In a modern world multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) take a prominent place as a mechanism of global governance bringing together companies, civil society and state. While research on MSIs has widely discussed whether such arrangements can be considered as legitimate forums for democratic deliberation, little attention has been paid to how transnational regulative initiatives are becoming understood and implemented locally under the context of emerging and developing economies. We seek to bridge this gap through an in-depth qualitative case study of sustainability-driven MSIs unfolding in the cocoa sector of Cote d'Ivoire. Our research brings two-fold contribution to the discussion on local contextualization of MSIs. First, we show that despite the existence of governance voids in the emerging and developing economies, multi-stakeholder arrangements remain embedded in the local institutional context and therefore, the impact of MSIs norms/practices locally is contingent upon successful “institutional bridging” – the process of linking the MSI to the existing local institutional context. Our research also brings new insights on how MSI can stimulate local agency through empowerment of local stakeholders, thus leading to their better inclusion in the governance processes at the local level.
