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This paper seeks to provide the reader with a clear insight into the discussion over the voluntary aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the attempts to introduce regulatory reforms to control corporate activities within Australia.

This paper evaluates the arguments regarding the need for CSR and the criticisms against its voluntary initiative, and analyses three proposed aspects for regulatory amendment in Australia: fiduciary duty, extraterritorial regulation and corporate disclosure.

This paper recognises the attributes of both the mandatory and voluntary aspects, and suggests that there needs to be a balance between both mechanisms in order to achieve a positive outcome.

Although, in Australia, amendment proposals have not been approved, the discussions over regulatory reform will continue. This paper will provide those involved in this field with an insight to the underlying issues over directors' duties, extraterritorial regulation and corporate disclosure. The understanding of these issues will be useful in the future development of appropriate mechanisms regarding CSR.

This paper seeks to provide an overview and context for the emerging field of public policies for scaling voluntary standards, or private regulations, on the social and environmental performance of business and finance, to promote sustainable development; in order to stimulate more innovation and research in this field.

The paper takes the approach of a literature review of texts from intergovernmental and non‐governmental organisations, to develop a synthesis of issues, before literature review from management studies, development studies and international relations, to revise the synthesis and identify policy relevant future research.

Governance at all levels but particularly the international level involves corporations and their stakeholders. Together they have created non‐statutory corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards which now influence significant amounts of international trade and investment, thereby presenting new benefits, risks and challenges for sustainable development. Governments around the world are now innovating public policies on these standards, which can be categorised to inform policy development: governments prepare, prefer, promote and prescribe CSR standards. Therefore, a new dimension to collaborative governance is emerging and would benefit from research and technical assistance. As concepts and practices of regulation and governance are moving beyond state versus non‐state, mandatory versus voluntary approaches, so issues about transparency, accountability and democratic participation remain important for any new manifestation of regulation or governance.

By contextualising public policy innovations on CSR standards within new theories of governance, including “private regulation” and “collaborative governance”, the paper helps to clarify a new agenda for policy making and related research.

The economic consequence for adopting accounting standards is one of the growing and valuable topics in accounting research. The purpose of this paper is to address the question whether the adoption of Islamic standards that are issued by Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFIs) has a positive effect on the level of earnings management (EM) in the Islamic banks (IBs) setting. The authors measure, in general, the impact of AAOIFI for adopter and non-adopter banks. This paper furthermore investigates whether IBs adopting AAOIFI as compulsory or as voluntary adopters, in general, are being less engaged in earnings manipulation.

Using empirical data from 143 IBs across 26 different countries from 2014 to 2018, the paper uses a linear regression model and probit regression analysis that group the banks investigated in this paper into adopters and non-adopters. Additional probit regressions were performed to test to what extent the status of AAOIFI adoption (compulsory or voluntary adopters) has an impact of EM.

The adoption of AAOIFI generally is associated with a reduction in the EM level. Furthermore, adopter IBs for AAOIFI is least involved in EM as compared to non-adopter IBs. In addition, the findings of this paper indicate that IBs across countries that mandate AAOIFI standards are less engaged in earnings manipulation as compared to other IBs in countries that adopt AAOIFI as voluntary standards.

The results reported in this paper provide insights to central banks and regulators regarding the prominence of mandates of AAOIFI standards for IBs to enhance the trust level of stakeholders by reducing the unethical behavior (EM). In addition, this paper supports the applicability of AAOIFI standards for IBs rather than the conventional standards such as IFRS or local GAAP.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the findings are unique at two levels. First, the paper provides evidence on the economic consequences of using AAOIFI in the context of IBs which was not explored by previous research. Second, the paper extends the investigation of the impact of AAOIFI adoption for adopters verses non-adopters, as well as for mandatory verses voluntary adoption of AAOIFI.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the functioning of HACCP principles in certified and non-certified food businesses.

