics beyond state” has emphasized the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in broader policy processes, both national and international. In addition to their impact on states, NGOs influence the policies of non-state actors such as firms via public and private politics. Dissatisfied with the progress firms have made in response to public regulation, NGOs have sponsored private authority regimes in several issue areas and pushed firms to participate in them. Across the world, the contest between NGOs and firms has provoked substantial behavioral and programmatic change'including widespread participation in these private authority regimes'among firms seeking to escape NGO pressures. Using firm-level data, this paper examines why direct targeting has not led firms in the U.S. forest products sector to participate in an NGO-sponsored private authority regime, the Forest Stewardship Council. This global regime has been adopted widely in Europe, but U.S.-based forestry firms have tended to favor a domestic industry-sponsored regime, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Our analysis suggests that the desire of firms to maintain control over their institutional environment in light of hostile relations with NGOs has led US-based firms to favor the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

Deepening Understanding of Certification Adoption and Non-Adoption of International-Supplier Ethical Standards

“…They also implement differentiation strategies to compete for producers' adoption seeking positioning among certain niches or targeting specific types of firms (Reinecke et al 2012). Therefore, identifying the antecedents for adoption-by program-constitutes valuable information for the certifying organization's strategic decisions and contributes to prior research on the dynamics of the standards market and the coexistence of multiple certifications in an industry (Durand and McGuire 2005;Reinecke et al 2012;Riisgaard 2008;Sasser et al 2006;Smith and Fischlein 2010a, b).…”

Development aid as a global public good – a case study

“…(This does not mean that all organizations that differ from the state can be called a nongovernmental organization [NGO] because they also must be non-profit.) The political science approach is interested in how NGOs influence public policies (Keck -Sikkink 1998, Wapner 1995, Sasser et al 2006. Political scientists deal with advocacy questions in general, and in the case of development NGOs (NGDOs) the research focus is on the interaction between aid and security, as well as the influence of NGOs on conflict management.…”

The Embededness of Responsible Business Practice: National Institutional Environments and Corporate Social Responsibility

“…We should therefore take into account that different political-economic national institutions may affect CSR. Literature on the emergence and adoption of specific CSR practices for instance points us to the role that consumers, NGOs and discourses on sustainability play (Micheletti,2003;Sasser et al, 2006). The power and significance of these factors are of course also affected by the character and quality of other national political-economic institutions.…”