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The past six decades have been marked by advances in regional, transnational, and global (or supranational) integration in international trade, investment, and other economic agreements that provide enhanced access to global markets

Faculty Affiliates, alongside two other researchers collaborated & examined the effects of global trade integration on firm-level adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards as measured by the United Nations’ Global Compact Initiative. During the duration of their research, it can also be suggested that country-level participation in trade agreements, and higher levels of regulatory quality, encourage firm-level adoption of CSR standards.

From this collaborative effort, the team of researchers realized that first there is a trend in global initiatives (such as the UNGCI) that represent public and private stakeholders’ increased expectation for greater firm-level attention to corporate responsibility and sustainability. These initiatives promote upward harmonization and global coordination of firms and stakeholders, including countries and their policymakers. Second, recent waves of anti-globalization have forced these same policymakers to make difficult decisions regarding the future of their trade and investment agreements.

These decisions could have lasting impacts on the harmonization efforts promoted by global initiatives and our research is thus timely as it examines the nexus of these two trends. More specifically, the integrated perspectives from economic institutionalism with an allied perspective from political science, and policy transfer theory, explore how supranational pressures in one domain may influence a firm’s decision to adopt CSR standards in another.