The data were collected by audits made in 40 food businesses of various food industry sectors. All food businesses were located in Poland where the HACCP system is obligatory. Half of the evaluated businesses implemented one or more private voluntary certified standards. The audit form contained 134 detailed questions covering 12 steps and seven principles of HACCP implementation and functioning. The obtained results were analyzed using a t-test, Spearman’s test, and cluster analysis.

The overall assessment of the HACCP principles in certified food businesses was higher than in non-certified ones. However, the functioning of HACCP principles in practice was assessed much lower than the system implementation in all business groups, despite certification and the type of food industry. In each of the food industry sectors both implementation and functioning of HACCP principles were evaluated higher in certified than in non-certified food businesses. Further research is needed to explain why, despite certification, the functioning of the mandatory HACCP principles is often incomplete and what factors affect the correct operation, as well as if these are sufficient to ensure food safety.

The main limitation of this research is a small sample of only 40 food businesses of various food industry sectors located in Poland. Due to the small sample, the research should be considered as the preliminary or scoping study. Although the method applied in the study allowed rapid evaluation of implementation and functioning of HACCP principles in food businesses, more work and analyses should be done for its reliability and validity.

The obtained results gave a lot of practical information, e.g.: first, the overall assessment of the HACCP principles in the certified food businesses is higher than that in the non-certified ones; second, the functioning of the HACCP principles in practice is weaker than the system implementation despite certification; third, in some cases the passing certification schemes do not result in a company having excellent food safety practices; and fourth, the applied method allows rapid evaluation of implementation and functioning of HACCP principles. However, more work and analyses should be done for its reliability and validity.

It is believed that certification strengthens HACCP functioning in food businesses. However, the study has shown that functioning of HACCP principles in practice was assessed much lower than the system implementation in all business groups, despite certification and the type of food industry. This indicate that even in certified food businesses HACCP functioning is often incomplete, which may have an impact on food safety.

The paper presents additional and detailed data on the functioning of HACCP principles in certified and non-certified food business. Despite certification and the type of food industry sector, the functioning of HACCP principles in practice was assessed much lower than the system implementation in all business groups. The method applied in this study allowed rapid evaluation of implementation and functioning of HACCP principles in food businesses. However, more work and analyses should be done for its reliability and validity.

This chapter analyzes the indirect effects of environmental management system (EMS) implementation and its certification and relates these to international governance in the context of new public environmental management. Building on a comprehensive quantitative dataset, it assesses the effects of ISO 14001 and EMAS (Eco-Management and Auditing Scheme) certification as well as temporal experience with EMS implementation on organizational activities outside the scope of EMS, while taking into account embeddedness and interaction effects. The analysis reveals heterogeneous effects, with limited evidence of embeddedness and interaction effects. As well, no influences of national business systems can be identified. Implications for the role of national governments in implementing sustainability strategies, even beyond environmental management, and aspects of standard flexibility in the process of governing firms to implementing such strategies in an international context are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to review general applications of the ISO14001 certification process and show how limitations such as ensuring minimum environmental performance standard, public access to performance information, and peer benchmarking may be overcome by voluntary commitment to attainable standards by association of specific industries.

A replicable environmental performance (weighted) index was developed by the authors. Secondary data obtained from five (public and private) steel mills provided technical data under voluntary compliance standards. Primary data on non‐technical items of performance index were collected. The index was tested to demonstrate peer benchmarking process.

ISO 14001 certification cannot serve as an end in itself for industries as peer companies under voluntary compliance may exceed environmental performance. Minimum acceptable environmental standards could be enforced through industry‐wide consensus. Public access to performance indicators can be ensured under a voluntary mandate; peer benchmarking may allow for competitive goal setting. The model proposed could be gainfully replicated particularly in developing countries.

The weighted index used in the paper could be further expanded to include additional non‐technical items such as occupational employee health and R&D expenditure of plants on environmental management system.

Peer benchmarking should allow for competitive goal setting for continuous improvement. The weighted index could be replicated for other industries in India. This index with minor adjustment, if needed, could be used in other countries and by industries already certified by ISO 14001 standards for peer benchmarking toward continuous improvement.

