Judith Ströhle
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Prof. Dr.
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Ströhle
First name
Judith
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judith.stroehle@unisg.ch
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+41 71 224 7197

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Publication

Self-Regulation for Reputation-Sensitive Buyers: SA8000 in China

2024 , Gregory Distelhorst , Judith Ströhle , Duanyi Yang

Industries and firms have diverse motives for adopting self-regulatory institutions. This research develops and tests propositions about one motive—exploiting opportunities to do business with reputation-sensitive buyers—as distinct from self-regulation to defend against regulatory or activist threats. To study the adoption and effects of self-regulation for reputation-sensitive buyers, we study the SA8000 socially responsible employment certification among large firms in China in the early 2000s. Using official longitudinal industrial microdata, we test hypotheses generated by this assumed motive for self-regulation and find that: (a) despite concerns about the corruptibility of certification bodies, SA8000-adopters in China exhibited higher pre-certification worker wages than comparable non-adopters, (b) self-regulation led to increased employment and sales to foreign markets, where reputation-sensitive buyers are concentrated, (c) the positive effect on exports was greater than the (insignificant, negatively signed) effect on domestic sales, and (d) there is no evidence that self-regulation increased worker wages beyond the initial high start. Contrasting these findings with prior research on industry self-regulation for other motives, this study highlights how both adoption patterns and downstream effects differ according to the audience for self-regulation.

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The Social Origins of ESG: An Analysis of Innovest and KLD

2020 , Eccles, Robert G. , Lee, Linda-Eling , Stroehle, Judith C.

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Old Saddles for New Horses: How Non-Financial Assurance Reinforces Traditional Firm Boundaries

2022 , Soonawalla, Kazbi , Ströhle, Judith

In the absence of legally binding frameworks and standards, research has shown that the assurance of non-financial information has developed as an analogy of financial auditing, copying its processes, logics and methods. We study the consequences of this analogy through an in-depth study of hand collected data of FTSE100 sustainability reporting and assurance. We view non-financial assurance statements as discursive tools of boundary work and find that the financial audit logics in non-financial assurance reinforce rather than challenge traditional firm boundaries. We identify three mechanisms of boundary work that are responsible for this: a) stakeholder exclusion due to firm and management centricity, b) issue exclusion (exclusion of certain topics) due to conservatism in practice and measurement, and c) a limited audit scope due to methodological and professional constraints. We argue that this stands in sharp contrast to calls for problem-oriented, impact-focussed and inclusive approaches to sustainability measurement. Non-financial assurance in its current design is therefore not appropriate to give a true and fair view of the types of information needed to reflect the complex, dynamic and interdependent nature of the grand sustainability challenges.

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Rebalancing Capitalism or Delaying Real Progress? A Critical Examination of Impact Measurement

2023 , Emma Van Den Terrell , Laura Marie Edinger-schons , Ali Aslan Gümüsay , Judith Ströhle

Can measuring the impact of business on society and the planet lead to a more socially and environmentally-oriented style of capitalism? This is the main hope and assertion of impact measurement and valuation (IMV). This PDW introduces participants to the key processes of IMV and critically examines the ethics and politics of IMV and its standardization. While proponents of these methods call on organizations to measure their negative and positive impacts (externalities) on their stakeholders and the environment, the PDW brings together leading experts in the field in an Oxford-style debate to discuss IMV’s potential merits and risks. In the second half of the PDW, attendees will join the experts in thinking through potential narratives of change beyond more measurement in an open-dialogue format. The purpose of this PDW is to place IMV under deep investigation and envision new processes that work with or replace organizations’ desire for management via quantification.

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Through the looking glass: tying performance and materiality to corporate purpose

2022-08 , Ströhle, Judith , Soonawalla, Kazbi , Metzner, Marcel

By making use of the purpose definition set out by the British Academy’s Future of the Corporation programme we argue that performance relates to purpose in two dimensions. Firstly, purpose sets the frame of long-term success and defines materiality for an organisation both from a single and from a double materiality perspective. Secondly, performance in relation to purpose needs to measure profitability net of negative externalities. We review and discuss the current landscape of non-financial reporting and measurement frameworks on how they lend themselves to the determination of materiality on the one hand and to the accounting of externalities on the other hand, in order to achieve an approximation of performance in relation to purpose. We conclude by discussing how materiality and measurement viewed through a purpose-lens could help an advanced understanding of performance in practice for sustainable finance, corporate governance and management decision-making.

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Business in times of crisis

2020 , Johnstone-Louis, Mary , Kustin, Bridget , Mayer, Colin , Stroehle, Judith , Wang, Boya

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The Impact of the Adoption of Mutual Profit on Business Behaviour and Leadership

2021 , Eccles, Robert , Stroehle, Judith , Mayer, Colin , Roche, Bruno

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The Board’s Role in Sustainability

2020 , Eccles, Robert G. , Johnstone-Louis, Mary , Mayer, Colin , Stroehle, Judith

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The enforcement of diverse labour standards through private governance: an assessment

2017 , Ströhle, Judith

The effectiveness of private governance on global labour standards remains extremely difficult to assess, let alone measure. Debates surrounding relevant factors focus on two areas: contextual variables regarding social and economic upgrading, and firm-specific characteristics. This article contributes to both debates, looking at characteristics of buyer companies, while also taking institutional variables into account. It examines structural and environmental features of cases encoded in a data set derived from over 1000 audit reports compiled by the Fair Labor Association. Focusing on the apparel, sports- and footwear industry, the article highlights the importance of regulatory quality, economic performance and social freedom in sourcing countries for the success of private governance. The analysis statistically underlines the importance of public governance specifically for process rights, such as anti-discrimination and freedom of association. Complementarity between private and public governance programmes may therefore be particularly important for these standards.

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Untangling Social Compliance: Promises and Pitfalls of Social Audit Analyses

2019 , Ströhle, Judith

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