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Nation Branding as Sustainability Governance: A Comparative Case Analysis

Meri Frig [email protected] and Ville-Pekka SorsaView all authors and affiliations

Volume 59, Issue 6

https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650318758322

Abstract
References
Biographies

Abstract

The role of governments in business and society research has remained underexplored, and recent studies have called for further investigations of mechanisms of government intervention. In response to this call, this article studies how nation branding communication can govern businesses toward sustainability by providing qualifications for sustainable business, legitimizing these qualifications, and attaching national aspirations to business conduct that meets these qualifications. A comparative exploratory analysis of the nation branding materials of Denmark and Finland shows that while the two nations qualify business sustainability in similar ways, differences exist in the legitimization of business sustainability and the national aspirations attached to sustainable business conduct. Both countries emphasize principles of efficiency and renewability in their sustainability qualifications. However, while Finland clearly seeks to attract firms to the local business environment to increase exports and improve the local economy, Denmark ascribes more heterogeneous value to sustainable business.

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Biographies

Meri Frig is a doctoral candidate at Hanken School of Economics. Her doctoral research is on the topic of sustainability communication. She has recently published in Journal of Business Ethics.

Ville-Pekka Sorsa (DPhil, University of Oxford, UK) is an assistant professor of management and organization at Hanken School of Economics. His research interests include politics of corporate responsibility, economies of worth approaches to business, and political economy of finance. He has recently published in New Political Economy and Socio-Economic Review.

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