scholarly journals The Liability of Tribe in Corporate Political Activity: Ethical Implications for Political Contestability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahiru Azaaviele Liedong
Keyword(s):  
Political Competition ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Tribal Identity ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Corporate Executives ◽  
Managerial Level

AbstractPolitical contestability is an important issue in the ethical analysis of corporate political activity (hereafter CPA). Though previous studies have proposed analytical frameworks for creating contestable political systems, these studies conceive firm-level factors such as size and wealth as the main (and perhaps, only) determinants of contestability. This relegates the influences of informal managerial-level attributes such as tribalism, especially in ethnically diverse contexts where politics and tribe are inseparable. In this article, I explore the linkages between managers’ tribal identity and political contestability among firms in Ghana. I found that contestability is affected by tribal consonance (similarity) and tribal dissonance (difference) between corporate executives and policymakers. I also found that dissonance creates liability of tribe, which causes contestability problems in all four stages of the CPA process—i.e., political planning, political access, political voice, and political influence. Overall, this article extends the micro–macro link of political connections from performance to the ethics of political competition and contestability. It offers important contributions to the literature, advances insightful implications for practice, and outlines useful future research directions.

Corporate Political Strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo B. DeMello
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Resource Dependence Theory ◽  
Revolving Door ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Corporate Political Strategies

Firms deploy value-based strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the marketplace. However, processes of value creation and appropriation do not happen in a vacuum but are structured by a set of formal market institutions that define, among other things, policies and regulations on standards, privacy, safety, trade, and access to resources. Corporate political strategies are the ways firms use to shape these policies and regulations in favorable ways that help them achieve competitive advantage. The political activities include lobbying, participation in hearings, campaign contributions, the use of revolving-door personnel, advocacy, grass-roots mobilization, and nurturing and exploiting political ties. Firms interact with government officeholders in different government arenas, such as national and local legislatures, government agencies, and the judiciary branch. For most corporations, being able to deploy effective political strategies is, therefore, necessary for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The research into corporate political strategies has tried to explain why firms engage in political strategy, when, and which political activity would yield the best results. The usual theoretical framings draw from Resource Dependence Theory, Institutional Theory, Resource-Based View, Agency Theory, and Stakeholder Theory. While the strategic logic underlying each theoretical approach varies, they are better seen as complementary to each other. The fact that the phenomenon of political strategies is complex, dynamic, and an important part of daily business of several corporations favors the integration of different theoretical approaches. Although the literature on corporate political strategies has considerably advanced, there are still areas that could benefit from future research: the integration of market and political strategies, especially the use of market actions as political influence; the integration of social and political strategies; the role that individual and managerial aspects play in choice of political strategies; and multicountry comparative studies, especially focusing on ideological turnarounds and state capitalism.

scholarly journals Food industry political practices in Chile: “the economy has always been the main concern”

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mélissa Mialon ◽  
Camila Corvalan ◽  
Gustavo Cediel ◽  
Fernanda Baeza Scagliusi ◽  
Marcela Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Nutrition Labelling

Abstract Background In the business literature, the term “corporate political activity” (CPA) refers to the political strategies undertaken by corporations to protect or expend their markets, by influencing, directly or indirectly, the policy process. There is evidence that food industry actors use such political practices, which poses a significant threat to public health. Our study objective was to identify the political practices of the food industry in Chile. Results In Chile, food industry actors supported community initiatives, particularly those targeted at children and those focused on environmental sustainability. Food industry actors also funded research through prizes, scholarships, and by supporting scientific events. Food industry actors lobbied against the development and implementation of a front-of-pack nutrition labelling policy, including with support from the Ministries of Economy, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs. Food industry actors, for example, claimed that there would be unintended negative consequences for society and the economy, and that the policy would breach trade agreements. The same arguments were used against a proposed tax increase on sugar-sweetened beverages. Food industry actors stressed their crucial role in the Chilean economy and claimed to be part of the solution in the prevention and control of obesity, with a particular focus on their efforts to reformulate food products, and their support of physical activity initiatives. Interviewees noted that the political influence of the food industry is often facilitated by the neo-liberal and market-driven economy of Chile. Nevertheless, this system was questioned through social protests that started in the country during data collection. Conclusions In Chile, food industry actors used numerous action- and argument-based CPA practices which may influence public health policy, research, and practice. Despite strong influence from the food industry, Chile adopted a front-of-pack nutrition labelling policy. While the country has some measures in place to manage the interactions between government officials or public health professionals, and the industry, there is still a need to develop robust mechanisms to address undue influence from corporations.

scholarly journals Industry vs. Government: Leveraging Media Coverage in Corporate Political Activity

2020 ◽  
pp. 017084062096416
Author(s):  
John Murray ◽  
Daniel Nyberg
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Media Frames ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article investigates how an industry leveraged media coverage to publicly oppose governmental policy. Based on a frame analysis of the political contest between the mining industry and the Australian government over a proposed tax on resource corporations, we show how the industry aligned its position with mass media to (a) make the policy contest salient, (b) frame their position in the contest as legitimate and (c) construct negative representations of the policy as dominant. The analysis reveals how the industry’s corporate political activities leveraged media coverage to align disparate frames into a consistent message against the policy in the public sphere. This contributes to the literature on corporate political activity by explaining the process of alignment with mass media frames to legitimize corporate positions on salient issues. Second, we contribute to the framing literature by demonstrating the process of frame alignment between non-collaborative actors. Finally, we contribute to the broader discussion on corporations’ role in society by showing how corporate campaigns can leverage the media to facilitate the favourable settlement of contentious issues. These contributions highlight the pitfalls of corporate political influence without necessary democratic standards.

