University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

equirements, but at the same time be robust enough to provide global
consistency in the implementation and the delivery of performance.
6. Compliance Management: GBOs are exposed to multiple legal and regulatory
compliance regimes. A compliance program built on the expectations and
practices of a single (home) country will therefore be inadequate.
Furthermore, using regulatory (non) compliance as an indicator or, or proxy
for environmental performance has little value to the GBO.
7. Ethics Management: An ethical approach to business implies that the GBO
must first determine what ethical (or behavioural) standards (or principles) it
deems appropriate and applicable (and may need to do so in the absence of a
“home’ country reference points). In an increasing number of business
operating environments, enforcement is provided not by governments, but by
NGOs. GBOs cannot successfully manage their external compliance
obligations and exposures if they are responding to initiatives and agendas
promulgated by NGOs, to media demands, or to a multitude of government
regulations: rather, they must lead, or influence the debate (Kolk & Van
Tulder, 2001).
8. Disclosure: The sustainability impacts, and associated disclosure
requirements, of a GBO that are locally or regionally significant may not be
globally significant. The SMS must therefore be able to effectively identify,
assess, rank, mitigate, and manage aspects and impacts in a variety of
operating environments.
Most of the above requirements are specific to GBOs because they typically have
either no “home” country culture to refer to, or because they have discovered that the
“home” country precedent has little (or no) relevance to their contemporary
requirements. Whichever is the case, these eight exposures combine to create a
business environment for a GBO that is very significantly different from the one
experienced by a TNC or MNC: a GBO therefore requires an SMS that can
effectively address these requirements.
An Opportunity for a New SMS Model
Abrahams (2004) and Leipziger (2003) have both identified and reviewed a range of
public domain codes, standards & regulations relating to sustainability (& corporate
responsibility) behaviours of corporations. Many of these had either a very narrow
scope (they are industry-specific or region specific), or address only one functional
aspect of a business (e.g. environment, health & safety, or industrial relations). Of
the one hundred publications reviewed, only six standards - BS8900 (2006), Equator
Principles (2003, 2006), GRI-G3 (2006), ICC Business Charter (1991), OECD
Guidelines for MNCs (2000), SIGMA Project (2003) - attempt to address a broad
sustainable development management scope. Perhaps in response to the practical
limitations of these public domain management system tools, a small number of
proprietary SMS tools exist (but as they are proprietary, it is very difficult to identify
them all). Mead (2006) describes a commercial and proprietary tool with six major
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