Handling A New Regulatory Era: The Influence of due Diligence Legislation on the Deliberative Capacity of Multi‐Stakeholder Initiatives

ABSTRACT In multi‐stakeholder initiatives, actors across sectors develop voluntary standards to guide firms' sustainability efforts. While multi‐stakeholder initiatives have long been a prevalent instrument of sustainability regulation, recently, there has been an uptake of legislation that makes it mandatory for firms to acknowledge sustainability issues along their value chains, known as due diligence legislation. In this paper, we explore how the increasing amount of due diligence legislation affects the deliberative capacity of multi‐stakeholder initiatives. Our qualitative multiple case study shows members' varying perceptions around due diligence legislation, the opportunities and challenges for deliberative capacity these perceptions result in, and the actions multi‐stakeholder initiatives are currently developing to respond to due diligence legislation. Based on these insights, this study advances our understanding of the interplay between multi‐stakeholder initiatives' deliberative capacity and their regulatory environment. In addition, it advances our understanding of standard multiplicity by elucidating the coexistence of voluntary and governmental standards to regulate corporate accountability.