Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T11:18:56.013Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - The emergence of NGOs in the context of business–government–societal relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Michael Yaziji  and
Jonathan Doh
Michael Yaziji
Affiliation:
IMD, Lausanne
Jonathan Doh
Affiliation:
Villanova University, Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

How are we to understand the increasing frequency and impact of interactions between NGOs and corporations? In this chapter, we will investigate the conditions that have favored the significant rise in the number, power and societal influence of NGOs – with a particular focus on advocacy NGOs – in the past two decades. The focus of this chapter will be on the contextual drivers of the rise of the NGO rather than the more motivation-focused approach discussed by others.

NGOs constitute an important and influential set of actors within the broad context of business and society. NGOs have emerged as critical organizations in shaping governmental policy and practice, influencing legal and institutional structures and affecting corporate and business activities. Although NGOs or their equivalents have been part of human societies for centuries, in recent decades, NGOs have grown in number, power and influence. Their force has been felt in a range of major public policy debates, and NGO activism has been responsible for major changes in public policy, law and regulation, and in reforming corporate behavior and governance.

The worldwide NGO presence

Estimates of the number of NGOs vary widely, although almost all analysts agree that the number is dramatically increasing. In 1993, the United Nations Development Program identified 50,000 NGOs worldwide, while the Union of International Associations identified 52,000 such groups worldwide.

Type
Chapter
Information
NGOs and Corporations
Conflict and Collaboration
 , pp. 15 - 32
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguilera, R. V., Rupp, D. E., Williams, C. A. and Ganapathi, J., “Putting the S back in corporate social responsibility: A multi-level theory of social change in organizations,” Academy of Management Review 32 (3) (2007), 836–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doh, J. P. and Teegen, H. J. (eds.), Globalization and NGOs: Transforming Business, Government, and Society (Westport: Praeger, 2003).
Kellow, A., “Norms, interests, and environment NGOs: the limits of cosmopolitanism,” Environmental Politics 9 (3) (1999), 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
,Independent Sector, The New Nonprofit Almanac and Desk Reference: The Essential Facts and Figures for Managers, Researchers, and Volunteers (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2002).Google Scholar
,United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The Global Development Alliance: Public-private Alliances for Transformational Development (Washington, DC: USAID Office of Global Development Alliances, 2006).Google Scholar
Yaziji, M., Institutional Change and Social Risk: A Study of Campaigns by Social Movement Organizations against Firms (Doctorial Dissertation, 2004).
,World Bank, Working with NGOs (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1995).Google Scholar
Hart, S. L. and Milstein, M. B., “Creating sustainable value,” Academy of Management Executive 17 (2) (2003), 58.Google Scholar
Teegen, H., Doh, J. P. and Vachani, S., “The importance of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in global governance and value creation: An international business research agenda,” Journal of International Business Studies 35 (6) (2004), 463–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doh, and Teegen, (eds.), Globalization and NGOs.
Doh, J. P. and Guay, T., “Corporate social responsibility, public policy and NGO activism in Europe and the United States: An institutional-stakeholder perspective,” Journal of Management Studies 43 (1) (2006), 47–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaziji, M., “Toward a theory of social risk: Antecedents of normative delegitimation,” International Studies of Management and Organization 34 (4) (2005), 87–107.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. L., “Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility,” Academy of Management Review 32 (3) (2007), 947–967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Florini, A., The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a New World (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003).Google Scholar
Stigler, G. J., Chicago Studies in the Political Economy (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988).Google Scholar
Olsen, M., The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965)
Stigler, G. J., “The theory of economic regulation,” Bell Journal of Economics 2 (1) (1971), 3–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltzman, S., “Toward a more general theory of regulation,” Journal of Law & Economics 19 (2) (1976), 211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. S., “A theory of competition among pressure groups for political influence,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 98 (3) (1983), 371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revkin, A. C., “Bush aide softened greenhouse gas links to global warming,” New York Times June 8 (2005); Letter from Senators Rockefeller and Snowe to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Oct 30 (2006).Google Scholar
Teegen, Doh and Vachani, , “The importance of nongovernmental organizations,” 470.
McAdam, D., McCarthy, J. D. and Zald, M. N., “Social Movements,” in Smelser, N. (ed.), Handbook of Sociology (Newbury Park: Sage, 1988), pp. 695–737.Google Scholar
Teegen, Doh and , Vachani, “The importance of nongovernmental organizations,” 463–483.
Smelser, N. J. (ed.), Handbook of Sociology (Newbury Park: Sage, 1988), p. 702.
Smelser, (ed.), Handbook of Sociology, p. 701.
D'Emilio, J., Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Freeman, J., “The origins of the women's liberation movement,” American Journal of Sociology 78 (1973), 792–811CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, A., The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Free Press, 1984).Google Scholar
Teegen, Doh and Vachani, , “The importance of nongovernmental organizations,” 471.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×