Over the last two decades environmental issues have become important in public and business policy. This book asks why firms sometimes voluntarily adopt environmental policies which go beyond legal requirements. It employs a new-institutionalist perspective, and argues that existing explanations, especially from neoclassical economics, concentrate on external factors at the expense of internal dynamics. Prakash argues that 'beyond-compliance' policies are due to two types of intra-firm processes, which he describes as power- and leadership-based. His argument is supported by analysis of ten cases within two firms - Baxter International Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company - including interviews with managers, and access to meetings and documents. This book therefore examines the internal working of firms' environmental policy in a theoretically rigorous way, providing a significant contribution to the theory of the firm. It will be valuable for students of business and environmental studies, as well as political economy and public policy.
Author Biography:
Aseem Prakash is Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Washington, Seattle. He serves as an adjunct faculty at the Evans School of Public Affairs. From 1997 to 2002, he was Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy at the School of Business, The George Washington University. Professor Prakash received a Joint Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), Indiana University, Bloomington. His dissertation won the Academy of Management's 1997 Organization and the Natural Environment Best Dissertation Award. Prior to his Ph.D., he completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and then worked as a manager in the marketing department of Procter and Gamble for three years. Aseem Prakash is interested in issues of governance: how do governance institutions emerge, how they function, and how they impact outcomes. Much of his research focuses on non-governmental institutions in the environmental policy area, and how business-government-NGO dynamics influence their adoption, functioning and efficacy. Professor Prakash is the author of Greening the Firm (2000, Cambridge University Press), the co-author of The Voluntary Environmentalists (2006, Cambridge University Press), and the co-editor of Globalization and Governance (1999, Routledge), Coping with Globalization (2000, Routledge) and Responding to Globalization (2000, Routledge). He has published over two dozen articles in journals including American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, Public Administration Review, Review of International Studies, Review of International Political Economy, Business & Society, and Business Strategy and the Environment.
