JIE Dissertation Listing

 
Author: Aseem Prakash
Title: A Logic of Corporate Environmentalism: Beyond-Compliance Environmental Policymaking in Baxter International Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company
Institution: Joint Ph.D., School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington
Date:  August 1997
Advisor: Professor Elinor Ostrom and Professor Jeffrey A. Hart
Key Words: Corporate Environmental Management; Regulation and Policy
How to Obtain: A revised version of this dissertation is being published as a book: Aseem Prakash. "Greening the Firm: The Politics of Corporate Environmentalism." Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
 Abstract:  This book examines "beyond-compliance" environmental policymaking within two multinational corporations -- Baxter International Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company. The neoclassical theory treats firms as unitary actors and explains their policies as passive responses to market signals and/or governmental regulations. Consequently, it does not sufficiently explain why firms selectively adopt "beyond-compliance" policies. To explore this puzzle, I employ a new-institutionalist perspective. Instead of treating firms as unitary actors, this book views them as composite actors, as units of collective action. In the new-institutionalist tradition, I identify two theories of firm behavior: power-based, and leadership-based. These represent two kinds of intra-firm processes: coercive
 (power) and induced cooperation (leadership). Employing these theories,
 I examine processes of environmental policymaking focusing on ten cases across two firms.