Global Business Regulation

Based on an in-depth, qualitative case study about a conflict between governmental authorities from the United States and Switzerland over the regulation of Swiss banks, we introduce indirect compellence as a novel triadic and indirect mechanism through which coercion leads to institutional change. Hostage-taking being a prototypical example, indirect compellence is typified by a coercive actor who takes a third party hostage to gain influence over a targeted actor. In our case, it meant that U.S. authorities (coercers) compelled Swiss policy makers (targets) to erode the famed Swiss banking secrecy rules by threatening the targets to otherwise enforce U.S. law extraterritorially against Swiss banks and bankers (hostages). Our constructivist and target-centered perspective explains this type of coercive pressure in detail, and it also suggests that targeted policy makers judge and respond to it contingent on their political ideologies. Our study contributes to research on power and influence in institutional environments and to research on global business regulation and transnational governance. Most generally, it also expands scholarly understanding of triadic relationships. In contrast to Simmelian perspectives’ focus on triads in which the third party is in a powerful brokerage position and frequently benefits as a tertius gaudens, our study suggests that the third party can also become a rather powerless tertius miserabilis who suffers rather than benefits from others’ conflict.

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Global Business Regulation

Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews ◽

10.2307/3089030 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 30 (6) ◽

pp. 626

Author(s):

Michael Woolcock ◽

John Braithwaite ◽

Peter Drahos

Keyword(s):

Global Business ◽

Business Regulation

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Globalization and Business Regulation

Annual Review of Sociology ◽

10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053532 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 123-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Marie-Laure Djelic ◽

Sigrid Quack

Keyword(s):

Complex Dynamics ◽

First Century ◽

Transnational Governance ◽

Global Business ◽

Business Regulation ◽

Interdisciplinary Field ◽

Important Trend ◽

Major Trend ◽

The One ◽

Rule Making

In the twenty-first century, global business regulation has come of age. In this article, we review the literature on globalization and business regulation from the angle of transnational governance, a recently evolving interdisciplinary field of research. Despite the multiplicity and plurality of regulatory platforms and products that have emerged over time, we identify common patterns of field structuration and parallel trajectories. We argue that a major trend, both in practice and in scholarly work, is a move away from an idealized convergence around a set of unified global rules; instead, our conceptualizations and our practices of transnational business regulation increasingly demonstrate a concern for the adaptability of transnational rules to resilient and resistant contextual specificities. Another important trend, both in practice and in scholarly fields, is a growing focus on the complex dynamics between rule making on the one hand and rule implementation and monitoring on the other.

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