Converting Carbon-Regime Exposure into Corporate Climate Action: A Configurational Process Framework

Climate policies create verified emissions objects and investment pressure, but they do not ensure that firms turn exposure into implementable decarbonization. This review develops the Configurational Carbon-Regime Conversion Framework (CRCF), a middle-range process framework that integrates established organizational capabilities without relabeling them as a new capability. Ten OpenAlex searches, high-recall triage, full-text coding of 22 theory-operative sources, independent recoding of six prespecified sources, and a claim–source audit support the synthesis. CRCF combines four core operations: forming a decision-valid carbon object, generating a technically accepted option set, securing consequential authorization, and interpreting regime uncertainty for portfolio adaptation. Boundary orchestration, circular-resource configuration, and transition-finance structuring activate only when required by the task. Ten falsifiable propositions predict ordered hand-offs, weakest-link delays, attenuation under independently measured external vetoes, conditional modules, sustainability-direction safeguards, and learning. A bounded Vietnam illustration demonstrates task variation without claiming causal evidence. CRCF separates conversion quality, implementation feasibility, and absolute or lifecycle emissions.