Environmental Governance Gaps in Emerging Markets: Strategies for Addressing Institutional Voids and Mitigating Externalities

Éditeurs invités

• Florian Becker-Ritterspach, HTW Berlin
• Raghda El Ebrashi, German International University (Cairo)
• Jasper Hotho, Copenhagen Business School

Synthèse

Environmental degradation has become an urgent global concern, with emerging and developing economies facing a particularly complex set of challenges. While many of these countries are rapidly industrializing and increasingly integrated into global value chains, they often lack the regulatory infrastructures, institutional capacity, and enforcement mechanisms necessary to ensure environmentally responsible economic activity. These so-called environmental institutional voids amplify the negative externalities of business operations, threatening both ecological integrity and long-term development prospects.

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Thèmes proposés

• Defining and conceptualizing environmental institutional voids in emerging markets, and assessing how these voids impact environmental outcomes and corporate behavior. What constitutes an "environmental" institutional void, and how do formal and informal institutions interact to exacerbate or mitigate negative externalities of business operations
• Examining how firms strategically respond to institutional voids to achieve environmental objectives, including circumventing strategies (bypassing institutional deficiencies), coping mechanisms (adapting to challenges in the absence of robust institutions), and compensating actions (offsetting negative environmental impacts when formal governance is lacking)
• Investigating the influence of multinational enterprises in host countries with weak environmental institutions. How do MNEs transfer environmental standards and best practices from developed to emerging markets, and with what effects? In what ways can MNEs act as catalysts for improved local environmental governance or institutional change?
• Investigating the emergence of environmental or "green" innovation in contexts of institutional voids. When formal support or infrastructure is lacking, how do companies and entrepreneurs innovate to solve environmental problems? Topics may include frugal innovation, social innovation partnerships, and novel business models that address institutional gaps
• Analyzing how institutional voids influence the transition towards sustainability (such as shifts to low-carbon energy, circular economy, or sustainable agriculture) in emerging markets. How actors adapt business models to propel sustainability transitions despite voids
• Exploring how state actors in emerging markets influence the persistence or reduction of environmental institutional voids. How different state configurations enable or constrain MNEs in implementing robust environmental strategies and how tensions between national sovereignty and transnational environmental standards shape corporate practices
• Identifying public policy frameworks and collaborative approaches that can help close environmental institutional voids. What roles can governments, international organizations, and civil society play in partnership with business to strengthen environmental governance?