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An exploration of product certification programs and the factors that explain their varied success in becoming global governors equipped to tackle environmental and social problems effectively Consumers now encounter organic or fair-trade labels on a variety of products, implying such desirable benefits as improved environmental conditions or more equitable market transactions. But what do we know about the origins and development of the organizations behind these labels? Why have some flourished while others faltered? And why are some sectors rich with labeling organizations while others have very few? This book compares the rise and evolution of certification programs in the coffee, fishery, and forest industries to arrive at a model that reveals how market and political conditions, as well as the characteristics of program founders, shape the early character of the governance rules and certification standards that programs adopt.

AbstractIn setting standards for responsible business practices, certification programs create issue boundaries delineated by the focus of their standards. These issue boundaries may impede action on certain causes of problems (i.e. problem interactive effects) or lead to policy actions that affect other governance initiatives (i.e. policy interactive effects). When these interactions are extensive, programs confront trade‐offs: develop as a comprehensive program (i.e. have a broad policy focus) and take on higher internal administrative costs, or develop as a specialized program (i.e. have a narrow policy focus) and undertake to develop mechanisms to facilitate across‐program coordination. This paper explores these trade‐offs. It examines the origins of the different policy foci of coffee, forest, and fisheries certification programs, and identifies five strategies that programs are currently using to manage policy and/or problem interactive effects. Then, informed by research in public administration and international relations, it details additional approaches for improving issue‐boundary management.