TY - JOUR

T1 - Legal Systems, Internationalization and Corporate Sustainability

T2 - An empirical analysis of the influence of national and international authorities

AU - Hörisch, Jacob

AU - Burritt, Roger

AU - Christ, Katherine

AU - Schaltegger, Stefan

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Purpose: This paper aims to compare the influence of different legal systems on corporate sustainability management practices. Against the background of growing internationalization of business activities, it additionally considers whether internationalization allows companies to circumvent the influence of national authorities. Design/methodology/approach: Three legal systems are compared using regression analyses of more than 200 large corporations in five countries: common law (USA and Australia), German code law (Germany) and French code law (France and Spain). Findings: The impact of national and international authorities is found to be strongest in French code law countries. In addition, the influence of international authorities is stronger for corporations with higher shares of international sales. For both national and international authorities, the degree of internationalization is found to moderate the influence of the legal system on corporate sustainability practices. Practical implications: The legal system in place influences the relative effectiveness of national and international authorities over company sustainability practices and needs to be taken into account in policymaking. To be effective, international authorities need to work with or substitute for national authorities in promoting corporate sustainability practices in countries depending on their legal systems. Originality/value: This research applies and quantitatively tests La Porta’s (1998) framework on legal systems in the new context of corporate sustainability. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited

AB - Purpose: This paper aims to compare the influence of different legal systems on corporate sustainability management practices. Against the background of growing internationalization of business activities, it additionally considers whether internationalization allows companies to circumvent the influence of national authorities. Design/methodology/approach: Three legal systems are compared using regression analyses of more than 200 large corporations in five countries: common law (USA and Australia), German code law (Germany) and French code law (France and Spain). Findings: The impact of national and international authorities is found to be strongest in French code law countries. In addition, the influence of international authorities is stronger for corporations with higher shares of international sales. For both national and international authorities, the degree of internationalization is found to moderate the influence of the legal system on corporate sustainability practices. Practical implications: The legal system in place influences the relative effectiveness of national and international authorities over company sustainability practices and needs to be taken into account in policymaking. To be effective, international authorities need to work with or substitute for national authorities in promoting corporate sustainability practices in countries depending on their legal systems. Originality/value: This research applies and quantitatively tests La Porta’s (1998) framework on legal systems in the new context of corporate sustainability. © 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited

KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics

KW - internationalization

KW - corporate sustainability

KW - Sustainability management

KW - Code law

KW - Common law

KW - Legal system

KW - Internationalization

KW - Corporate Sustainability

KW - Sustainability Managament

KW - Code law

KW - Common law

KW - Legal system

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029519956&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1108/CG-08-2016-0169

DO - 10.1108/CG-08-2016-0169

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 17

SP - 861

EP - 875

JO - Corporate Governance

JF - Corporate Governance

SN - 1472-0701

IS - 5

ER -