Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Abstract: Acknowledging environmental and social impact of corporations, governments are increasingly intensifying regulatory pressures for sustainable business. A growing body of research now is capturing the re-entrance of government interventions, investigating novel forms of regulations (Kourula et al., 2019), different CSR government configurations (Cashore et al., 2021) and the emerging dynamic interplay between private authority and public regulations (Eberlein, 2019). This resurgence of governmental influence, particularly through new forms of participation, demands a rethinking of how governments shape CSR governance in academic literature. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic interactions of private and public authority in governing CSR and the multi-disciplinary nature of this research field. To enhance our understanding, this paper will synthesize this growing body of work and contribute to existing findings by providing a conceptual map of different understandings and multi-disciplinary perspectives on governmental influence in CSR governance. Thereby it will support the view that public regulations, alongside private authority, play a significant role in CSR governance (Knudsen and Moon, 2022).
