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PurposeThis 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, but also factors in the effect of media and communication as governance arenas in their own right. Then it aims to review core arguments put forward in broader approaches to governance where multiple governance mechanisms are combined.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper that reviews central approaches in the governance literature and their ability to further sustainable development. The review is taken as a basis for tentative formulations of new supplementary governance approaches.FindingsOut of the critical analysis the paper distils is an approach to governance that combines three basic elements: First, a re‐interpretation of Montesquieu's principle of checks and balances – applied not only to state institutions, but also to the interplay between the state, markets and civil society. Second, an argument for polyarchic, multilevel governance, where flexible institutional frameworks, at various levels of aggregation, allow actors to jointly engage in developing governance. Third, it argues that open communication may constitute an important governance element. It ends by recognising that global governance, going forward, will include a mix of parallel governance models, in some ways competing for hegemony, but supporting one another in other ways.Originality/valueThe originality/value of the paper lies in its critical assessment of central current governance theories and in its launch of new supplementary governance approaches.

PurposeThis 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 powers of the state, industry/markets and civil society in governance for global sustainability. It also takes Montesquieu's doctrine of balance of powers beyond static checks and balances into more dynamic innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper that translates seventeenth and eighteenth century state theory into twenty‐first century governance. It also explores how models from innovation may be applied to discuss dynamic aspects of governance.FindingsDrawing on the product‐cycle model, the paper shows how governance entrepreneurship may be explored and understood in innovation terms. The paper explores extractive industries' transparency initiative (EITI) as an illustration of governance innovation to address a gross governance and market failure in the extractive industries – the "resource curse", particularly in developing countries. It shows how much of EITI's remarkable success in building institutional support is due to actors expanding from their traditional domains into new complementary roles. Each of the three powers – civil society, business, and politics – has exploited their comparative advantages in bringing the governance project forward.Originality/valueGiven the limitation of conventional governance models, the originality/value of the paper lie in its launch of new supplementary governance approaches and their application to the EITI case.

Since the European Union's de-regulation policy for electricity and energy suppliers was implemented, new strategic configurations have emerged. Traditional restraints of geographical limitations on energy companies have been partly removed: the diversity at national regulatory and company level means that the European scene is one of a multiplicity of strategic configurations and developments, whilst also being complex and segmented. This book highlights the strategic and regulatory challenges of European deregulation, with its main focus being on the business strategies within the emerging de-regulated electricity markets; various regulatory implications which are being raised in this new climate are discussed. Some of the central strategic issues facing the electricity industry in its new competitive context are explored and reviewed, with classical themes debated as a prelude to the following empirical investigation of actual business strategies pursued by the electricity and energy industries. The main section of this work consists of 7 national case studies of business strategies which also include one North and one South American case. These were considered important inclusions as the North American companies are large investors in the European market, whilst the European companies invest in the South American market. The final chapter is a comparison and summary of the national patterns of market structures, business strategies and regulatory styles with a brief look at some challenges to be faced in future.

"Governance and Business Models for Sustainable Capitalism touches upon many of the central themes of today's debate on business and society. In particular, it brings attention to a recurrent tension between efficiency, innovation and productivity on the one hand, and fairness, equity and sustainability on the other. The book argues that we need radical rethinking of business models and economic governance, beyond the classical doctrine which sees social and ecological responsibility as lying with public policy regulation of purely profit-seeking firms. In spite of the popular CSR agenda, business - as we know it today - is both too transient and too limited in its motivation to carry the regulatory burden. We need to adopt a much wider concept of "partnered governance", where advanced states and pioneering companies work together to raise the social and environmental bar. The book suggests that civil engagements based on moral rather than formal rights, and amplified through the media, may provide a healthy challenge both to autocratic planning and to solely profit-centered commercialization. The book also proposes a triple cycle theory of innovation for sustainability: a novel framing of the efficacy of green and prosocial entrepreneurship as intertwined with political visions and supportive institutions. In addition, the book offers reflections on the ways in which further digital robotizaton may enable transition to an 'Agora Economy' where productive efficiency is combined with expanded civic freedoms. Aimed primarily at researchers, academics and students in the fields of political economy, business and society, corporate governance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, the book will additionally be of value to practitioners, supplying them with information regarding the challenges associated with the shaping of sustainable or 'civilised' market capitalism for a better world"--

Governance and Business Models for Sustainable Capitalism touches upon many of the central themes of today's debate on business and society. In particular, it brings attention to a recurrent tension between efficiency, innovation, and productivity on the one hand, and fairness, equity, and sustainability on the other. The book argues that we need radical rethinking of business models and economic governance, beyond the classical doctrine, which sees social and ecological responsibility as lying with public-policy regulation of purely profit-seeking firms. In spite of the popular CSR agenda, business – as we know it today – is both too transient and too limited in its motivation to carry the regulatory burden. We need to adopt a much wider concept of 'partnered governance', where advanced states and pioneering companies work together to raise the social and environmental bar. The book suggests that civil engagements based on moral rather than formal rights, and amplified through the media, may provide a healthy challenge both to autocratic planning and to solely profit-centered commercialization. The book also proposes a triple cycle theory of innovation for sustainability: a novel framing of the efficacy of green and prosocial entrepreneurship as intertwined with political visions and supportive institutions. In addition, the book offers reflections on the ways in which further digital robotizaton may enable transition to an 'Agora Economy' where productive efficiency is combined with expanded civic freedoms. Aimed primarily at researchers, academics, and students in the fields of political economy, business and society, corporate governance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability, the book will additionally be of value to practitioners, supplying them with information regarding the challenges associated with the shaping of sustainable or 'civilised' market capitalism for a better world.

