Purpose – This paper seeks to take stock of core arguments in some of the most central governance traditions and to discuss their capacity to deliver solutions. It starts with an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the ideas of market‐, state‐ and civil‐society‐led governance,...

Purpose – This paper sets out to argue for rethinking governance through the prism of Montesquieu's model of checks and balances within state powers. It aims to explore the parallel between the eighteenth century concept of division of power and the current need to engage and balance the...

Purpose – This article aims to explore the character of an emerging model of corporate social responsibility (CSR)‐oriented societal governance in an exchange theoretical perspective and to examine the distinctive characteristics of the relations between civil society, business and...

Purpose – The increasing engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) potentially indicates an attempt to “re‐embed” the economy in a wider societal context, following a period of neoliberal market exposure, deregulation, and separation of commercial and societal concerns. The...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the challenges of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) with other strategic foci into the supply/contractor chain, both conceptually and empirically, with a focus on one sectorial case: the Norwegian upstream petroleum industry. It...

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the interplay between corporate social responsibility and innovation and questions the premise, often underlying EU communications, that the two agendas are in general mutually supportive. In order to accommodate a closer fit the paper argues for a dynamic...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to note the remarkable expansion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Taking this as point of departure, it aims to discuss the potential for aligning CSR‐oriented industrial self‐regulation with public...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate failures of self‐regulation among RI actors following the current economic crisis. It also seeks to propose specific regulations for the investment business. The paper questions whether financial capitalism can support sustainability....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extreme case of the Icelandic banking crisis in relation to critical governance issues at governmental, industry and civil society levels. Design/methodology/approach – This is a case study of the Icelandic banking collapse in 2008....

Purpose – Environmental management has not kept pace with the challenges of globalization. Case studies show that life‐cycle management (LCM) can be an important alternative approach in managing sustainability, performance of products and materials along the value‐chain....