Faculty & Research
Directory
Grabs, Janina
Assistant Professor, Department of Society, Politics and Sustainability at
Esade
Contracted Doctoral Professor URL
Investigador, IIS - Instituto de Innovación Social
Investigador, GRIIS - Grupo de investigación en Innovación Social
Education
- Ph D in Political Science. University of Münster
- M Sc in agricultural and Food Economics. University of Bonn
- M Sc in Business and Economics. Swedish University of agricultural Sciences
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. McGill University
Biography
Janina Grabs is an Assistant Professor of Business and Society at the Department of
Society, Politics and Sustainability at ESADE Business School, Barcelona. She received
her PhD in Political Science from the University of Münster, Germany, and previously
was a post-doctoral researcher at ETH Zurich and visiting researcher at Yale University.
Her work focuses on the private governance of sustainability in global value chains,
with a special focus on tropical agricultural commodities such as coffee and palm
oil. Her work on the effectiveness of private sustainability governance in the coffee
sector has been widely recognized, inter alia with ESG's Oran R. Young Prize, APSA's
Virginia M. Walsh Dissertation Award, and ECPR's Giandomenico Majone Prize, and is
published in the book 'Selling Sustainability Short? The Private Governance of Labor
and the Environment in the Coffee Sector' 2020, Cambridge University Press, which
received the AoM 2021 ONE Book Award as well as APSA's Lynton Keith Caldwell Book
Award. She has further published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Regulation
& Governance, Business Strategy and the Environment, New Political Economy, the
Journal of Economic Geography, Ecological Economics, and the Journal of Environmental
Management.Janina is also a research fellow of the Earth System Governance project,
is the Earth System Governance Journal's Book Review Editor, serves on the Outreach
Committee of the International Studies Association's Environmental Studies Section,
and sits on the Standing Group on Regulatory Governance's Steering Committee.
Selected publications
- Chandra, A., Garrett, R. D., Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Stigler, M., Benedict, J. J. & Grabs, J. (2024). How well does the implementation of corporate zero-deforestation commitments in Indonesia align with aims to halt deforestation and include smallholders?. Environmental Research Letters, 19 (4), 044054. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad33d1.
- Grabs, J., Carodenuto, S. L., Jespersen, K., Adams, M. A., Camacho, M. A., Celi, G., Chandra, A., Dufour, J., zu Ermgassen, E. K., Garrett, R. D., Lyons-White, J., McLeish, M., Niehues, I., Silverman, S. & Stone, E. (2024). The role of midstream actors in advancing the sustainability of agri-food supply chains. Nature Sustainability. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01296-9.
- Bennett, E. A. & Grabs, J. (2024). How can sustainable business models distribute value more equitably in global value chains? Introducing "value chain profit sharing" as an emerging alternative to fair trade, direct trade, or solidarity trade. Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12666.
- Grabs, J. & Garrett, R. D. (2023). Goal-Based Private Sustainability Governance and Its Paradoxes in the Indonesian Palm Oil Sector. Journal of Business Ethics, 188 (3), pp. 467-507. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05377-1.
- Grabs, J. (2023). Business accountability in the Anthropocene. Environmental Policy and Governance, 33 (6), pp. 615-630. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2081.
- Grabs, J. (2023). A theory of credible cross-temporal corporate commitments as goal-based private sustainability governance. Business Strategy and the Environment. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3423.
- Garrett, R. D., Grabs, J., Cammelli, F., Gollnow, F. & Levy, S. A. (2022). Should payments for environmental services be used to implement zero-deforestation supply chain policies? The case of soy in the Brazilian Cerrado. World Development, 152, 105814. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105814.
- Cammelli, F., Levy, S. A., Grabs, J., Valentim, J. F. & Garrett, R. D. (2022). Effectiveness-equity tradeoffs in enforcing exclusionary supply chain policies: Lessons from the Amazonian cattle sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 332, 130031. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130031.
- Dietz, T. & Grabs, J. (2022). Additionality and Implementation Gaps in Voluntary Sustainability Standards. New Political Economy, 27 (2), pp. 203-224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2021.1881473.
- Grabs, J., Auld, G. & Cashore, B. (2021). Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection. Regulation and Governance, 15 (4), pp. 1183-1208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12354.
- Grabs, J., Cammelli, F., Levy, S. A. & Garrett, R. D. (2021). Designing effective and equitable zero-deforestation supply chain policies. Global Environmental Change, 70, 102357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102357.
- Grabs, J. (2021). Signaling Southern sustainability: When do actors use private or public regulatory authority to market tropical commodities?. Journal of Environmental Management, 285, 112053. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112053.
- Dietz, T., Grabs, J. & Chong, A. E. (2021). Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector. Regulation and Governance, 15 (2), pp. 333-355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12239.
- Grabs, J. & Carodenuto, S. L. (2021). Traders as sustainability governance actors in global food supply chains: A research agenda. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30 (2), pp. 1314-1332. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2686.
- Dietz, T., Estrella Chong, A., Grabs, J. & Kilian, B. (2020). How Effective is Multiple Certification in Improving the Economic Conditions of Smallholder Farmers? Evidence from an Impact Evaluation in Colombia's Coffee Belt. Journal of Development Studies, 56 (6), pp. 1141-1160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1632433.
- Grabs, J. (2020). Selling sustainability short?: The private governance of labor and the environment in the coffee sector. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108875325.
- Grabs, J. (2020). Assessing the institutionalization of private sustainability governance in a changing coffee sector. Regulation and Governance, 14 (2), pp. 362-387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12212.
- Grabs, J. & Ponte, S. (2019). The evolution of power in the global coffee value chain and production network. Journal of Economic Geography, 19 (4), pp. 803-828. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbz008.
- Dietz, T., Auffenberg, J., Chong, A. E., Grabs, J. & Kilian, B. (2018). Indicators to compare and assess the institutional strength of voluntary sustainability standards in the global coffee industry. Data in Brief, 19, pp. 570-585. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.05.048.
- Dietz, T., Auffenberg, J., Estrella Chong, A., Grabs, J. & Kilian, B. (2018). The Voluntary Coffee Standard Index VOCSI. Developing a Composite Index to Assess and Compare the Strength of Mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry. Ecological Economics, 150, pp. 72-87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.03.026.
- Dietz, T., Estrella Chong, A., Font Gilabert, P. & Grabs, J. (2018). Women's empowerment in rural Honduras and its determinants: insights from coffee communities in Ocotepeque and Copan. Development in Practice, 28 (1), pp. 33-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1402862.
- Font Gilabert, P. & Grabs, J. (2018). Women's empowerment in rural Honduras and its determinants: Insights from coffee communities in Ocotepeque and Copan.
- Grabs, J., Langen, N., Maschkowski, G. & Schäpke, N. (2016, October). Understanding role models for change: a multilevel analysis of success factors of grassroots initiatives for sustainable consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, pp. 98-111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.061.
- Calderón Hernández, D. & Grabs, J. (2016). Understanding coffee certification dynamics: A spatial analysis of voluntary sustainability standard proliferation. Default journal, 3.
- Grabs, J., Kilian, B., Hernández, D. C. & Dietz, T. (2016). Understanding coffee certification dynamics: A spatial analysis of voluntary sustainability standard proliferation. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 19 (3), pp. 31-56.
- Grabs, J. (2015). The rebound effects of switching to vegetarianism. A microeconomic analysis of Swedish consumption behavior. Ecological Economics, 116, pp. 270-279. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.04.030.