Stakeholder engagement by regulators: why and with what effects?

Abstract

Many regulatory agencies have adopted strategies to engage with various types of stakeholders. Industry, civil society organizations and citizens can provide valuable input and perspectives on regulatory decisions and can improve regulatory outcomes. However, there is a risk of regulatory capture and empirical evidence suggests that agencies' stakeholder engagement is often biased towards business interests. This questions the legitimacy and utility of regulators’ stakeholder engagement practices, both for society at large, but also for agencies themselves. What purposes of and threats from stakeholder engagement do regulatory agencies envision and what are the effects of stakeholder engagement on various aspects and practices of these organizations, such as perceived legitimacy and other organizational practices? We are interested in theoretical and empirical papers related to these questions and also welcome pre-analysis plans of experiments on regulatory agencies’ stakeholder engagement. Papers may shed light on i) the effect of stakeholder engagement on perceived legitimacy, trust and reputation in the eyes of various audiences, ii) different tasks of regulatory agencies (rule-making, enforcement, supervision etc.) and their distinct effects on stakeholder strategies to influence regulatory decision-making and on how regulators engage with stakeholders, and, finally, iv) the effect of stakeholder engagement on the (perceived) autonomy and authority of regulatory agencies. While these are key themes, we very much welcome papers that highlight other aspects of regulatory agencies' stakeholder engagement practices.

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