Nicole Darnall

American University | AU

Adopting an International Sustainability Standard (ISS) helps firms improve their sustainability performance. It also acts as a credible market "signal" that legitimizes firms' latent sustainability practices while improving their market value. But how do these signals function when firms adopt multiple ISSs? We show that the relationships between...

Increasing scholarship across numerous literatures discuss the significant promise that sustainable public purchasing (SPP) has for reducing negative environmental impacts throughout the supply chain. As governments worldwide have begun embracing this promise, researchers note that we lack a broader conceptual framework that articulates the motivat...

Increasing concern about global sustainability has ushered in a diverse set of regulatory policies that aim to encourage sustainable practices and outcomes. This chapter sheds light on how these regulatory policies affect multiple aspects of companies’ sustainable supply chain practices. It begins by describing sustainable supply chain strategies m...

Since governments are the largest buyers globally, they have enormous purchasing power. Government purchasing, therefore, has potential to be leveraged to improve social outcomes, such as helping disadvantaged communities, ensuring labor rights, and minimizing negative environmental impacts. However, as yet, there is little understanding about soci...

Ecolabels are policies and programs that are designed to signal information to stakeholders about a product’s attributes and reduce stakeholder uncertainty about the validity of green product claims. However, for ecolabels to be successful at addressing information asymmetries external stakeholders must perceive them as being credible. We assess th...

Do social procurement and environmental policies complement or compete with each other?

More than 40 percent of an organization’s total carbon footprint relates to its procurement. This means that addressing climate change, environmental and social impacts will require a robust sustainable procurement approach. Yet procurement is often overlooked as an impactful sustainability strategy. We address this issue by discussing the opportun...

More than 40 percent of an organization's total carbon footprint relates to its procurement. Therefore, to climate change impacts, a robust sustainable procurement approach will be required. Yet procurement is often overlooked as an impactful sustainability strategy. We address this issue by discussing the opportunity that sustainable procurement o...

Electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies are increasingly scrutinized for the injustices they impose on critical-mineral mining communities. Injustices arise because local communities that are disproportionately affected by mining are materially and cognitively distant to those who hold influence over supply chain practices, policies, an...

Local governments adopt different types of environmental policies that focus on addressing local governments' broader environmental sustainability concerns, or are incremental, focusing on enhancing organizations internal efficiencies. Using data from a nationwide survey of US city governments, we show that variations in stakeholders' relational mo...

En 2019, el Gobierno de España publicó una Orden Presidencial (PCI/86/2019) por la que se aprueba el Plan de Contratación Pública Ecológica (2018-2025) de la Administración General del Estado. Este plan abarca a todas las administraciones públicas, incluida la Administración General del Estado, sus organismos autónomos y las entidades gestoras de l...

The South Korean Ministry of Environment, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute, Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Public Procurement Service are working collaboratively to promote green purchasing policies across all levels of South Korean government. A primary reason for this action is that green purchasing policies have the po...

In 2019, the Spanish government published a Presidential Order approving the General State Administration’s Green Public Procurement Plan. This plan covers all public administrations including the General State Administration, its autonomous bodies, and social security management entities. Its objectives are to promote the acquisition of goods, wor...

Environment, social, and governance (ESG) reporting guidelines are institutional rules that can enhance the credibility of firms' publicly disclosed information related to ESG. Reporting is often voluntary and global ESG reporting guidelines typically rely on process‐focused third party verification. However, in developing its reporting guidelines,...

ESG reporting guidelines are institutional rules that can enhance the credibility of firms’ publicly disclosed information related to environment, social, and governance (ESG). Reporting is often voluntary and global ESG reporting guidelines typically rely on process-focused third party verification. However, in developing its reporting guidelines,...

In 2019, the Spanish government published a Presidential Order approving the General State Administration’s Green Public Procurement Plan. This plan covers all public administrations including the General State Administration, its autonomous bodies, and social security management entities. Its objectives are to promote the acquisition of goods, wor...

The South Korean Ministry of Environment, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute, Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Public Procurement Service are working collaboratively to promote green purchasing policies across all levels of South Korean government. A primary reason for this action is that green purchasing policies have the po...

