Issue control in transnational business governance interactions

Abstract

This chapter argues that two-level networks of issue professionals and organizations create the obstacles to better regulation and advancement of marginalized interests revealed by other chapters in the book. It identifies four such obstacles: gaps between policy design and implementation; competing interests within standard-setting bodies; power asymmetries in standards adoption; and professionals’ desire for autonomy and issue control. It argues that these obstacles are outcomes of strategic behaviour by issue professionals who network to ensure they control governance of important issues. The chapter analyzes these interactions as a two-level network, comprised of inter-personal and inter-organizational networks. This analysis helps explain how regulatory capacities are developed and distributed, and why efforts to harness transnational business governance interactions (TBGIs) often falter.