Institutional Legitimacy and Sustainable Nuclear Energy Governance: A Comparative Sociotechnical Analysis

THE IMPLEMENTATION GAP: ALIGNING THE ENERGY SECTOR IN NORTH MACEDONIA WITH OECD GOVERNANCE STANDARDS

The global shift towards energy transition presents unique governance challenges for transition economies. This study argues that formal compliance with governance frameworks does not guarantee institutional legitimacy, particularly where political interference is structurally incorporated. The research examines the corporate governance architecture of North Macedonia’s two strategic energy stateowned enterprises (SOEs), JSC ESM and JSC MEPSO, using the 2024 OECD Guidelines as a normative benchmark. Based on a survey of 80 experts, the study finds evident contradiction between internal and external views of governance. While internal board members report moderate levels of political influence and perceive structures as professionally capable, external stakeholders express significant concerns regarding party influence and limited board independence. The findings suggest that ownership practice often functions as an informal political tool, undermining national energy security. To bridge this gap, the results show that improving board independence, protecting governance structures from political interference, and improving general transparency are critical for improving institutional credibility and effectiveness.

University Governance for Sustainability: Overcoming Structural Fragmentation to Enable Institutional Transformation

Against the global imperative to advance higher education for sustainable development and institutional transformation in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), coherent governance architectures have been recognized as a foundational prerequisite for enabling universities to embed sustainability into values into core operations, teaching, research, and community engagement. Drawing on socio-technical systems theory and complex adaptive systems thinking, this study analyzes 167 central-level policy documents (2015–2023) related to China’s Higher Education “Delegation, Regulation, and Service” reform to examine how governance intentions are translated into organizational control mechanisms. A dual-dimensional analytical framework is developed that conceptualizes policy objectives as system goals and policy instruments as control levers, combining content analysis with fuzzy systems methodology to quantify system coupling. The findings reveal distinct emergent patterns: governance objectives exhibit structural differentiation with functional complementarity, whereas the synergy of control levers is shaped by their functional roles and organizational adaptability. More importantly, a selective pattern of structural–functional decoupling is identified. Coupling between Improving Quality and its supporting levers declines substantially over the study period, while coupling involving Stimulating Vitality exhibits marked volatility and an overall decline. By contrast, coupling associated with Breaking Down Institutional Barriers and Improving the Modern University System remains consistently high. These differentiated patterns suggest that governance misalignment is concentrated in quality- and vitality-related objectives rather than occurring uniformly across the governance system. The study provides a diagnostic framework for assessing governance coherence as a prerequisite for organizational capacity-building, contributing to both sustainability governance research and the design of more coherent institutional governance systems.

Green Public Administration: A Mixed-Method Conceptual and Comparative Framework for Sustainability-Oriented States

The strong global trend towards sustainable governance, using sustainable public administration, has created a demand for integrated governance that enables institutional systems to connect with the aims of sustainability. This study explores the Sustainable Leadership's influence on Sustainable Outcomes via the mediation of the governance mechanisms of Sustainable Public Engagement, Cross-Sectional Coordination, Green Budgeting, and Institutional Capacity in the context of Green Public Administration. Based on Ecological Modernization Theory and New Public Governance, the paper suggests a governance structure to provide an explanation of the relationship between institutional transformation and participatory governance in the promotion of environmental and administrative governance. The research design used a quantitative approach, a cross-sectional analysis technique, which was followed by Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The framework was tested for reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, model fit, and mediation analyses. The findings reveal that Sustainable Leadership significantly influences Public Engagement (β = 0.725, p = 0.000), Cross-Sectional Coordination (β = 0.845, p = 0.000), Green Budgeting (β = 0.811, p = 0.000), and Institutional Capacity (β = 0.820, p = 0.000). In addition, there are significant direct effects of Public Engagement (β = 0.448, p = 0.000) and Institutional Capacity (β = 0.377, p = 0.000) on Sustainable Outcomes and insignificant direct effects of Cross-Sectional Coordination and Green Budgeting. Theoretically, the study contributes by building on Green Public Administration literature with three dimensions of governance: leadership, institutional effectiveness, and participative governance. From a practical perspective, the results have relevance for policymakers who are interested in pushing for administrative reforms and/or changes in institutional mechanisms that can assist them in achieving sustainable environmental governance in the long term.

Corporate‐Community Land Governance for Peace: A Governance Materiality Framework for CSR , ESG , and Sustainable Agribusiness

Within corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG), there is a gap. This paper aims to fill that gap by building on a previous empirical study. It introduces the Land Governance Materiality Framework (LGMF), which redefines land governance as a critical governance skill that impacts ESG performance, supply‐chain resilience, responsible investment, and long‐term corporate value. The paper relies on Institutional Theory, Political Ecology, Stakeholder Theory, and Strategic CSR. It argues that secure land tenure, institutional legitimacy, participatory governance, and conflict‐sensitive resource management are essential skills, not just outside factors. Instead of presenting new empirical evidence, it interprets the findings to create a wider theoretical and policy framework for responsible agribusiness. This framework broadens ESG materiality by including territorial institutions in sustainability assessments. It also offers practical advice for governments, businesses, investors, and development partners looking to support resilient, conflict‐sensitive, and sustainable agricultural systems.

Sustaining Collective Action Under Institutional Constraint: Governance Dynamics in Interdisciplinary Sociotechnical Interventions

Interdisciplinary sociotechnical interventions are widely promoted to address sustainability challenges in energy, water, and environmental governance, yet many struggle to sustain collective action once external funding and coordination recede. This article examines how governance arrangements are reconfigured under institutional constraint during the implementation of a community‐based sociotechnical intervention in rural Mexico. Drawing on qualitative process tracing grounded in project documentation, institutional deliberations, and reflexive engagement with the intervention, the analysis reconstructs how distributive conflict, enforcement fragility, fiscal misalignment, temporal pressure, and multilevel accountability shaped the project trajectory. The study develops an empirically grounded governance framework centered on four interdependent conditions: stabilization of authority, alignment of incentives and responsibilities, management of temporality and transition, and fiscal and operational continuity. The findings show that governance sustainability depended less on technological feasibility than on institutionally durable arrangements capable of reconciling participation, enforcement, and accountability.

Institutional distance and governance performance: a structural analysis