Increasing scholarship across numerous literatures discuss the significant promise that sustainable public purchasing (SPP) has for reducing negative environmental impacts throughout the supply chain. As governments worldwide have begun embracing this promise, researchers note that we lack a broader conceptual framework that articulates the motivat...

A product's price and quality are no longer the primary purchasing criteria for local governments. Environmental and social impact also needs to be considered. So, why aren't all government using an e-procurement system to simplify the process? This article explores this issue and suggests that governments are more likely to adopt an e-system if th...

While prior research suggests that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for products with environmentally friendly attributes, this relationship may not apply to “circular economy” products because of their perceived quality issues. The main aim of this study is to assess the circumstance under which consumers pay more for circular economy pr...

While local governments often implement equivalent numbers of sustainability programmes, they likely utilize different strategies to design them. We posit that some local governments pursue more of an exploration strategy, by experimenting with a broad range of sustainability issues and policy instruments to address them, while others pursue a more...

The article examines how local governments' procurement complexity and structure interact to influence e-procurement adoption. Drawing on the survey data of over 400 cities, we find that a centralized structure enhances the likelihood that local governments adopt an e-procurement system to cope with the increasing procurement complexity; while gove...

Public procurement, the government’s purchase of goods and services, is an important tool to advance sustainability objectives. Since government is the largest consumer in the economy, it can have a sizable impact on the market by purchasing sustainably. However, its sustainability impact (both environmental and social) is undermined because the pu...

Public procurement, the government’s purchase of goods and services, is an important tool to advance sustainability objectives. Since government is the largest consumer in the economy, it can have a sizable impact on the market by purchasing sustainably. However, its sustainability impact (both environmental and social) is undermined because the pu...

I ricercatori del Laboratorio di Management della Sostenibilità dell’Istituto di Management della Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa (SSSA) e del Sustainabile Purchasing Research Initiative (Iniziativa per la Ricerca sugli Acquisti Sostenibili) dell’Arizona State University (ASU), con il fine di contribuire alla risoluzione delle problematiche menz...

This article describes the results from new research revealing what factors influence whether Australian governments are successful at adopting green purchasing policies.

Assessing and measuring the extent of organization-level policy implementation has received little scholarly attention, especially in the areas of local governments' procurement and environmental protection. To rectify the paucity of research in this area, this paper adopts Leonard-Barton's (1988) conceptualization of the misalignment between the (...

Some U.S. local governments are leveraging public procurement to meet their sustainability goals. However, does the simultaneous pursuit of multiple sustainability objectives potentially slow down the speed of procurement processes? We suggest that the simultaneous pursuit of multiple sustainability objectives through procurement is related to deci...

While previous research has studied cities’ decisions to adopt environmental sustainability policies, little is known about how stakeholder pressures affect cities’ adoption of different types of environmental sustainability policies. Some city policies (e.g., energy conservation and water conservation policies) are more cost-focused and typically...

Local governments nationwide have been adopting a variety of sustainability practices in the absence of strong federal guidance. The collection of these practices, which differ in design, forms the local government's sustainability strategy. Some local governments may develop a more focused sustainability strategy to achieve more predictable enviro...

Overall government procurement in Mexico is about $63.5 billion, making it a substantial source of the country’s total expenditures. For comparison, the total gross domestic product in Mexico is $1,220.7 billion. Increasing green purchasing in the public sector is a significant way to improve sustainable practices within Mexico. Mexico has several...

Italy was the first European country to create a full mandatory plan known as the National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement. This plan established a framework through which green purchasing polices can diffuse throughout Italian municipalities. A primary reason for this action is that green purchasing policies have the potential to significa...

The Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment is promoting green purchasing policies across all levels of Australian government. A primary reason is that green purchasing policies have the potential to significantly reduce carbon impacts across the globe and can help Australia achieve its carbon emissions goals....

Italy was the first European country to create a full mandatory plan known as the National Action Plan on Green Public Procurement. This plan established a framework through which green purchasing polices can diffuse throughout Italian municipalities. A primary reason for this action is that green purchasing policies have the potential to significa...

