IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jenpmg/v68y2025i5p1148-1164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why firms do not expect climate policies to have the intended effects – positioning in a polycentric governance landscape

Author

Listed:
  • Kajsa-Stina Benulic
  • Cecilia Enberg
  • Anna Ljung
  • Victoria Wibeck

Abstract

A polycentric governance regime that includes non-state actors has potential to increase the pace in mitigating climate change if there is concerted action among the actors involved. However, previous research has shown that climate policy directed at business firms does not always have the intended effects. Taking a polycentric perspective to climate governance, this paper contributes insight into why some firms expect that to be the case. The paper builds on qualitative interviews with firms in the Swedish construction and civil engineering industry. We apply positioning theory to analyse firms’ views on their own and other actors’ roles and responsibilities in climate transformation. The results suggest that governance authorities could take on a more traditional, coercive leadership role, setting clear rules and regulations, if these extend in time and space to create a market where the shared goals are ambitious, and the playing field is level for firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Kajsa-Stina Benulic & Cecilia Enberg & Anna Ljung & Victoria Wibeck, 2025. "Why firms do not expect climate policies to have the intended effects – positioning in a polycentric governance landscape," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(5), pages 1148-1164, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:68:y:2025:i:5:p:1148-1164
    DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2023.2282393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2023.2282393
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09640568.2023.2282393?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:68:y:2025:i:5:p:1148-1164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJEP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.