In considering the primary research questions of this study and the overarching issues it
addresses, several bodies of theory need to be considered to better understand how initiatives
on the part of private industry may produce public environmental benefits. This section
highlights three areas that inform the understanding of why environmental practices may be
diffused by businesses through the value chain, and the mechanisms that facilitate this
process. First is the question of why firms choose to adopt advanced environmental
management activities in the context of voluntary management-based approaches, and why
they extend these policies to include their major suppliers. The second concerns how firms
coordinate the functions of their value chains through governance of the production network.
The third area discusses how environmental standards diffuse across borders and between
firms and the rise in private authority that makes this diffusion necessary and possible.