Civil society versus banks: Bottom-up pressure in sustainable finance
Journal
Competition & Change
ISSN
1024-5294
ISSN-Digital
1477-2221
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2025-05-22
Author(s)
Abstract
Banks worldwide are increasingly under the scrutiny of CSOs (Civil Society Organizations). This bottom-up pressure remains overlooked in the rapidly expanding literature on the politics of sustainable finance. With a focus on environmental (mis)conduct, the paper investigates the corporate shaming of banks by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and grassroots groups. The empirical investigation of this outside lobbying is articulated in three questions: (1) What are the environmental issues for which CSOs shame banks? (2) Which CSOs shame banks? and (3) Which banks are shamed by CSOs? Corporate and political opportunity structures are considered in a multivariate analysis to examine how the risk of CSO criticism varies across banks and countries. The empirical exploration covers CSO advocacy against the Top-1000 banks worldwide for the period 2010–2022. The paper relies on data from Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) controversies. This kind of data on corporate reputation is of policy significance but remains underused in political research.
Language
English
Keywords
Finance
lobbying
NGO
sustainability
environment
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
gava-2025-civil-society-versus-banks-bottom-up-pressure-in-sustainable-finance.pdf
Type
Main Article
Size
1.7 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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