Do government policies on CSR in the UK and Denmark reflect distinct domestic political-economic institutional differences as predicted by the Varieties of Capitalism approach, or do they display new forms of governance that primarily address the needs of global businesses? We move beyond the management literature and the literature on public management of particular environmental and sustainability programs to explore a broader government agenda for CSR through a political science lens. We develop a set of expectations that follow from the literature on domestic institutions as well as from the literature that takes into account the role of governments in interaction with transnational actors. We find evidence for a substitution objective in the initial CSR programs of the Danish and British governments (and a mirror objective in Denmark). However, we also find that globalization has motivated governments to use their regulatory authorities pertaining to CSR policies for purposes beyond enhancement of welfare state functions
