Governance & Regulation

In our research, we are concerned about the political role of companies and regulatory processes related to sustainability.

In this context, we look into the phenomena of “new governance,” i.e., those rule-making processes in which not only the state, but also civil society organizations and companies are involved in further developing the rules of the game for corporate action. These include, for example, initiatives such as the Stewardship Council or integrity pacts to prevent corruption. These governance aspects are becoming increasingly relevant for corporate practice in light of a patchy framework for globalized business relationships.

In addition, with regard to the external communication of a company, we also look at regulations in reporting (e.g. EU CSR Directive on non-financial and diversity disclosure / CSR-RUG) and deal in this context with the practical implementation at company level. This also includes aspects such as stakeholder management, materiality analyses and reporting frameworks.

 

Questions we address in this research area include:

How can we explain the emergence of the fragmented sustainability governance for gold?

How do companies affect and are affected by different manifestations of fragmented sustainability governance in the case of governance for gold?

How can evolutionary system theory explain not only the co-evolution of two distinct VCR functions (SSCM and TC) but also the potential and challenges for their future alignment?

How to a) understand the phenomenon of fragmented sustainability governance and b) deal with fragmentation of governance in daily business operations?