Increasing Environmental Performance in a Context of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China

摘要

How can activists and policy makers encourage better environmental behavior in a context of poor governmental enforcement? This article examines the case of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Chinese nonprofit organization, to show how a transparency-based platform can encourage brand-sensitive multinational corporations, their suppliers, their investors, local governments, and consumers to behave in more environmentally responsible ways, even in a context of low governmental enforcement. Using Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs as its model, this article argues that a transparency-based platform can serve an important coordinating function across multiple sectors, creating a mechanism through which market forces are channeled in pro-environmental ways. Transparency-based platforms can help develop new norms about public disclosure, corporate governance, and consumer responsibility, but they only function in places with sufficient state monitoring capacity, adequate legal protections, and in markets where local firms are vulnerable to external financial pressure.