Publications
Publications
- 2024
- HBS Working Paper Series
Private Regulation, Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change: A Business History Perspective
By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones
Abstract
Private regulatory systems, including voluntary efforts by firms to restrain their own behavior are the primary form of global climate change governance. However, when environmental challenges first rose up on the scientific and political agendas during the 1970s, the initial emphasis was on states and government regulation coordinated by the United Nations. This working paper provides a business history perspective on how the privatization of global environmental governance happened and shows how the system of private regulation was put in place before climate change became a priority issue. We argue that there were two separate paths which eventually merged. The first was the growth of certification schemes for emergent categories such as organic food, green buildings and sustainable investment which lacked definitions and legitimacy. Policy makers had no interest in them, or positively disliked them. Institutional entrepreneurs build institutions to create credibility and legitimacy. These entrepreneurs were drawn from outside big business, and were in some cases hostile to it. The second path was the growing engagement of big business pressure groups, notably the International Chamber of Commerce, in the environmental strategies of the United Nations. Institutional entrepreneurs were again important in developing the arguments and concepts around business self-regulation. The two paths merged from the 1990s, as societal pressures for business to act on the environment have grown louder, so greenwashing, green-hushing, and transition washing have diffused throughout the global climate governance system.
Keywords
Certification; Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Business History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy
Citation
Bergquist, Ann-Kristin, and Geoffrey Jones. "Private Regulation, Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change: A Business History Perspective." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-041, January 2024.