Business and Public Policy
Responses to Environmental and Social Protection Processes

A theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between protective public policies and business compliance, first published in 2010.

Jorge E. Rivera (Author)

9781107406285, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 July 2012

266 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.36 kg

Review of the hardback: 'For anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of how and why firms the world over have softened their opposition to environmental regulatory demands and adopted more conciliatory stands, this book is a must. It is not just about how businesses participate in the public policy process. It is about how they have internalized public policy and other pressures to upgrade their environmental performance. It provides rigorous theoretical and empirical answers to important questions such as: which firms are the better environmental performers; what drives their environmental performance; and does their environmental performance yield benefits to these companies.' Alfred Marcus, Edson Spencer Professor of Strategy and Technological Leadership, University of Minnesota

It is increasingly common for businesses to face public policies and government regulation that demand some form of environmental or social protection. These protective public policies have grown in number, complexity, and stringency over the last few decades, not only in industrialized countries but also in the developing world. In this 2010 book, Jorge Rivera presents a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between protective public policies and business compliance. This framework explains different levels of business compliance in terms of three different factors: the link between the stages of protective public policies and different levels of business resistance, the effect of country context, and the effect of firm-level characteristics. The second part of the book supports and elaborates on this framework by presenting empirical studies that examine two voluntary environmental programs: the US ski industry's Sustainable Slopes Program and the Certification for Sustainable Tourism in Costa Rica.

List of figures
List of tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Publication acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Business responses to the protective policy process in the US
3. Country context and the protective policy process-business response relationship
4. Firm level characteristics and business responses to environmental/social protection demands
5. Is greener whiter? Resistance strategies by the US ski industry
6. Is greener whiter yet? Resistance or beyond compliance by the US ski industry?
7. Institutional pressures and proactive environmental protection: evidence from the Costa Rican hotel industry
8. Chief executive officers and proactive environmental protection: evidence from the Costa Rican hotel industry
9. Certified beyond compliance and competitive advantage in developing countries
10. Conclusion
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Corporate governance [KJR], Business ethics & social responsibility [KJG], Business & management [KJ]