TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ball, Christopher
AU  - Burt, George
AU  - De Vries, Frans
AU  - MacEachern, Erik
TI  - How environmental protection agencies can promote eco-innovation: The prospect of voluntary reciprocal legitimacy
JO  - Technological forecasting and social change
VL  - 129
SN  - 0040-1625
CY  - Amsterdam [u.a.]
PB  - Elsevier Science
M1  - FZJ-2018-02823
SP  - 242 - 253
PY  - 2018
AB  - This paper examines the UK and Irish Environmental Protection Agencies (EPAs) ability to move beyond regulatory compliance to support and promote sustainable environmental innovation, in short “eco-innovation”. To do so would require them to overcome the perception that they face, often being perceived as ‘policemen’ by the regulated business community. We propose a new empirically-derived theoretical construct called Voluntary Reciprocal Legitimacy (VRL), defined as the development of mutual trust between the regulator and business resulting in arrangements which generate eco-innovation benefits for the regulator, the regulated business communities and society at large. VRL adds a new category to Suchman's (1995) theory of moral legitimacy as well as highlights how EPAs can build trust between themselves and regulated business, allowing a shift of the ‘beyond compliance’ legislative boundary. Such an approach supports eco-innovation whilst simultaneously protecting the natural environment.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000430763400022
DO  - DOI:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.11.004
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/845604
ER  -