Variations in Corporate Norm-Entrepreneurship: Why the Home State matters.

Within debates on Global Governance corporate participation in various forms of self-regulation is increasingly being studied. Yet, a variable formerly considered to be important, the home state, has not drawn much attention recently. However, first research results indicate that in explaining the differences in corporate behaviour in self-regulatory initiatives the home state still matters.Two different patterns of corporate engagement can be distinguished: Corporations can either accept and implement existing norms of an initiative which would qualify them as norm-consumers. This rather passive absorption of norms can be contrasted with a second pattern of corporate behaviour, the active engagement in norm formation and norm development within CSR-initiatives. Thereby corporations are taking on the role of norm-entrepreneurs.The paper aims to investigate the conditions for these variations in corporate behaviour, either acting as norm-consumers or norm-entrepreneurs. In contrast to theories of transnational corporations that describe corporations as de-nationalized entities, we argue that the political environment of a corporation’s homestate determines in how far a corporation is willing to take on the role of a political actor. Following the Varieties of Capitalism approach, it will be shown that characteristics of coordinated and liberal market economies are decisive not only for explaining business strategies but also whether corporations take on the role of norm-consumer or norm-entrepreneurs.This argument will be illustrated by empirical findings from case studies of eight companies from four countries (France, Great Britain, Germany, South Africa), representing different types of economies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]