Overall government procurement in Mexico is about $63.5 billion, making it a substantial source of the country’s total expenditures. For comparison, the total gross domestic product in Mexico is $1,220.7 billion. Increasing green purchasing in the public sector is a significant way to improve sustainable practices within Mexico. Mexico has several...

The Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment is promoting green purchasing policies across all levels of Australian government. A primary reason is that green purchasing policies have the potential to significantly reduce carbon impacts across the globe and can help Australia achieve its carbon emissions goals....

Increasing concern about global sustainability has ushered in a diverse set of regulatory policies that aim to encourage sustainable business practices and outcomes. This chapter sheds light on how these regulatory policies affect multiple aspects of companies’ sustainable supply chain practices. It begins by describing sustainable supply chain str...

Previous research on sustainability and health-related product labels has sought to develop segmentation frameworks based on consumers' self-reports. However, consumers are likely to overstate the effect that these labels have on their purchasing behavior. Moreover, existing consumer segmentation frameworks do not distinguish among product labels b...

Consumers increasingly prefer to purchase sustainable and healthy products. This trend is important if we are to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, most evidence about consumer preferences is based on self-reported purchases rather than consumers’ actual purchases. Moreover, when asked, consumers tend to overstate their...

Consumers increasingly prefer to purchase sustainable and healthy products. This trend is important if we are to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, most evidence about consumer preferences is based on self-reported purchases rather than consumers’ actual purchases. Moreover, when asked, consumers tend to overstate their...

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how thi...

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory, and a stratified random sample of more than 1,200 consumers, we assess how t...

Figure 1: Consumers’ trust of information, the role of third-party certification, and consumers’ ecolabel use

How does a consumer decide which ecolabels are more likely to improve environmental outcomes? This research shows that industry sponsored ecolabels are weaker than ecolabels developed by government, environmental NGOs and standard setting organizations; environmental nonprofits and standard setting organizations’ ecolabels are strongest.

Increasing scholarship within business and public management identifies the significant promise that sustainable public purchasing (SPP) has for reducing negative environmental impacts throughout the supply chain. While these studies identify the merits and limitations of SPP adoption and the mechanics of SPP implementation, a growing number of res...

This study assessed which factors influence local governments’ strategic approaches to designing their sustainability programs to a broad array of environmental issues. To characterize distinctive sustainability strategies, we characterize exploitation and exploration strategies according to the breadth of environmental issues that local government...

For green technology firms, government's shifting preference for sustainable products and services is likely to become an increasingly important market factor. Green technology firms are thus in an excellent position to respond to greater calls for environmentally friendly products and services and derive market advantages from doing so. Moreover,...

For green technology firms, government's shifting preference for sustainable products and services is likely to become an increasingly important market factor. Green technology firms are in an excellent position to respond to greater calls for environmentally friendly products and services, and derive market advantages from doing so. Moreover, gree...

While local governments often implement equivalent numbers of sustainability programmes, they likely utilize different strategies to design them. We posit that some local governments pursue more of an exploration strategy, by experimenting with a broad range of sustainability issues and policy instruments to address them, while others pursue a more...

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how thi...

The Japanese Ministry of Environment is promoting green purchasing policies across all levels of Japanese government. A primary reason is that green purchasing policies have the potential to significantly reduce carbon impacts across the globe and can help Japan achieve its carbon emissions goals. However, at the local level, many municipal governm...

U.S. local governments purchase $1.72 trillion of goods and services annually that contribute to global climate change and other environmental problems. Cities that successfully implement environmental purchasing policies can mitigate these environmental concerns while saving money and demonstrating their environmental leadership. However, cities c...

While numerous cities have adopted sustainable purchasing policies (SPPs), about 42 percent report that their policies are unsuccessful. To understand why we obtained the SPPs of cities that rate their policies as being either very successful or very unsuccessful. We compared these SPPs and identify six specific policy elements associated with very...

In the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, city leaders are demonstrating environmental leadership across America. More than 367 U.S. mayors in 44 states have committed to reduce their greenhouse gases (GHGs). One way they are accomplishing environmental progress while serving the needs of constituents is through purchasing....

