What role do contract enforcement institutions provided by the state play for economic development? This question has often been addressed. However, empirical research in this field looks predominantly at transactions that are conducted domestically. Less research exists regarding the...

The transition toward a more sustainable agricultural production has become an essential step in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), launched by the United Nations in 2015. Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) have been proposed as a useful governance tool for guiding this...

Drawing on Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems, we analyse the importance of different styles of expectation (cognitive and normative) for global research and development. In our study, we find that contrary to Luhmann's prediction in 1971, the normative expectation style still plays a...

What role do contract enforcement institutions provided by the state play for economic development? This question has often been addressed. However, empirical research in this field looks predominantly at transactions that are conducted domestically. Less research exists regarding the...

Die Monopolkommission und die von der Bundesregierung eingesetzte Deregulierungskommission haben schon vor Jahren eine grundlegende Reform der Handwerksordnung gefordert. Inwieweit haben sich diese Forderungen in politischen Maßnahmen niedergeschlagen? Wie stellt sich die rot/grüne...

More than forty states worldwide currently pursue explicit political strategies to expand and promote their bioeconomies. This paper assesses these strategies in the context of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our theoretical framework differentiates between four pathways of...

Economic sectors relying on the use of biological organisms, processes, and principles to create products and services are expected to experience accelerated growth due to innovation in the bioeconomy. Associated benefits and risks for sustainable development are increasingly subject to societal...

The aim of this paper is to explore the political dimensions of investment arbitration. What drives the structures and rules of this institution of private-transnational dispute settlement? To define political dimensions and develop the basis of a political explanation of investment arbitration,...

First, this article proposes that the rise of the Internet and further information- and communication technologies (ICT) has facilitated the evolution of a new, virtual form of relational contracts. This hypothesis is developed inductively by drawing on the results of an explorative empirical...