Business and political process reform: ignore or engage?

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lawrence Healy ◽  
Spiro Maroulis
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Executives ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
The Usa ◽  
High Level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the authors elaborate on why American businesses are often willing to advocate and deploy corporate political resources for or against specific governmental policies, but largely reluctant to engage in more general political process reform. Second, the authors introduce a set of ideas encouraging a business-driven political process reform in the USA, which the authors refer to as Corporate Political Responsibility (CPR). Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews existing literature on why firms generally avoid advocating for political process reform to identify several firm-level impediments to such action. As an outcome of that review, a CPR governance concept – a derivative from the corporate responsibility literature – is proposed and unpacked as a proposition that if adopted by firms would encourage and support business-driven process reform advocacy. Findings The primary findings are that American firms lack a rationale justifying business political activity into the political process arena; a willingness to assume a high level of political risk associated with political process intervention; and an executable corporate mechanism for doing so. Research limitations/implications A second stage build out of the paper would involve at a minimum multiple research interviews with corporate executives and trade association officials to test the viability of the CPR proposal as to whether or not the proposed governance statement would liberate firms to advocate political process reform. This paper sets the predicate for additional research. Originality/value This paper may well be the first to identify the concept of CPR as a key corporate governance proposition. It is also likely the first to conceptualize CPR as more than a theoretical rendering – it is executable. Corporations can put CPR into practice through a firm’s Board of Directors endorsing a governance statement – Corporate Political Responsibility Protocol (CPR/P) – that transforms the CPR concept into a sanctioned firm activity, giving executives significant latitude to spend corporate resources advocating political process change. This paper suggests a variety of reform possibilities – electoral, campaign finance and legislative – that could benefit from business reform advocacy.

scholarly journals Sugary drinks taxation: industry’s lobbying strategies, practices, and arguments in the Brazilian legislature

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Aline Brandão Mariath ◽  
Ana Paula Bortoletto Martins
Keyword(s):  
Food Industry ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Public Health Recommendation ◽  
Sugary Drinks ◽  
Public Hearings ◽  
Five Practices ◽  
Industry Associations ◽  
Environmental Importance

Abstract Objective: to assess the strategies, practices, and arguments used by the industry to lobby legislators against sugary drinks taxation in Brazil. Design: we performed a content analysis of arguments put forward by sugary drink and sugar industries against sugary drinks taxation, using the framework developed by the International Network for Food and Obesity/NCD Research, Monitoring and Action Support to assess corporate political activity of the food industry. Setting: two public hearings held in 2017 and 2018 in the Brazilian Legislature. Participants: representatives from two prominent industry associations – one representing Big Soda and the other representing the main sugar, ethanol, and bioelectricity producers. Results: the ‘Information and messaging’ and ‘Policy substitution’ strategies were identified. Five practices were identified in the ‘Information and messaging’ strategy (four described in the original framework and an additional practice, ‘Stress the environmental importance of the industry’). Mechanisms not included in the original framework identified were ‘Stress the reduction of CO2 emissions promoted by the industry’; ‘Question the effectiveness of regulation’; ‘Suggest public-private partnerships’; ‘Shift the blame away from the product’; and ‘Question sugary drinks taxation as a public health recommendation’. No new practices or mechanisms to the original framework emerged in the ‘Policy substitution’ strategy. Conclusions: the strategies and practices are used collectively and complement each other. Arguments hereby identified are in line with those reported in other countries under different contexts and using different methodologies. Future research should address whether and under what conditions lobbying from this industry sector is effective in the Brazilian Legislature.

Lobbying the Client: The role of policy intermediaries in corporate political activity

2019 ◽  
pp. 017084061986648
Author(s):  
Anna Tyllström ◽  
John Murray
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Professional Characteristics ◽  
Client Relationship ◽  
Corporate Clients

Traditionally, CPA scholarship has either assumed away policy intermediaries completely, or depicted them as corporate mouthpieces. Meanwhile, research on policy intermediaries has portrayed actors such as think tanks, PR firms and lobbying firms as far more active and self-interested. Our study investigates this puzzle by attending to the question: ‘Whose political agenda is expressed by intermediaries during their lobbying on behalf of corporate clients?’ By importing insights from studies of policy intermediaries, and approaching the world of lobbying qualitatively – delving deep into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of corporate lobbying using ethnographic field data and interviews with corporate lobbyists – we provide a different, more fine-grained picture of the lobbyist–client relationship, in which policy intermediaries shape, adapt and even invent their clients’ agendas. Our study contributes CPA scholarship by (1) providing an analytical distinction between the political agendas of corporate clients and those of their lobbyists, (2) bringing further detail and modification to Barley’s theory of an institutional field of political influence and (3) identifying agency problems between client and lobbyist as a novel explanation for why the financial profitability of CPA investment has been difficult to verify. Moreover, the study brings further sophistication to a burgeoning literature on policy intermediaries by suggesting that lobbyists’ own professional characteristics – such as length of political experience and strength of political convictions – influence how independently of their clients they dare to act.

