A Review of Sustainability Governance Mechanisms

• Main Authors: EHRET, Michael, SESHADRI, Sudhindra
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2009
• Subjects: Sustainability; governance; relationships; contracts; markets; collaboration; Business; Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research_smu/63; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=lkcsb_research_smu
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Sustainable business development is often based on like minded companies forming relationships in the face of market risks. Relationships may vary in degree of closeness, from transaction to collaborative. We show a framework of governance mechanisms of sustainable business development and classify a variety of examples of inter-organizational efforts within this framework. The value of such a framework - based on markets, contracts and relationships - is to suggest how sustainability efforts could be better managed. The framework suggests a new hybrid approach, bid syndication contracts, can provide collaboration incentives while reducing risk. This paper reviews the business literature for situations where bid syndication contracts could potentially add value in the governance of sustainable business development.