The Regulatory Configurations of Political CSR : International Interactions of Business, Civil Society and Government

This paper contributes to the literature on political CSR by investigating the processes by which regulations reflecting political CSR are formulated and disseminated. We conceptualise international interactions of business, civil society and government as ‘regulatory configurations' of ‘initiation' and ‘multiplier effects' in order to identify and distinguish different dynamics in what is collectively referred to as political CSR. We argue that political CSR reflects 1) a variety of regulatory configurations among key actors, in which business, civil society and governmental organisations can lead in the initiation of political CSR as well as being effected through the multiplier effects of political CSR; and 2) a variety of regulatory configurations between national and international spheres, with diverse patterns of initiation and multiplier effects of political CSR