“Environmental Governance Gaps in Emerging Markets: Strategies for Addressing Institutional Voids and Mitigating Externalities”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Environmental Governance Gaps in Emerging Markets: Strategies for Addressing Institutional Voids and Mitigating Externalities”

Journal: Critical Perspectives on International Business
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission deadline: 1 June 2026

This special issue examines environmental governance gaps and institutional voids in emerging and developing economies, focusing on how multinational enterprises (MNEs), local firms, and state actors shape, respond to, and attempt to close these gaps. It seeks critical, context‑sensitive research on the power dynamics, externalities, and sustainability‑transition pathways that emerge where environmental regulation is weak, fragmented, or poorly enforced.

Why this issue matters

• Emerging markets are rapidly industrialising and deeply embedded in global value chains, yet many lack robust environmental‑regulatory infrastructures and enforcement, leading to amplified negative externalities and ecological risks.

• The concept of institutional voids is increasingly used in international‑business research, but its environmental dimensions—how weak or missing environmental institutions shape corporate behaviour and climate‑justice outcomes—remain under‑explored.

• This SI responds to the growing urgency of climate change, geopolitical disruption, and shifting production networks, calling for work that links environmental governance, institutional voids, and sustainable development in the Global South.

Core themes and research topics

Contributions are encouraged from international business, development‑studies, political‑economy, and environmental‑governance perspectives and can adopt qualitative, quantitative, or mixed‑method designs. Key themes include:

1. Understanding environmental institutional voids

• Conceptual and empirical work on what constitutes “environmental” institutional voids (e.g., regulatory gaps, enforcement failures, missing monitoring‑and‑evaluation systems).

• How formal and informal institutions interact to exacerbate or mitigate the environmental externalities of business operations.

2. Strategic responses to void contexts

• How firms circumvent, cope with, or compensate for environmental‑governance shortcomings (e.g., self‑regulation, partnerships with NGOs, green‑supply‑chain initiatives).

• The role of MNEs in transferring environmental standards and practices from home countries to emerging‑market host societies.

3. Environmental innovation and green entrepreneurship in void contexts

• Frugal, social‑, and business‑model innovations that address environmental problems under weak institutional support (e.g., frugal pollution‑control technologies, community‑driven waste‑management, circular‑economy‑type platforms).

• Strategies for pursuing eco‑innovation or sustainable‑entrepreneurship in institutionally weak settings.

4. Sustainability transitions and climate‑justice issues

• How institutional voids affect low‑carbon transitions, circular‑economy adoption, or sustainable‑agriculture pathways in emerging economies.

• Studies on power asymmetries, climate justice, and the distribution of costs and benefits arising from environmental‑externalities and corporate‑response strategies.

5. The role of the state and multi‑stakeholder collaboration

• How state configurations (centralised vs. fragmented, developmental vs. extractive) enable or constrain effective environmental‑governance and corporate‑environmental‑responsibility (CER).

• Public‑policy and multi‑stakeholder initiatives (e.g., cross‑sector partnerships, transnational regulatory frameworks) that help close environmental‑governance gaps.

Guest editors

• Prof. Florian Becker‑Ritterspach, HTW Berlin, Germany

• Prof. Raghda El Ebrashi, German International University (Cairo), Egypt

• Prof. Jasper Hotho, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Submission details

• Submission platform: ScholarOne Manuscripts for CPoIB:
  https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cpoib

• When submitting, select the special issue title “Environmental Governance Gaps in Emerging Markets: Strategies for Addressing Institutional Voids and Mitigating Externalities”.

• Submission window: 1 January 2026 – 1 June 2026

• Manuscripts must be original and not under consideration elsewhere, and must follow the journal’s Author Guidelines.

This special issue is ideal for critical‑international‑business scholars, environmental‑governance researchers, and sustainability‑transition analysts who wish to explore the institutions, power relations, and corporate strategies that shape environmental outcomes in emerging markets.

ServiceSetu Academics — Premier Platform for Academic Opportunities & Research Collaboration

Visit official website of the publisher