Ecolabels are designed to help consumers identify environmentally superior products and services, however, they are not all created equal. Some ecolabels have strong rules that promote environmental improvements, while others have weaker rules that permit free-riding. Since information about ecolabel design and rule strength is typically not readil...

Local governments are addressing their environmental problems and saving money by implementing policies to encourage "green" or environmentally conscious purchasing. When successful these policies can significantly mitigate local governments' environmental impacts, while stimulating the global market's production of green products and services. How...

In the U.S. alone, cities purchase $1.72 trillion of goods annually. Cities purchase vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics and office materials, all of which contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change during their production and use. To reduce their GHG emissions some cities are adopting sustainable pur...

While green purchasing policies have the potential to significantly reduce carbon impacts across the globe, most U.S. cities have either struggled to implement them or do not have one at all. Consequently, these policies have not reached their potential to help local governments mitigate their environmental impacts. These are significant concerns t...

While local governments can curb their greenhouse gas emissions and save money through green purchasing, many struggle to implement green purchasing policy. To better understand these concerns, we conducted a national survey to assess the successful features of local governments’ green purchasing activities. The survey was sent to 1,825 directors o...

In the U.S., state and local governments purchase $1.5 trillion goods annually, which accounts for 25 - 40% of every state and local tax dollar spent, and between 15% - 30% of U.S. GDP. Government purchased items include vehicle fleets, construction materials, chemicals, electronics and office materials, all of which contribute to global climate ch...

This report is the culmination of a pro-bono project, which Arizona State University’s (ASU) Center for Organization Research and Design (CORD) initiated with the City of Phoenix’s Office of Environmental Programs (OEP), to identify opportunities for the City to integrate environmental considerations more fully into its purchasing processes. Using...

Alternative and nonregulatory approaches to environmental governance have increased in prevalence over the last 16 years, as have scholarly evaluations of them. We reflect on the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory's (JPART's) offerings to the scholarly landscape. We consider the articles published in JPART since these approaches b...

Alternative and nonregulatory approaches to environmental governance have increased in prevalence over the last 16 years, as have scholarly evaluations of them. We reflect on the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory's (JPART's) offerings to the scholarly landscape. We consider the articles published in JPART since these approaches b...

While prior literature has emphasized that stakeholders can influence a firm's decision to adopt environmental practices that lead to competitive advantage, most scholarship has assumed that stakeholders influence the design of firms' environmental practices similarly. We challenge this notion and suggest that stakeholders affect not only the decis...

Little is known about the complementary performance benefits associated with facilities’ combined use of both quality management systems (QMS) and environmental management systems (EMS), and how these performance benefits might differ from those associated with facilities’ use of only one of these management systems (or neither). We suggest that co...

Many proposed policies that could improve social welfare never see the light of day because of intractable debates among critical stakeholders and particularly business opposition. Collaborative governance approaches involving government and business stakeholders may lead to successful policies that address complex social issues, and that otherwise...

Ecolabels are designed to help consumers identify environmentally superior products and services, however, they are not all created equal. Some ecolabels have strong rules that promote environmental improvements, while others have weaker rules that permit free-riding. Since information about ecolabel design and rule strength is typically not readil...

While many scholars have discussed the merits of collaborative governance, especially for addressing complicated modern policy challenges, the literature has paid less attention to how business can serve as an effective collaborative partner during the formation of mandatory policies and regulations. Drawing on scholarship in the management science...

Damaí Lovina Villas was a small, boutique hotel located in North Bali. General manager, Glenn Knape, was considering branding Damaí as a “green” hotel. Since the hotel already had numerous environmental initiatives in place, Knape questioned whether Damaí should participate in a voluntary environmental program (VEP) and use its participation as a m...

Little is known about the complementary performance benefits associated with facilities’ combined use of both quality management systems (QMS) and environmental management systems (EMS), and how these performance benefits might differ from those associated with facilities’ use of only one of these management systems (or neither). We suggest that co...

While previous research considering the emer-gence of strategic alliances has typically viewed their for-mation through a single theoretical lens, we suggest that multiple theoretical perspectives are needed to understand their complexity. This research conceptually integrates the resource-based view and institutional theory to assess vari-ations i...