Distributed Innovation of a Norm-Complex: Corporate Social Responsibility as an Open Source

Norms and International Relations Theory

Abstract

In this paper I attempt to develop an open source approach to norm dynamics in world politics by criticizing a widely-accepted approach articulated by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink. Their “life cycle” approach is based on a set of assumptions. The first assumption is that norms are decomposable and should be analyzed on a one-by-one basis. Second, norm entrepreneurs develop and distribute a norm to its “users” in a one-way fashion. Third, norm change refers to the replacement of an existing norm by a new one. Fourth, social learning means that an actor is persuaded to accept a new norm. Fifth, norm internalization will lead to the taken-for-grantedness of a norm.
By contrast, I argue that a set of interrelated norms should be an important unit of analysis because a “norm-complex” can have a distinctive property: internal contradiction among its sub-norms. This unique character of a norm-complex presents an actor with a challenge: how to “comply” with conflicting directives. If a hierarchy among sub-norms cannot be established at the outset, then proponents of a new norm-complex will release it as a “beta” version which will likely be developed jointly by its proponents and “users.” Thus, norm dynamics is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. What is more, it involves not as much a social learning as a collaborative learning, or joint and continuous elaboration of a norm-complex.
We can usefully analyze this process by regarding a norm-complex as an open source software with the following attributes: its codes are open to the public; it is freely distributed; its users are allowed to modify any codes; and a revised software is freely redistributed. An open source software development occurs neither in the market nor in a hierarchical organization but in a voluntary “innovation community”: a network among “user-innovators” who are engaging in a process called “distributed innovation.”
Drawing upon this insight, I posit that a norm-complex can be productively developed within a global public policy network among various stakeholders. This hypothesis is illustrated by an inquiry into the distributed innovation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) norm within the United Nations Global Compact. This Compact is a multistakeholder learning network whose participants jointly explore best practices of CSR and turn them into de facto standards.