Voluntary business initiatives can reduce public pressure for regulating firm behaviour abroad

Kolcava, Dennis; Rudolph, Lukas; Bernauer, Thomas

doi:10.1080/13501763.2020.1751244

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…In contrast to private politics mechanisms, the question if corporate business conduct is subject to accountability via a public politics mechanism -citizens' attitudes towards firms and citizens' regulatory preferences in particular -is much less well-understood (McDonnell and Werner, 2016). It is only recently that studies have started to examine the link between corporate environmental action and citizens' regulatory preferences and find that voluntary environmental action by firms can reduce citizens' support for state-led policy (Kolcava et al, 2020a;Malhotra et al, 2018) and thus preempt regulation (Baron, 2014;Fleckinger and Glachant, 2011;Maxwell et al, 2000).…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the ensuing expected "anti-corporate" reaction in citizens' policy preferences would resemble customer backlash in response to perceived corporate hypocrisy (Ioannou et al, 2018;Smith and Rhiney, 2020;Wagner et al, 2009). Based on arguments previously put forward by Malhotra et al (2018) and Kolcava et al (2020a), I expect citizens' support for government intervention to depend positively on the perceived environmental benefit thereof (Bechtel and Scheve, 2013;Huber et al, 2020). As greenwashing accusations supposedly reduce citizens' confidence in firms' environmental problem-solving efforts, and thus, the perceived benefit associated with government intervention probably increases, citizens' support for government intervention should increase as well.…”

Section: Hence I Hypothesise Thatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this light, I investigate if greenwashing allegations affect citizens' attitudes towards voluntary environmental action by firms and if these accusations can influence public pressure for environmental regulation of business activity. Thereby, I build on arguments from an emerging literature on how public opinion connects voluntary corporate action to political decision-makers' choices on regulation (Dana and Nadler, 2019;Kolcava et al, 2020a;Malhotra et al, 2018). In extension to that literature, however, I assess some of the "political consequences of greenwashing" (Malhotra et al, 2018, p.17).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Greenwashing and public demand for government regulation

Kolcava¹

2020

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Environmental policy in many Western democracies relies on voluntary environmentalaction by the private sector. This policy mode is strongly contested though.Proponents of introducing government regulation argue that voluntary corporateenvironmental action is rarely more than “greenwashing”. Can policymakers rely onpublic opinion to hold firms accountable for (lacking) contributions to environmentalgoods? I argue that greenwashing accusations reduce citizens’ confidence in boththe effectiveness of voluntary environmental action by firms and the alignment offirms’ economic interest and environmental protection. Furthermore, I propose, thatcitizens’ support for government intervention increases in response to firms being accusedof greenwashing. I test this argument in a survey experiment (N=2112) on asample representative of the Swiss voting population. The analysis shows that accusingfirms of greenwashing changes how citizens perceive voluntary environmentalaction by firms. This, however, does not translate into shifts in citizens’ regulatorypreferences.

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Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Hence I Hypothesise Thatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Greenwashing and public demand for government regulation

Kolcava¹

2020

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“…Recent research, on which we build here, has examined how corporate self-regulation affects political pressure for government regulation via mass public opinion. According to this argument, citizens' evaluations of self-regulation matter because these evaluations are likely to influence policy-makers' preferences on whether to allow and/or accept private sector self-regulation (Kolcava et al, 2020;Malhotra et al, 2018). In the research presented here, we are particularly interested in how prior attitudes towards the private-public sector relationship in general influence policy preferences with respect to specific environmental policy challenges.…”

Section: The State-private Sector Relationship and Public Opinionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Greening the Economy Through Voluntary Private Sector Initiatives or Government Regulation? A Public Opinion Perspective

Kolcava¹,

Bernauer²

2020

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Societal efforts towards greening the economy are typically accompanied by controversy over whether voluntary initiatives by firms or government regulation are more effective to that end. Recent research shows that public opinion plays an important role in this regard because citizens’ preferences are crucial when democratic policy-makers decide. We investigate whether and how citizens’ general attitudes regarding the relationship between the private sector and government can help explain their policy preferences. We argue that whether citizens perceive the firms-state relationship as synergistic or antagonistic has an effect on their support for private sector self-regulation or government regulation respectively. We assess this argument based on information from a representative survey (N=1677) in Switzerland that covers four green economy issues: environmental impacts of consumption of peat, plastic packaging, climate- (un)friendly pension fund investments, and consumption of clothing. We find that citizens who regard the firms-state relationship in environmental policy-making as synergistic favor private sector self-regulation (with government rules potentially serving as a floor standard). In contrast, citizens who regard the firms-state relationship as antagonistic prefer either self-regulation or government intervention. We also observe that views on whether firms engage in self-regulation to gain a competitive economic advantage shape the perception of a synergistic firms-state relationship. Our findings are relevant to current green economy debates as policy-makers in Europe and elsewhere are trying to move beyond the ‘either firms or the state’ paradigm in regulatory environmental politics.

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“…It is hence of particular interest to explore if such voluntary industry initiatives crowd-out or crowd-in public demand for ambitious state-led food waste reduction governance. Related research from other environmental policy fields lets us expect that such feedback effects are an important factor shaping public opinion [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] , and even individuals' personal behaviors 34,35 , but as far as we know there are no such studies in the food sector and in particular not concerning food waste.…”

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Citizens support ambitious but costly regulation against food waste

Fesenfeld¹,

Rudolph²,

Bernauer³

2021

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About one-third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is wasted, particularly in high-income countries. Reducing this waste is key to decreasing negative environmental impacts from the food sector and increasing food security in developing countries. Yet, achieving food waste reduction is challenging. It is widely presumed that efforts at stronger food waste governance may increase food prices, and hence consumer and citizen opposition that renders effective governance politically unfeasible. Here, we assess this critical presumption and argue that policy framing and design can ensure public support for ambitious but costly food waste governance, while policy feedbacks from voluntary firm actions are unlikely to diminish public support. Our empirical analysis uses survey experiments with a population-representative sample (N=3’329) from a typical high-income country with a unique direct democratic tradition, Switzerland. First, in a combined framing and conjoint experiment, we show that messages emphasizing national or international social norms in favor of reducing food waste (policy framing) can increase public support for more ambitious reduction targets. We also show that a majority of citizens support food waste governance that leads to substantial increases in food prices, but only if such policies set stringent reduction targets and are transparently monitored (policy design). Finally, in a vignette experiment, we show that voluntary industry initiatives do not crowd out individuals’ intentions to reduce their food waste nor support for stronger governmental regulation, but even crowd public support in if industry initiatives are unambitious (policy feedback). Our research offers an analytical template for studying public support for food waste governance and shows that there is more political room for adopting ambitious policies than hitherto presumed.

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Voluntary business initiatives can reduce public pressure for regulating firm behaviour abroad

Cited by 24 publications

References 72 publications

Greenwashing and public demand for government regulation

Greenwashing and public demand for government regulation

Greening the Economy Through Voluntary Private Sector Initiatives or Government Regulation? A Public Opinion Perspective

Citizens support ambitious but costly regulation against food waste

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