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Confronting trade‐offs and interactive effects in the choice of policy focus: Specialized versus comprehensive private governance
Author(s) -
Auld Graeme
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
regulation and governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.417
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1748-5991
pISSN - 1748-5983
DOI - 10.1111/rego.12034
Subject(s) - certification , corporate governance , business , public policy , public relations , public economics , action (physics) , process management , political science , economics , management , finance , physics , quantum mechanics , law
In setting standards for responsible business practices, certification programs create issue boundaries delineated by the focus of their standards. These issue boundaries may impede action on certain causes of problems (i.e. problem interactive effects) or lead to policy actions that affect other governance initiatives (i.e. policy interactive effects). When these interactions are extensive, programs confront trade‐offs: develop as a comprehensive program (i.e. have a broad policy focus) and take on higher internal administrative costs, or develop as a specialized program (i.e. have a narrow policy focus) and undertake to develop mechanisms to facilitate across‐program coordination. This paper explores these trade‐offs. It examines the origins of the different policy foci of coffee, forest, and fisheries certification programs, and identifies five strategies that programs are currently using to manage policy and/or problem interactive effects. Then, informed by research in public administration and international relations, it details additional approaches for improving issue‐boundary management.