The weighted index is the original contribution. It is likely to make definitive contribution to the literature of environmental performance measurement. It also makes a contribution to the benchmarking literature in general and to peer benchmarking in particular. The paper not only shows the limitation of ISO 14001 standards but demonstrates how to overcome the limitations toward the competitive goal setting and continuous improvement of performance by the benchmarked industries.

This chapter considers the current standards that exist for the conduct of research and whether these standards are being met. Issues of scope and terminology are discussed and debated. Also considered are the reasons and benefits to the Academy of Social Sciences and other professional and disciplinary bodies by being involved in developing generic ethics principles in social science research.

The UK government’s support for sustainable construction involves an explicit attempt to introduce a new institutional logic into the construction sector, while the use of Building Research Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) as a preferred policy mechanism exemplifies neoliberal use of voluntary self-regulation to promote policy goals. This paper uses the case of BREEAM to examine the role of science and scientific expertise in the exercise of neoliberal governance. More specifically, it combines a neo-institutional analysis of change with Foucault’s theory of governmentality to explore the effect of BREEAM on eight construction projects. The concepts of visibility, knowledge, techniques, and identity provide an analytic grid to explore the effect of BREEAM on understandings and practices of “green building.” Appeals to science and scientific authority are found to be most important in those instances where institutional logics clash and the legitimacy of BREEAM as a carrier of sustainable construction is challenged. From a theoretical perspective, the case studies highlight the role of instruments in the micro-dynamics of institutionalization. Empirically, it underlines the limited, but nonetheless significant, effect of weakly institutionalized neoliberal policy mechanisms.

This paper aims to examine the significance and challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives organized by multi-stakeholders and to clarify the function of CSR initiatives: What is the significance of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs)? What conditions are required for CSR initiatives to work satisfactorily? How do CSR standards function effectively in companies?

The significance and challenges of multi-stakeholder CSR initiatives are clarified theoretically, based on previous literature from relevant research fields.

MSIs are beyond the “dichotomy” of two traditional approaches to CSR, namely, voluntary vs mandatory. However MSIs do not automatically ensure good performance. We should discuss not only the legitimacy of MSIs but external monitoring and evaluation systems for responsible companies in the market, as well as organizational efforts to incorporate CSR standards into managerial processes.

This paper shows that an MSI is an important platform for establishing and promoting a CSR standard, and further that market maturity and stakeholder engagement are required to make CSR work.

The study explains that ceremonial compliance with CSR standards may be inevitable even where the legitimacy of an MSI is secured, and that we should recognize that monitoring and sanction systems in the market and an organizational approach to the incorporation of CSR in management practices are required.

The paper discusses the rationale for a widespread reliance on Codes of Conduct (CoC) in European crowdfunding through the lenses of economic theories of self-regulation. By analysing the institutional design of CoCs in crowdfunding, the paper illustrates the differences in their regulatory context, inclusiveness, monitoring and enforcement. It offers the first systematic overview of substantial rules of CoCs in crowdfunding.

A comparative case study of nine CoCs in Europe is used to illustrate differences in their institutional design and discern the economic purpose of the CoC.

The institutional design of different CoCs in Europe mainly supports voluntary theories of self-regulation. In particular, the theory of reputation commons has the most explanatory power. The substantial rules of CoC in different markets show the potential sources of market failure through the perspectives of platforms.

CoCs appear in various regulatory, cultural, and industry contexts of different countries. Some of the institutional design features of CoC might be a result of these characteristics.

Crowdfunding associations wishing to develop their own CoC may learn from a comparative overview of key provisions.

For governments in Europe, contemplating creating or revising bespoke crowdfunding regimes, the paper identifies areas where crowdfunding platforms perceive market failure.

This paper is the first systematic study of self-regulatory institutions in European crowdfunding. The paper employs a theoretical framework for the analysis of self-regulation in crowdfunding and provides a comparison of a regulatory context, inclusiveness, monitoring and enforcement of different CoCs in Europe.