This study focuses on the cognitive premises for common Nordic energy-related environmental policy as expressed by representatives of Nordic environmental & energy ministries & authorities. Methodologically, it makes use of the cognitive mapping approach. A comparison of the core elements of the conceptual maps reveals that, in spite of a clear recognition of the need for closer integration of the Nordic policies, fundamental differences in the basic conceptualization remain. In a three-polar space with democratic planning, competitive market organization & industrial policy/technological development orientation in each of the three corners, the Danish respondents clearly comes closest to the democratic planning pole, while the Norwegian clearly tends more towards market orientation. Swedish & Finnish government officials both tend towards an industrial policy/technology orientation, although with market-orientated undertones. Beyond their basic orientation in regulatory style, however, the Nordic countries also differ in the specific issues that are salient on the national energy & environmental agendas. 5 Figures, 13 References. Adapted from the source document.

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351765633, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. In the 21st century, Norway, Denmark and Sweden remain the icons of fair societies, with high economic productivity and quality of life. But they are also an enigma in a cultural-evolutionary sense: though by no means following the same socio-economic formula, they are all cases of a "non-hubristic", socially sustainable modernity that puzzles outside observers. Using Nordic welfare states as its laboratory, Sustainable Modernity combines evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives to illuminate the mainsprings of what the authors call the "well-being society". The main contention is that the Nordic uniqueness is not merely the outcome of one particular set of historical institutional or political arrangements, or sheer historical luck; rather, the high welfare creation inherent in the Nordic model has been predicated on a long and durable tradition of social cooperation, which has interacted with global competitive forces. Hence the socially sustainable Nordic modernity should be approached as an integrated and tightly orchestrated ecosystem based on a complex interplay of cooperative and competitive strategies within and across several domains: normative-cultural, socio-political and redistributive. The key question is: Can the Nordic countries uphold the balance of competition and cooperation and reproduce their resilience in the age of globalization, cultural collisions, the digital economy, the fragmentation of the work/life division, and often intrusive EU regulation? With contributors providing insights from the humanities, the social sciences and evolutionary science, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, history, institutiona

Intro -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Contributors -- Foreword -- 1 Sustainable modernity and the architecture of the "well-being society": Interdisciplinary perspectives -- Three stages of Nordic modernization -- Self-limiting modernity -- Evolutionary and socio-cultural underpinnings of the Nordic model -- The pragmatic basis of Nordic cooperation -- The Nordic model on trial -- The quest for a good society -- Notes -- References -- 2 Cooperation, competition and multi-level selection: A new paradigm for understanding the Nordic model -- A short history of Multi-level Selection (MLS) theory -- Major evolutionary transitions -- Human genetic evolution as a major transition -- Cultural multi-level selection -- The many faces of competition and cooperation -- Governance at the scale of small groups -- Scaling up governance -- The Nordic model in an evolutionary perspective -- Norway as an actor on the world stage -- Can Norway be copied? -- Conclusion -- Note -- References -- 3 Nordic humanism as a driver of the welfare society -- Cultural evolution and symbotypes -- Pastoral enlightenment revisited -- Hans Nielsen Hauge and the "Friends": Christian love and "clean profit" combined -- Norway reborn: Henrik Wergeland's vision of a "Republic of Goodness" -- N.F. Grundtvig: "First man, then Christian" -- Sweden as a caring "people's home" -- A transcultural humanist agenda? Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's and Fridtjof Nansen's prefiguration of humanitarian Norway -- Ambiguities of the universal "caring home" -- Nordic humanism on trial -- Conclusion: towards eco-modernity as a cultural programme? -- Notes -- References -- 4 Individualism and collectivism in Nordic schools: A comparative approach -- Introduction -- Theoretical framing

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351765633, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. In the 21st century, Norway, Denmark and Sweden remain the icons of fair societies, with high economic productivity and quality of life. But they are also an enigma in a cultural-evolutionary sense: though by no means following the same socio-economic formula, they are all cases of a "non-hubristic", socially sustainable modernity that puzzles outside observers. Using Nordic welfare states as its laboratory, Sustainable Modernity combines evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives to illuminate the mainsprings of what the authors call the "well-being society". The main contention is that the Nordic uniqueness is not merely the outcome of one particular set of historical institutional or political arrangements, or sheer historical luck; rather, the high welfare creation inherent in the Nordic model has been predicated on a long and durable tradition of social cooperation, which has interacted with global competitive forces. Hence the socially sustainable Nordic modernity should be approached as an integrated and tightly orchestrated ecosystem based on a complex interplay of cooperative and competitive strategies within and across several domains: normative-cultural, socio-political and redistributive. The key question is: Can the Nordic countries uphold the balance of competition and cooperation and reproduce their resilience in the age of globalization, cultural collisions, the digital economy, the fragmentation of the work/life division, and often intrusive EU regulation? With contributors providing insights from the humanities, the social sciences and evolutionary science, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, history, institutional economics, Nordic studies and human evolution studies.