scholarly journals Neoliberalism in US Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Dean Hindman ◽  
Andrew Noland
Keyword(s):  
Gilded Age ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Tax Reforms ◽  
Corporate Political Activity

In the waning decades of the 20th century, inequalities of wealth and political influence intensified amid what many scholars recognize as a “New Gilded Age.” Scholars point to manifold reasons for these inequalities, including globalization, the declining strength of organized labor, corporate political activity, a shrinking public sector, and tax reforms favoring the wealthy, to cite only a few. These various drivers of inequality, though, did not arise in isolation; an intelligible governing ethos underlies these various phenomena. This ethos is marked by its promotion of private-sector solutions to collective problems vis-à-vis government-led ones, its deference to markets vis-à-vis coordinated collective action, and its focus on entrepreneurialism and consumerism in nearly all facets of life. These features of contemporary political life all cohere into a concept recognized as “neoliberalism.” Depending on whom you ask, this term either helpfully assigns a logic to the amalgam of political problems confronting governance in the 21st century or, alternatively, serves as yet another hackneyed buzzword du jour. This article takes the former perspective, casting neoliberalism as a useful concept uniting a ranging of phenomena of which scholars of US politics ought to be familiar. This article describes and categorizes scholarship on neoliberalism according to three interrelated definitions of the term. Neoliberalism is: (1) a historical and intellectual trajectory that emerged in response to postwar Keynesianism; (2) a political project designed to foster a business-friendly social and political climate; and (3) an endeavor to transform citizenship itself. This article builds on these three characterizations, outlining the major works that explore and explain how neoliberal principles have impacted US politics, policy, and civic life. Scholarship on neoliberalism is vast and wide-ranging. Most of the works cited throughout this article explicitly note the influence of neoliberalism on one aspect or another of American life. Some works, however, uncover a critical aspect of neoliberalism without explicitly accepting or even mentioning the term itself. Collectively, however, these works will give readers a stronger grasp on what neoliberalism is and how the trends and principles associated with it have taken root within US politics and society.

Firm lobbying and influence in developing countries: a multilevel approach

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Weymouth
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Policy Influence ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Enterprise Survey ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

A large literature examines corporate political activity in the United States, but much less is known about firms’ lobbying activities and policy influence in developing countries. I argue that firm-level heterogeneity helps explain firms’ political behavior, while political institutions shape policymakers’ incentives to respond to business interests. The empirical analysis relies on the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, which covers over 20,000 firms operating in 42 developing and transition countries, to examine the determinants of lobbying and perceived policy influence. Multilevel estimates support the hypotheses that lobbying and influence increase with the firm's size and market power. Additionally, I find that firms report greater policy influence in democracies than in non-democracies.

scholarly journals Navigating cross-border institutional complexity: A review and assessment of multinational nonmarket strategy research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Sun ◽  
Jonathan P. Doh ◽  
Tazeeb Rajwani ◽  
Donald Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Strategy Research ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Nonmarket Strategy ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Corporate Social

AbstractMultinational enterprises are deeply engaged in nonmarket strategy (NMS), including both corporate political activity (CPA) and strategic corporate social responsibility (SCSR). In this review, we document the multinational NMS research according to contributions’ theme, method, context, theory, and level of analysis. We then develop an institutional multiplicity framework to organize our analysis of this large and fragmented body of literature. In so doing, we identify the most impactful contributions within three major themes – multinational CPA, multinational SCSR, and the integration of CPA and SCSR – and their respective subthemes, and call attention to limitations in the extant research. We also highlight promising avenues for future research, including expanding the scope of NMS to incorporate microfoundations research, integrating macrolevel scholarship on global institutions, placing greater attention on the interaction between CPA and SCSR, and incorporating multi-actor global issues and movements. Our review underscores the growing importance and missed opportunities of NMS research in the international business field.

Tax-Related Corporate Political Activity Research: A Literature Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Barrick ◽  
Jennifer L. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Tax Policy ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Jel Classifications

ABSTRACT Academic researchers and the public have long shared an interest in whether and how corporate political activity (CPA) relates to taxes and tax policy. This paper reviews the literature on tax-related CPA. We frame our discussion around three main questions: (1) Which firms are likely to engage in tax-related CPA? (2) What do firms expect to gain from participating in politics? And (3) how do firms achieve their political goals? We highlight contributions made by prior studies and identify themes to guide future research. We also provide detailed information on available data and resources for interested researchers. JEL Classifications: H25; H32.

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